PRINCETON,   N.   J.  iff 

Shelf.  

Division .  ,rd.  l.V! .  .E^. 
Number  -\..S>..S>.!p 

ANCIENT  EGYPT 

UNDER    THE  PHARAOHS. 


By  JOHN  KENRICK,  M.A. 


,A.piitpen£o}v  y(vo$  dvSpwt 
Ol  vpay-roi  0i6toio  Suarfjaavro  Ke\e66ovs9 
Uptiroi  6'  ljitp6tvroi  tTKipfiaavTo  dp6rpovf 
Tlp&roi  6i  ypipujjai  ir6\ov  iunerpfjaavTo^ 

$p*OO&J.iV0l  \0%OV  SpSfLOV  f]{\lOlO. 

Dionysii  Periecik*  322, 


IN    TWO  VOLUMES 

VOL.  I. 


JtfEW  YORK: 
JOHN  B.  ALDEN,  PUBLISHER. 
1885. 


TROWS 

PRINTING  AND  BOOKBINDING  COMPANY, 
NEW  YORK. 


PREFACE. 


Egyptian  archaeology  and  history  have  undergone  a 
complete  revolution  since  the  commencement  of  the 
present  century,  and  especially  since  the  discovery  of 
the  hieroglyphical  character.  Hitherto,  however,  no 
work  has  appeared  in  our  language  from  which  the 
historical  student  can  obtain  a  comprehensive  view  of 
the  results  of  the  combined  labors  of  travellers  and 
artists,  interpreters  and  critics,  during  the  whole  of  this 
period.  The  object  of  my  work  is  to  supply  this 
deficiency.  It  describes,  according  to  the  present  state 
of  our  knowledge,  the  land  and  the  people  of  Egypt, 
their  arts  and  sciences,  their  civil  institutions,  and  their 
religious  faith  and  usages  ;  and  relates  their  history 
from  the  earliest  records  of  the  monarchy  to  its  final 
absorption  in  the  empire  of  Alexander.  Strictly  speaking, 
the  dominion  of  the  Pharaohs  ceased  with  the  conquest 
of  Egypt  by  Cambyses.  But  it  was  not  without  reason 
that  Manetho  carried  on  his  Dynasties  to  the  flight  of 
Nectanebus  the  Second.  The  struggle  of  two  centuries, 
renewed  at  intervals,  for  the  recovery  of  the  national 
independence,  belongs  essentially  to  the  history  of  the 
native  sovereigns. 


IV  PREFACE. 

The  references  which  the  work  contains  will  indicate 
the  sources,  ancient  and  modern,  from  which  it  has  been 
derived.  No  accessible  materials  have  been  intentionally 
neglected.  It  may  seem  presumptuous  in  one  who 
possesses  but  a  limited  acquaintance  with  hieroglyphics, 
to  undertake  a  work,  of  which  the  historical  part,  before 
the  commencement  of  the  Greek  accounts,  must  be 
derived  from  hieroglyphical  legends.  I  may  plead, 
however,  that  the  province  of  the  decipherer  and  the 
antiquary  has  always  been  held  to  be  distinct  from  that 
of  the  historian,  who  is  only  required  to  follow  the  best 
authority  that  he  can  obtain.  In  the  uncertainty  which 
still  prevails  in  regard  to  the  interpretation  of  hiero- 
glyphics, the  reader  is  perhaps  most  safe  in  the  hands  of 
one  who  has  no  system  of  his  own  to  defend.  Wherever 
a  doubt  appeared  to  exist,  I  have  acknowledged  it 
where  no  materials  for  history  are  found,  I  have  left  ike 
blank  to  be  filled  up  by  subsequent  discovery. 

The  history  of  Egypt,  down  to  the  seventh  century 
B.C.,  is  almost  entirely  derived  from  inscriptions  on 
monuments.  Their  number  has  been  greatly  increased  by 
the  researches  of  individual  travellers,  and  still  more  by 
those  of  the  French,  Tuscan  and  Prussian  expeditions,  so 
that  on  the  surface  at  least  of  Egypt  and  Nubia  very  few 
remain  that  have  not  been  accurately  copied,  nor  many 
of  which  the  general  purport  and  evidence  is  not 
understood.  I  should  gladly  have  waited  for  the  results 
of  the  last-mentioned  of  these  undertakings,  had  the 
time  of  their  complete  publication  been  more  definite. 
It  is  not  probable,  however,  that  the  promised  work  of 
Lepsius  will  effect  any  change  in  the  great  divisions  of 


\ 


PREFACE.  ▼ 

Egyptian  history,  as  laid  down  by  his  friend  and  fellow- 
laborer,  the  Chevalier  Bunsen.  Whatever  period  were 
chosen  for  a  publication  like  the  present,  the  same 
difficulty  would  still  exist  :  the  evidence  would  not  be 
exhausted  ;  there  would  still  be  doubtful  questions  of 
criticism,  interpretation  and  chronology. 

What  is  now  published,  although  complete  in  itself,  is 
only  a  portion  of  a  contemplated  work  comprehending 
the  history  of  those  countries  of  the  East  whose 
civilization  preceded  and  influenced  that  of  Greece. 
Syria  and  Phoenicia  will  form  the  next  volume.  The 
rapidity  with  which  the  discovery  and  interpretation 
of  the  Assyrian  and  Persian  monuments  have  lately 
advanced,  justifies  the  hope  that  it  may  be  possible 
before  long  to  relate  the  history  of  these  monarchies 
with  something  of  the  copiousness  and  certainty  which 
Egyptian  history  has  attained. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL  L 


CHAPTER  L 

The  Valley  of  the  Nile  and  its  Monuments. 

Ajc  tiquity  of  Egyptian  civilization. — The  White  River. — The  Blue 
Hiver.— Meroe.— The  Tacazze.—  Gebel-el-BirkeL— The  Third'Ca- 
taraet. — Island  of  Argo. — Semneh. — The  Second  Cataract — 
Aboosinibel. —  Ibrim. —  Derr. — Amada. — Pselcis. — Kalabsche.— 
Beitoualli.  —  Taphis.  —  Pilae.  — Syene.  —  Ombi.  — Apollinopolia 
Magna  (Edfoo). — Eilithya  (El-kab). — Latopolis  (Esneh). — Gebe- 
lein. — Hermonthis. — Thebes. — Apollinopolis  Parva. — Coptos. — 
Tentyra. — Diospolis  Parva. — Abydos. — Panopolis. — Hermopolis 
Magna. — Speos  Artemidos  (Benihassan). — Alabastron. — Oxyr- 
rynchus. — Heracleopolis. — The  Fyoum. — The  Pyramids. — Mem- 
phis.— Branches  of  the  Nile. — The  Pelusiac. — Heliopolis. — Bu- 
bastus. — Pelusium. — Lake  Menzaleh. — Tanis. — The  Sebenni/tic. 
— Busiris  (Bahbeit). — The  Canopic. — Terenuthis. — Saia. — Nau- 
cratis. — Lake  Mareotis. — Coast  of  Egypt   .       .       .  1-60 

CHAPTER  H. 


The  Country  between  Egypt  and  the  Red  Sea. 

Wadi  Magara. — Surabit-el-Kadim. — Geological  structure. — Routes 
from  the  Nile  to  the  Red  Sea. — Emerald  mines. — "Wadi  Jasooa.— 
Gold  mines. — Population  of  the  coast  and  the  interior      .  51-66 


CHAPTER  III. 
The  Western  Desert. 


False  conceptions  of  the  Desert — Its  extent — The  Oases. — Ammo- 
nium (Siwah)  — Bahr-be-la-Ma. — Natron  lakes. — Fountain  of  the 


Tiii  CONTENT*. 


Son.— El-Bacharieh* — Artesian  wells.  — El-Khargeh.— El-DakkeL 
— El-Fara£reh   .  66-44 


CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Inundation  of  the  Nile,  Soil,  Productions,  and  Climate  of 

Egypt. 

Geology  of  the  Delta. — Petrified  forest. — Alluvium  of  the  Nile.— 
Theories  of  the  ancients. — Commencement,  amount  and  end  of 
the  inundation. — Quality  of  the  Nile  water. — Botany  of  Egypt. 
— Zoology. — Climate. — Differences  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt  66-80 


CHAPTER  V. 

Population  and  Language. 

Complexion  and  hair  of  the  ancient  Egyptians. — The  Coptic  lan- 
guage.— Relation  to  the  Syro-Arabian  languages. — Identity  with 
the  old  Egyptian. — Origin  of  Egyptian  population. — Supposed 
connexion  with  India  .  ...  81-91 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Memphis  and  the  Pyramids. 

Foundation  of  the  city. — Site. — Pyramids  of  Gizeh. — The  Sphynx, 
— Tombs  near  the  Pyramids. — Causey. — Quarries  of  Mokattam. 
— Pyramids  of  Abousier — of  Saccara — ofDashonr — ofLisht — of 
Meydoom— of  Illahoun. — The  Pyramid  of  El-Koofa. — Pyramids 
ofMeroe  94-125 


CHAPTER  VLL 
Thebes. 

Deposition  of  the  soil. —  Western  bank. — Qoorneh. — The  Meneph- 
theion. — The  Rameseion. — Sepulchre  of  Osymandyas. — Th« 
Amenophron. — The  Vocal  Memnon. — Medinet  Aboo. — The 
Thothmeseion. — Pavilion  of  Rameses. — The  Hippodrome. — Se- 
pulchres.— The  Bab-el-Melook  or  Valley  of  tbe  Kings. — Sepul- 
chres of  the  Queens. — Uastem  bank. — Luxor. — Obelisks. — The 


CONTENTS.  iX 

Page 

Amenophion. — Dromos  of  Sphinxes. — Karnak. — Obelisks  of 
Thothmea  L — Hypostyle  hall — Victories  of  Sheshonk. — The 
hundred  gates  of  Thebes   126-150 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Amount  of  Population. 

Estimates  of  Diodorus,  Josephus,  De  Pauw,  Goguet,  Jomard.— Cal- 
culation from  thetdata  of  Tacitns. — Causes  of  its  being  over- 
estimated.— Present  amount     .  151-154 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Agriculture  and  Horticulture. 

Agricultural  instruments. — Species  of  grain. — Flax. — Cotton.— 
Esculent  vegetables. — Lotus  and  papyrus. — Wine. — Pasturage 
of  cattle. — The  ass. — The  horse. — The  persea, — The  palm. — 
Ornamental  gardening  155-169 

CHAPTER  X. 

The  Chase.  Fisheries. 

Wild  animals. — The  hippopotamus — The  crocodile. — Fishery  of 

the  Lake  Mceris. — Aquatic  birda — Hatching  by  artificial  heat  .  lYO-lVfi 

CHAPTER  XI. 

Navigation  and  Commerce. 

Egyptian  dislike  to  the  sea, — Navigation  of  the  Nile. — Form  and 
structure  of  boats. — The  Baris. — Route  to  Cosseir.— Egyptians 
not  active  in  foreign  commerce  .  ...  1*76-180 

CHAPTER  XIL 

Mechanical  and  Industrial  Arts. 

Stone  engraving. — Chemistry. — Spinning  and  Weaving. — Metal- 
lurgy.— Use  of  iron. — Quarrying. — Carpentry. — Different  kinds 
of  wood ;  whence  imported  ,  181-186 


X 


OONTH1TO. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
Military  Equipment,  Armor,  and  Warfare. 


Pa*. 


Calasirians  and  Hermotybians. — Enrollment  and  drill. — Defensive 
armor. — Weapons. — War-chariots. — Use  of  cavalry. — Military 
ensigps. — Encampment. — Fortification. — Naval  warfare    .  187-196 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

Domestic  Life  and  Manners.  Amusements. 

Size  and  arrangement  of  houses. — Decorations. — Furniture.— 
Chairs. — Headstools. — Posture  at  meals. — Diet. — Introduction 
of  a  mummy  at  feasts. — Song  of  Maneros. — Exhibitions  of  agi- 
lity and  strength. — Amusements  on  the  river. — Dice. — Game 
resembling  draughts. — Mora. — Tricks  *>f  jugglers  .  196-901 


CHAPTER  XV. 
Dress. 

The  calasiris. — Dress  of  the  lower  orders — of  the  king. — Double 
crown  or  JPshecnt. — Head-dress  of  the  queen. — Distinction  of 
princes  of  the  blood. — Use  of  artificial  hair. — Sandals. — Collars 
and  bracelets. — Rings. — Mirrors. — Use  of  stibiaim  and  henneh  .  20G-211 


CHAPTER  XVI. 
Architecture. 

Earliest  style. — Resemblance  to  the  Doric. — Two  kinds  of  capital. 
— Proportions  of  the  shaft — The  abacus — Cornice. — Portico.— 
Width  of  intercolumniation. — Osiride  columns. — Convergence 
of  architectural  lines. — The  arch. — Arrangement  of  temples.— 
The  dromos. — The  pylones. — The  naos. — The  sekos. — Typhonia. 
— Color  applied  to  architecture        ......  212-221 


CHAPTER  XVH. 

Sculpture  and  Painting. 

Characteristics  of  early  art. — Unchangeableness  of  Egyptian  format 
— Influence  of  religion  on  art — Type  of  the  human  face.— 


CONTENTS. 


Paga 

CoIopsaI  sculpture. — Carving  in  wood — Superiority  of  historical 
sculpture  and  painting  to  religious. — Defects  in  drawing  and 
perspective. — Caricature. — Number  of  colors  and  mode  of 
applying  them. — Fresco  painting. — Knowledge  of  anatomy.— 
Peculiarity  of  Egyptian  relief. — Correspondence  of  the  progress 
and  decline  of  art  with  that  of  national  power  and  prosperity. 
— Art  under  the  Ptolemies  and  the  Romans  ^  221-288 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
Music 

Control  exercised  by  religion. — Variety  of  instruments. — Know- 
ledge of  harmony. — The  harp,  lyre,  and  guitar. — The  sistrum. — 
The  flute.— The  drum.— The  dance   .       .  .  288-287 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

Art  of  Writing. 

Frequency  of  its  use  in  Egypt. — Aecount  of  Egyptian  writing  by 
Herodotus,  Plato,  Diodorus,  Tacitus,  Pliny,  Ammianus,  Clemens. 
— Opinions  of  the  moderns,  Warburton,  Zoega. — The  Rosetta 
Stone. — Discoveries  of  Young  and  Champollion. — Pictorial, 
Symbolical,  and  Phonetic  hieroglyphics. — Evidence  of  the  read- 
ing and  interpretation  of  hieroglyphics. — Enchorial  or  demotic 
character. — Hieratic. — A  naglyphs. 

Note. — Interpretation  of  a  line  from  the  Rosetta  Stone. — 
Hieroglyphics  of  grammatical  inflexions  288  -272 

CHAPTER  XX 

Science. 

Geometry. — Whether  learnt  by  the  Greeks  in  Egypt. — Pythagoras, 
Thaies,  Anaxagoras,  Plato. — Astronomy,  Knowledge  of  the  me- 
ridian line. — Months  originally  lunar. — Length  of  solar  year.— 
Sothiac  period. — The  Phoenix. — Cycle  of  twenty-five  years. — 
Division  into  weeks. — Precession  of  the  equinoxes. — Solar  eclip- 
ses.— Astrology. — Divisions  of  the  zodiac. — Mechanical  science. 
— Arithmetical  notation. — Weights  and  measures. — Medicine. — 
Iatromathematic  .....  .  278  29i 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XXL 

Religion. 

Sect.  1. — Theology. 

Accounts  of  f.he  Egyptian  religion  given  by  Herodotus,  Manetho, 
Diodorus,  Plutarch. — The  later  Pythagoreans  and  Platonists. — 
Modern  writers — Jablonsky,  Zoega. — Discoveries  by  means  of 
hieroglyphics. — Dynasties  of  gods. — Threefold  division  of  Hero- 
dotus.— Egyptian  theology  not  originally  a  system. — Eigiil 
gods — Amun,  Noum,  orKneph,  Amun  Khem,  Ptah,  Maut,  Sate, 
Thriphis,  Pasbt. — Children  of  the  great  gods — Khons,  Anouke, 
Harka. — Other  gods — Athor,  Neith,  Ra,  Horhat,  Sebek,  Athom, 
Mandoo. — Physical  gods — Sun,  Moon,  Heaven  (Tpe),  the  Nile. — 
JEsculapius. — Osiris  and  Isis. — Osiris  Pethempamenthes. — The 
judgment  scene. — The  Typhonian  mythe. — Seth. — Obliteration 
of  his  figure  on  monuments. — Horus,  Harpocrates,  Nephthys, 
Anubis,  Thoth. — Gods  of  the  second  and  third  order  not  to  be 
distinguished. — Religious  honors  paid  to  deceased  persona — 
Serapis,  Mars,  Hercules,  Hecate. — Whether  the  unity  of  God, 
as  an  intellectual  principle,  was  a  doctrine  of  Egyptian  the 
logy  1<*a-«*>£ 


Sect.  2. — Sacrificial  Rites.    The  Sacerdotal  order. 

Different  kinds  of  sacrifices. — Human  sacrifices  in  Egypt. — Offer- 
ing of  victims. — Unbloody  sacrifices  and  offerings. — Habits  of  the 
priests. — Circumcision. — Gradation  of  ranks. — Whether  women 
were  admitted  to  the  priesthood. — Divination. — Oracles. — Stel- 
lar influences. — Religious  processions. — Festivals  appropriate  to 
different  parts  of  the  year. — Panegyries. — Feast  of  Mars— of  Isis- 
Neith  at  Saia — of  Dionusos. — Mysteries. — The  Triaconterides  868-39*5 


Sect.  3. — Doctrine  of  a  Future  Life. 

State  of  the  dead  according  to  the  Jewish  belief. — The  Homerio 
conception  of  the  shades. — Motive  for  embalmment  among  the 
Egyptians. — Doctrine  of  Metempsychosis — whether  connected 
with  retribution. — Adoption  of  this  doctrine  by  the  Greeks. — 
Pindar. — Plato. — The  Book  of  the  Dead. — Representations  in 
the  tombs.— Xo  uniformity  of  opinion  on  this  subject  among  the 
Egyptians  themselves  89fi~*lG 


CONTENTS. 


xiii 


OHAPTER  XXIL 
Embalmment,  Sepulture,  and  Funeral  Rites. 

Page 

Office  of  the  Taricheuim.—^hreQ  different  kinds  of  embalm- 
ment.— Judgment  preliminary  to  interment. — Mode  of  con- 
veyance to  the  sepulchre. — Objects  deposited  in  tombs. — 
Offerings  made  to  deceased  persons  by  the  Choachutm.*— 
Whether  the  Greek  scenery  of  the  unseen  world  was  bor- 
rowed from  Egypt.      .......  411-427 


PLATES. 

I.  Sections  of  the  Pyramids.    Hieroglyphics  of  the  Months. 
35.  Shields  and  Banner  of  Egyptian  Kings. 
General  Phonetic  Alphabet. 

III.  Hieroglyphic  Characters. 

IV.  Grammatical  Inflexions. 
Hieroglyphic  and  Hieratic  Numerals. 
jVcimUe  of  a  portion  of  the  Rosetta  Inscription, 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


CHAPTER  L 

ANTIQUITY  OF  EGYPTIAN  CIVILIZATION.  THE  VALLEY  OF  TUB 

NILE  AND  ITS  MONUMENTS. 

The  seats  of  the  earliest  civilization  in  the  ancient  world  extend 
across  the  southern  part  of  Asia,  in  a  chain,  of  which  China  forms 
the  .  extremity  towards  the  east  and  Egypt  towards  the  west. 
Syria,  Mesopotamia,  Assyria,  the  Medo-Bactrian  countries  and 
India  are  its  intermediate  links.  The  civilization  of  Medo-Bactria 
appears  to  have  been  the  lowest,  as  its  history  is  the  most  obscure ; 
but  in  all  these  countries,  when  they  become  known  to  us,  we  find 
the  people  cultivating  the  soil" and  dwelling  in  cities,  living  under 
regular  forms  of  government,  practising  the  mechanical  arte,  pos- 
sessed of  at  least  a  tincture  of  science  and  a  written  character  more 
or  less  perfect  All  that  lies  beyond  and  around  them  is  involved 
in  barbarism  and  ignorance.  The  origin  of  this  earliest  civilization, 
however,  and  its  transmission  from  one  country  to  another,  cannot  be 
fixed  by  direct  historical  evidence.  In  all,  the  belief  of  the  nation 
attributes  to  itself  the  immemorial  possession  of  its  own  soil ;  and  to 
its  progenitors  or  to  the  gods  the  invention  of  the  arts  and 
sciences.  Whether  these  have  really  had  a  single  origin,  and  what 
has  been  their  primitive  seat,  is  a  question  which  the  present  state 
of  historical  knowledge  does  not  enable  us  to  answer.  But  thert 
vol.  i.  1 


2 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


is  no  difficulty  in  fixing  on  the  country  from  which  Ancient  History 
must  begin.  The  monuments  of  Egypt,  its  records  and  its  litera- 
ture, surpass  those  of  India  and  China  in  antiquity  by  many  centu- 
ries1. Babylon  and  Assyria  have  no  literary  records,  and  their 
monuments  of  brick  or  a  perishable  marble,  though  their  absolute 
age  is  unknown,  bear  on  their  face  the  evidence  of  a  much  more" 
recent  date  than  the  pyramids  and  obelisks  of  Egypt.  Abraham, 
a  wanderer  from  Mesopotamia,  where  as  yet  no  great  monarchy 
had  arisen2,  found  Egypt  already  ruled  by  a  Pharaoh,  and  in  all 
probability  as  far  advanced  in  social  improvement  as  we  know  it  to 
have  been  in  the  days  of  his  great-grandson,  Joseph.  Herodotus 
had  seen  the  stupendous  remains  of  Babylon,  but  neither  the  sight 
of  these,  nor  the  claims  of  the  Chaldsean  priests,  induced  him  to 
assign  more  than  a  very  moderate  antiquity  to  the  Assyrian  mon* 
archy,  of  which  he  reckoned  it  the  second  capital 3.  In  Egypt,  on 
the  contrary,  he  received  without  questioning  even  the  most 
extravagant  statements  respecting  the  antiquity  of  the  nation4. 
Neither  his  belief  nor  that  of  Plato,  expressed  in  more  unmeasured 
terms5,  affords  indeed  any  proof  of  the  soundness  of  Egyptian 
chronology :  but  they  are  an  evidence  of  the  impression  which  the 
monuments  and  records,  the  institutions  and  general  aspect  of  the 
country,  had  made  on  two  men,  who  had  travelled  widely  and 
observed  acutely — an  impression  of  immemorial,  unchangeable 
antiquity. 

1  See  Lepsiua,  Chronologie  der  ^£gypter,  Einleitung,  p.  28-54 

3  Genesis  jriv.  1. 

8  ' A.aovp'iu)v  dp%6vT<t)*  r/Jj  avu>  ,A.cr'irjg  ex'  trta  tlnofft  khi  rtvraxdaia, 
npwroi  air'  *vr«*>  Mijdot  n^avro  anioTOvian.  1,  95.  Trjf  'AeTSptifc  iarl  ra  Av 
khv  Kal  aXXa  *oXi'<x/iaTa  [leyaXa  iroWa'  to  <?i  dvopaarSraTov  xai  loj^vpSrarov  kcU 
IvQa  a<pi  Nfo*t>  dvao-T&rov  ysvojjevris  ra  0ari\fi'ia  Ka.TtGTT\Kti,  i\v  T$a/3v\wv.     1,  178. 

4  Her.  2,  142,  145.  Aiyvirriuvs  Sokco)  aui  cu/at,  c|  oi  dvdpco7ru)v  yivo\ 
hyivtra. 

*  Et>pf?0tif  ahrddi  ra  pvpioarov  Stos  ysypapfjeva  fi  Tei-vir(x)jievnj  sv^  u>  s  I  it  9% 
iwtip  itvpioordv,  dX,V  Swan,    Plat  de  Leg.  2,  s.  8,  p.  657  R 


EARLY    CIVILIZATION   OF   EG  TIT. 


3 


Even  if  it  were  doubtful  whether  Egypt  preceded  the  other 
nations  which  have  been  mentioned,  in  the  establishment  of  law 
and  the  cultivation  of  science,  letters  and  art,  it  must  still  be  the 
starting  point  of  our  Ancient  History.  India  exercised  no  per- 
ceptible influence  on  the  West  till  the  time  of  Alexander;  China 
remained  in  its  insulation  till  the  Roman  Empire.  The  religion  of 
the  Medo-Bactrian  nations,  and  the  science  of  the  Babylonians 
may,  through  intermediate  channels,  have  been  conveyed  even  to 
our  times ;  but  the  genealogy  which  connects  European  with 
Egyptian  civilization  is  direct  and  certain.  From  Egypt  it  came  to 
Greece,  from  Greece  to  Rome,  from  Rome  to  the  remoter  nations 
of  the  West,  by  whom  it  has  been  carried  throughout  the  globe. 
The  indigenous  culture  of  Asia  has  either  become  extinct,  or  is  in 
rapid  decay ;  that  which  had  its  first  germ  in  the  valley  of  the 
Nile,  still  lives  and  grows  in  other  climates,  and  in  its  diffusion  seems 
destined  to  overshadow  and  exterminate  the  ancient  civilization  of 
the  East. 

The  geography  and  history  of  every  country  are  closely  con- 
nected with  the  origin  and  course  of  its  rivers.  In  cold  and  humid 
climates  like  our  own,  their  neighborhood  may  have  been  avoided 
by  the  early  inhabitants,  who  found  more  healthy  abodes  on  the 
open  sides  of  the  hills.  But  in  the  East,  where  many  months 
succeed  each  other  without  any  supply  of  rain,  the  vicinity  of  a 
perennial  stream  is  the  first  condition  of  a  settled  and  civilized  life. 
The  history  of  the  world  begins  on  the  banks  of  the  great  rivers 
of  China,  India,  Assyria  and  Egypt.  The  Nile,  however,  holds  a 
far  more  important  relation  to  the  country  through  which  it  flows 
than  any  other  river  of  the  world.  The  courses  of  the  Rhine,  the 
Danube  or  the  Rhone,  are  only  lines  on  the  surface  of  Germany  or 
France ;  the  valleys  of  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris  were  a  very 
small  part  of  the  dominions  of  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian 
kings;  but  the  banks  of  the  Nile  are  Egypt  and  Nubia.    To  live 


4 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


below  the  Cataracts  and  to  drink  of  its  waters,  was  according  to 
the  oracle  of  Amnion  to  be  an  Egyptian1.  Upwards  or  down- 
wards, it  is  through  the  valley  of  the  Nile  that  civilization  and  con- 
quest have  taken  their  course.  We  should  therefore  naturally  begin 
by  tracing  it  from  its  origin  to  the  sea.  But.  this  is  still  impractica- 
ble. The  Mesopotamian  rivers  have  been  followed  to  their  sources 
amidst  the  mountains  of  Armenia  and  Kurdistan ;  the  traveller 
has  even  penetrated  to  the  place  where  the  Ganges  bursts  forth 
from  the  everlasting  snows  of  the  Himalaya ;  but  the  sacred  river 
of  Egypt  still  conceals  its  true  fountains.  The  question  which 
Herodotus  asked  of  the  priests  of  Egypt,  and  Alexander  of  the 
oracle  of  Ammon1,  which  learned  curiosity  has  so  often  addressed 
to  geographical  science,  has  been  only  partially  answered.  We 
must  therefore  begin  our  survey  from  the  confluence  of  the  two 
tributaries,  whose  united  stream  has  been  known  in  all  ages  as 
the  Nile. 

In  the  latitude  of  15°  37'  N.  and  longitude  33°  E.  from  Green- 
wich, two  rivers  meet  near  the  modern  village  of  Khartoum.  The 
broader  but  less  rapid  stream  comes  from  the  S.  W.,  and  from  the 
color  of  its  waters,  mixed  with  argillaceous  matter  during  the  inun- 
dation*, it  is  called  the  Bahr-el-Abiad,  or  White  River.  This  is 
considered  as  the  true  Nile,  both  because  its  course  is  the  same 
which  the  united  streams  afterwards  pursue,  and  because  the 
volume  of  water  which  it  furnishes  is  larger  and  more  constant. 
Even  in  the  dry  season  it  has  a  depth  of  from  eighteen  to  twenty- 
five  feet,  and  a  breadth  of'  a  mile :  in  the  inundation  it  attains  a 

1  Hero  A  2,  18. 

•  Herod.  2,  28.    Max.  Tyr.  41,  1. 

•  Hoskins's  Travels  in  Ethiopia,  p.  119.  It  ia  singular  that  even  (his 
circumstance  should  be  doubtful.  Dr.  Beke  (Journal  of  Royal  Geographical 
Society,  7,  p.  84,  N.  S.)  suggests  that  the  river  derives  its  name  white  from 
the  absence  of  mud ;  while  Ruaaegger  (Reiaen,  2,  82)  denies  that  it  ia  white 
at  all 


THE  WHITE  RIVER. 


depth  of  from  thirty-six  to  fifty  feet,  and  a  breadth  of  four  miles1. 
From  the  remotest  times  the  origin  of  this  branch  of  the  Nile 
has  been  the  subject  of  speculation,  and  as  its  course,  imme- 
diately above  the  junction,  is  considerably  from  the  west,  it  was 
conjectured  to  be  one  of  the  great  rivers  known  to  exist  in  the 
western  regions  of  Africa,  whose  termination  was  unknown. 
Juba2,  on  the  authority  of  Carthaginian  writers,  described  the 
Nile  as  rising  in  Mauritania,  losing  itself  twice  in  the  sands,  and 
at  length  emerging  as  the  Niger,  which  after  dividing  the  con- 
tinent across,  entered  Ethiopia  as  the  Nile;  and  this  opinion 
was  long  current  at  Rome3.  Herodotus  believed  that  the  great 
river  flowing  eastward,  which  his  Nasamomans  reached  when 
they  had  passed  the  Great  Desert,  was  the  Nile4.  When 
Park  discovered  the  Joliba  at  Timbuctoo  to  have  an  easterly 
course,  this  ancient  hypothesis  was  revived.  The  travels  of  Lander 
showed  its  fallacy  by  tracing  the  Niger  to  the  Bight  of  Benin.  As 
the  Bahr-el-Abiad  is  followed  further  to  the  south,  it  recovers  its 
ordinary  direction  towards  the  north.  For  our  knowledge  of  its 
course  above  Khartoum,  we  are  indebted  to  the  expeditions  under- 
taken by  the  Pasha  of  Egypt,  in  the  hope  of  discovering  gold 
mines,  and  the  more  disinterested  researches  of  MM.  d'Abbadie 
and  Dr.  Beke.  It  receives  several  tributaries  from  the  east, 
between  N.  L.  11°  and  9°,  and  in  9°  20'  a  large  stream  from  the 
west,  called  the  Keilak,  whose  origin  is  unknown.  The  expedition 
of  1841,  led  by  M.  d'Arnaud,  ascended  to  N.  L.  4°  42',  where  its 
further  progress  was  stopped  by  a  ridge  of  gneiss  which  crossed  the 
river.  At  this  point  its  longitude  was  nearly,that  of  Cairo.  After 
the  junction  of  the  Keilak  it  receives  only  trifling  accessions  from 

1  Ruaaegger,  Reisen,  2,  46. 

*  l'tin.  N,  BL  5,  10.    Juba  lived  in  the  reign  of  Augustus 

1  Dion.  Hist.  Rom.,  UK  75  p.  1266,  ed.  Reimar.  *0  NtrXo$  U  roS  *ArWe< 

t*4<if  dvaiiiorai. 

*  %  88, 


6 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


the  west ;  but  it  is  probable,  that  above  the  point  w  here  the 
Egyptian  expedition  halted,  a  large  tributary  from  the  east  brings 
with  it  the  waters  of  the  country  between  Abessinia  and  the 
equator.  If  the  Mountains  of  the  Moon,  and  the  lakes  which 
from  their  melted  snows  supply,  according  to  Ptolemy1,  the 
sources  of  the  Nile,  have  any  existence,  it  must  be  south  of  the 
equator. 

The  remotest  origin  of  the  Nile,  therefore,  remains  a  problem 
still  to  be  solved  ;  nor  indeed  can  it  be  said  to  have  any  single 
source2.  Its  course  above  Khartoum,  however,  is  more  interesting 
to  the  geographer  and  ethnologist  than  to  the  historian.  Its 
banks  are  inhabited  by  tribes,  partly  Arab,  partly  negro,  deep 
sunk  in  barbarism,  and  contain  no  traces  of  a  more  ancient  civili- 
zation. Neither  the  Pharaohs,  the  Ptolemies,  nor  the  Romans 
ever  carried  their  arms  so  high ;  and  the  researches  of  a  peaceful 
traveller  are  embarrassed  by  the  hostility  which  the  black  nations 
*eel  towards  neighbors  who  from  time  immemorial  have  reduced 
them  to  slavery. 

The  Bahr-el-Azrek,  Blue  or  Dark  River,  the  Astapus  of  ancient 
geography,  unites  with  the  Bahr-el-Abiad  at  Khartoum.  It  rises, 
according  to  Bruce3,  in  N.  L.  10°  59',  E.  L.  36°  55'  in  the  kingdom 
of  Abessinia,  at  a  height  of  nearly  6000  feet  above  the  sea4.  He 
visited  its  sources,  which  had  not  been  seen  by  any  European  for 
seventy  years,  and  professed  to  have  discovered  the  true  sources  of 
the  Nile.  They  are  three  springs,  regarded  by  the  natives  with 
superstitious  veneration ;  not  large,  but  deep.    The  stream  in 

1  Ptolemy,  Geogr.  4,  8.  Tovtov  rdv  k6\*ov  (the  coast  opposite  to  Mada- 
gascar) TreptoiKoiaiv  Aldianrti  dvdpuiiTaipiiyoi,  <5v  dird  ivayidv  iiftKti  to  rfjs  E*Xrj»"?{ 
ioos,  d<p'  ov  vnoSe%ovrai  ras  %i6vas  al  tov  N«i'Xov  Xi'^vcu- 

*  So  the  Troglodytes  maintained.  HoW&v  -nnyuv  tig  ha  rdirov  ABpoityntvui 
9vv'iararai  to  pev,id  tov  NeiXov.    Diodor.  1,  87. 

1  Travels,  voL  6,  p.  308. 

4  955  toisee  (about  5730  feet),  Htmboldt,  Central  Asien,  p.  83. 


MIP.OE. 


7 


which  they  unite  flows  N.  W.  for  about  eighty  miles,  when  it  falii 
into  the  Lake  of  Tzana  or  Dembea,  the  Koloe  of  Ptolemy,  enter- 
ing on  its  western  and  issuing  again  on  its  south-eastern  side.  Its 
current  is  so  rapid,  that  it  scarcely  mingles  its  waters  with  those  of 
the  lake.  Descending  from  this  high  region  by  many  cataracts, 
and  bearing  the  name  of  Abai,  it  flows  southward  to  about  10° 
N.  L.,  and  washes  the  eastern  side  of  the  province  of  Amhara, 
receiving  all  the  streams  froni  the  mountainous  region  of  Gojam. 
Its  course  is  so  circuitous,  that  it  almost  surrounds  this  district, 
returning  by  a  bend  to  the  north,  till  it  is  within  seventy  miles  of 
its  source.  Its  banks  are  little  known  before  it  reaches  the  country 
of  Fazuglo,  recently  explored,  in  search  of  gold  mines,  by  th 
Pasha  of  -Egypt.  Indeed,  until  the  Bahr-el-Azrek  is  traced 
upward,  or  the  Abai  of  Bruce  downward,  continuously,  which  no 
traveller  yet  has  done,  their  identity  must  be  regarded  as  proble- 
matical. From  the  elevated  and  hilly  district  of  Fazuglo,  the 
river,  enlarged  by  the  influx  of  the  Tumet  from  the  south-west, 
reaches  the  plains  of  Sennaar,  by  another  series  of  cataracts  and 
rapids.  After  passing  Sennaar,  it  rapidly  verges  towards  the 
White  River ;  near  the  junction,  it  is  even  in  the  dry  season  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  broad,  and  in  the  rainy  season  swells  to  double 
tlus  breadth.  To  its  sweetness  and  purity  the  Nije  is  said  10  owe 
the  reputation  which  its  waters  have  in  all  ages  maintained. 

Northward  of  the  junction  at  Khartoum,  between  that  point  and 
the  influx  of  the  Tacazze  or  Astaboras,  in  N.  L.  17°  40',  E.  L.  34°, 
lay  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Meroe.  It  is  called  an  island  by  the 
Greek  and  Roman  writers,  who  were  accustomed  to  give  this  name 
to  the  irregular  spaces  included  between  confluent  rivers1 ;  and  as 
the  Nile  itself  was  composed  of  two  branches,  the  island  of  Meroe 
is  variously  described  as  formed  by  two  rivers  or  by  three.  The 

1  So  the  space  included  between  the  Rhone,  the  Isere  and  the  Alps,  wa* 
called  the  Island  of  the  Ailobrogea  (Polyb.  BelL  Pun.  2,  49> 


JJNCIX5T  1GTTT. 


country  of  Sennaar  appears  sometimes  to  have  been  included  in 
its  limits,  but  nothing  has  been  discovered  in  this  region  to  prove 
that  it  partook  in  the  civilization  for  which  Meroe  was  celebrated*. 
According  to  Diodorus,  the  island  of  Meroe  was  375  miles  long 
and  125  broad,  measures  which  appear  to  be  derived  rather  from 
some  political  division,  than  from  the  natural  boundaries  of  the 
island.  The  "  Libyan  sands,"  by  which  he  says  that  it  was  bor- 
dered on  one  side,  are  the  Desert  of  Bahiouda  on  the  left  bank  of 
the  Nile  :  the  "steep  precipices  on  the  side  of  Arabia"  are  the  high 
mountains  of  the  north  of  Abessinia'.  Through  the  channel  of 
the  Tacazze  the  Nile  receives  the  rains  which  fall  on  these  moun- 
tains. The  country  riees  rapidly  from  the  Red  Sea  to  the  height 
of  8000  or  9000  feet,  azu.  consequently  the  course  of  the  rivers  on 
the  eastern  side  is  short  and  their  streams  scanty.  The  Tacazze  is 
the  last  tributary  that  the  Nile  receives  in  its  course  of  1500  miles 
to  the  Mediterranean. 

The  remains  which  have  identified  the  site  of  Meroe,  the  ancient 
capital  of  the  island,  all  lie  between  16°  and  17°  N.  L.,  and  not  far 
from  the  Nile.  The  most  southerly  are  found  at  Naga,  distin- 
guished as  Naga-gebel-ardan,  from  another  place  of  the  same  name, 
a  little  further  to  the  north8.  There  are  remains  of  four  temples, 
all  of  Egyptian  architecture,  with  slight  variations,  and  evidently 
dedicated  to  gods  of  the  Egyptian  pantheon.  In  one  a  king  ap- 
pears holding  a  number  of  captives  by  the  hair,  who  stretch  theii 
hands  towards  him  in  an  attitude  of  supplication,  while  he  threat- 
ens to  strike  them  with  a  hatchet.    The  largest  temple  has  been 

'  Cailliaud,  Voyage  a  Meroe  (1,  206),  describes  some  small  remains  of 
Egyptian  or  Ethiopic  architecture  and  a  fragment  of  a  sphinx,  at  Soba,  a 
little  to  the  south  of  the  junction  of  the  Bahr-el-Azrek  with  the  Nile. 

*  DioJ.  1,  33.  UapfiKCtv  61  rijs  vfaov  rdv  irepiKXt^ficvov  navra  t6*9»  and  plv  rtjf 
Ai0vns  divcK,  l^ovTaf  a/^ov  piytQoi  dipiov,  dnd  it  tt}(  'Apaftlaf  cpv/tMtf  *«ri#«*. 

*  Ceilliaud,  Voyage  i  Mero* 


MEROE. 


9 


consecrated  to  the  worship  of  the  principal  god  of  Thebes,  com- 
nonly  called  Amnion,  and  represented  with  the  head  of  a  raj:. 
An  alley  of  sphinxes  with  the  heads  of  rams,  seven  feet  high,  led 
up  to  the  principal  portico,  which  is  insulated  from  the  temple  in 
a  manner  not  seen  in  Egyptian  architecture  ;  and  the  bas-reliefs  of 
the  principal  entrance  exhibit  the  god  receiving  the  homage  of  a 
queen.  Woad-Naga  stands  only  about  a  mile  from  the  river :  here 
are  the  remains  of  a  sandstone  temple  89  feet  in  length,  bearing 
on  the  capitals  of  the  columns  the  figures  of  Athor  and  Typhon, 
or  Pthah-Sokari1.  The  mounds  and  heaps  of  brick  with  which 
the  ground  is  strewed  indicate  that  these  are  only  the  remains  of 
more  extensive  buildings.  The  ruins  of  El-Mesaourat  are  sixteen 
or  seventeen  miles  from  the  river,  the  most  remote  which  have  yet 
been  discovered ;  they  stand  in  a  valley  among  the  sandstone  hills, 
surrounded  by  the  Desert2.  A  wall,  2800  feet  in  circumference, 
encloses  the  remains  of  eight  temples  or  sanctuaries,  and  a  great 
number  of  courts,  galleries  and  chambers,  constituting  an  assem- 
blage of  buildings,  the  destination  of  which  it  is  difficult  to  assign. 
That  no  great  city  has  existed  here  is  evident  from  the  entire  ab- 
sence of  pyramids  and  excavated  sepulchres ;  and  if  it  had  been  a 
college  of  priests,  it  is  singular  that  no  hieroglyphics  should  be 
found  on  the  walls.  The  style  is  Egyptian,  but  of  a  late  age,  and 
the  sculpture  resembles  that  of  the  temples  erected  under  the 
Ptolemies. 

The  site  of  the  city  of  Meroe  was  placed  by  Eratosthenes  700 
stadia  south  of  the  junction  of  the  ITile  with  the  Astaboras3.  This 
does  not  exactly  correspond  with  the  position  of  Assour,  a  little 
north  of  the  present  town  of  Shendy  ;  but  the  difference  is  not  so 
great  as  to  invalidate  the  evidence  of  the  antiquities  still  existing 
there.  Its  position  in  N.  L.  16°  44'  answers  also  to  the  statement 
of  Philo,  that  the  sun  was  vertical  there  forty-five  days  before  th« 

1  Hotkias'i  Travel*,  p.  112.  a  HobMub,  p.  99. 

•  Strabo,  B.  17,  p.  786. 

1* 


10 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


summer  solstice.1  A  space  of  more  than  three-quarters  of  a  mila 
in  circumference  near  the  river  is  covered  with  the  traces  of  build- 
ings, and  marks  the  site  of  the  city.  Its  dwelling-houses,  consist- 
ing of  sun-baked  bricks  and  branches  of  palm,  would  easily  perish 
in  a  latitude  to  which  the  tropical  rains  partially  extend8.  Groups 
of  pyramids  are  scattered  on  the  sandstone  hills  which  rise  a  little 
to  the  east ;  the  most  distant  of  them  are  about  two  leagues  from 
the  river,  and  they  mark  the  necropolis  of  ancient  Meroe.  They 
are  eighty  in  number,  and  of  various  size3  :  the  most  lofty  is  about 
160  feet  in  height ;  the  largest  has  a  base  of  63  feet  square;  the 
smallest,  of  not  more  than  12  feet9.  The  material  is  the  sandstone 
of  the  hills ;  the  entrance  is  usually  on  the  eastern  side,  but  not 
facing  exactly  to  the  east ;  nor  do  their  angles  correspond  to  the 
cardinal  points.  In  front  is  a  portico  with  sides  pointing  inwards, 
like,,  the  gateways  of  the  Egyptian  temples,  often  covered  with 
sculpture  :  the  interior  of  the  portico  next  to  the  pyramid  also 
contains  sculpture.  The  angles  of  some  of  the  pyramids  form  a 
series  of  steps,  others  are  a  sloping  line,  and  others  again  are  cov- 
ered with  a  square  beading.  At  about  two-thirds  of  their  height 
most  of  them  have  a  small  opening  like  a  window.  In  one,  which 
was  examined  by  demolition  from  the  top,  sepulchral  chambers 
were  found  at  different  elevations,  and  at  the  bottom  pits  excavated 
in  the  rock,  in  which  mummies  were  deposited.  Some  of  the  py- 
ramids have  evidently  been  royal  tombs ;  Lepsius  has  found  the 
distinct  names  of  thirty  sovereigns  in  various  parts  of  Meroe,  and 
queens  appear  receiving  the  honors  and  performing  the  functions 
which  commonly  belong  to  kings — a  confirmation  of  the  account 
of  the  ancients  that  female  sovereignty  prevailed  in  Ethiopia4. 

1  B.  2,  p.  77. 

'  Strabo,  16,  p.  690,  says,  the  region  of  no  rain  extends  from  the  Thebaid 
tc  near  Meroe.  The  rain  of  Shendy  is  violent*  but  not  continuous  in  th« 
wet  season  (Ritter,  Africa,  p.  642). 

»  Hoskins,  ck  6.    Cailliaud,  Voyage  4  WeUUin  oc  XtU,  t,  17 


MEKOE, 


i ; 


This  mode  of  interment  continued  to  a  late  age :  in  one  of  the 
pyramids  opened  by  Ferlini1,  engraved  stcnes,  evidently  of  Greek 
workmanship,  were  found,  and  an  arch  remains  in  another. 

What  other  monuments  the  island  of  Meroe  may  contain  is  un- 
certain.   Besides  the  dangers  to  which  the  traveller  is  exposed 
from  the  barbarous  inhabitants  of  the  country,  the  wild  beasts 
*hich  everywhere  infest  it  make  researches  difficult.  Cailliaud 
heard  a  rumor  of  the  existence  of  ruins,  which  he  supposes,  in  con- 
nection with  those  of  Soba  on  the  Blue  River,  may  have  formed  a 
line  of  stations,  by  which  trade  was  carried  on  between  Meroe,  and 
Axum  and  Adulis  on  the  Red  Sea.    If  they  exist,  they  must  be- 
long, like  everything  else  in  Meroe,  to  the  Ptolemaic  and  Roman 
times.    The  land  near  the  rivers  appears  in  ancient  times  to  have 
been  used  in  agriculture,  the  interior  in  pasturage ;  the  forests  and 
swamps  abounded  with  elephants,  which  the  natives  caught  foi 
sale  or  used  for  food.    Rain  falls  scantily  in  the  north  ;  ard  there- 
fore the  parts  remote  from  the  rivers  must  always  have  been  nearly 
desert;  but  in  the  south,  where  the  hills  rise  towards  Abessinia, 
the  rain,  though  not  so  violent  as  among  the  mountains,  is  sufficient 
to  maintain  a  considerable  degree  of  fertility.    The  banks  of  the 
Nile  are  so  high  that  Meroe  derives  no  benefit  from  the  inundation. 
The  Tacazze2,  like  the  Bahr-el-Azrek,  descends  from  its  source 
among  the  mountains  of  Abessinia,  in  lat.  11°  40',  by  a  precipitous 
course,  in  which  lakes  and  rapids' alternate.    It  receives  on  its  way, 
in  lat.  14°,  the  Mareb,  which  rises  in  the  chain  of  mountains 
parallel  to  the  Red  Sea ;  and  where  it  joins  'the  Nile,  it  has  a 
breadth  of  1000  feet3.    The  valley  of  the  Tacazze  is  lower  and 
warmer  than  the  rest  of  Abessinia. 

The  course  of  the  river  from  this  point  to  Syene,  being  about 

Ferlini,  Fouilles  de  la  Nubie.    Rome,  1838. 

Tacazze  is  Ethiopic  for  river,  "  Tacazze  Gihon,"  the  river  Nib.  S*«i 
Bo'kp,  Trans,  of  Royal  Geogr.  Soc.  7,  1,7. 
'  Rtippell,  Reisen.    Hoakins.  p.  63. 


12  Ancient  sgypt. 

700  mile3,  exkibiLs  a  series  of  rapids  and  cataracts,  in  consequence 
of  which  the  fall  per  mile  is  double  the  average  of  Egypt.  The 
cataracts  are  seven  in  number,  all  composed  of  granite  or  kindred 
rocks,  which  being  harder  than  the  sandstone  through  which  they 
rise,  resist  the  action  of  the  water,  divide  the  stream,  and  preserve 
the  inequality  of  the  descent.  The  Nile,  much  enlarged  after  its 
union  with  the  Tacazze1,  continues  to  flow  nearly  north  for  120 
miles,  through  the  country  of  the  Berbers.  A  strip  of  arable  land, 
about  two  miles  in  breadth,  borders  the  river ;  beyond  it  all  is 
desert,  the  inundation  not  extending  further.  Nowhere  in  this 
part  of  the  Nile's  course  have  any  antiquities  been  discovered,  to 
mark  whether  in  ancient  times  it  was  subject  to  Egypt  or  Meroe. 
At  the  point  where  it  makes  its  great  bend  to  the  south-west,  its 
stream  is  divided  by  the  rocky  island  of  Mogreb.  Here  the 
caravans  leave  the  banks  of  the  river  and  proceed  by  the  shorter 
route  of  the  Eastern  Desert  to  rejoin  it  either  at  Syene,  or  at  Derr, 
between  the  First  and  Second  Cataracts.  In  all  this  part  of  the 
Nile's  course,  as  the  land  susceptible  of  cultivation  is  so  small,  the 
inhabitants  avail  themselves  of  the  patches  of  loamy  soil  which  the 
river  deposits  in  the  rocky  hollows.  The  navigation  too,  for  more 
than  100  miles,  is  impeded  by  rapids.  The  deflection  to  the  S,W. 
continues,  till  the  Nile  reaches,  not,  as  Eratosthenes  asserted,  the 
latitude  of  the  city  of  Meroe2,  but  very  nearly  that  of  the  most 
northern  point  of  the  peninsula.  The  space  on  the  left  bank  in- 
cluded in  this  great  bend,  now  called  the  Desert  of  Bahiouda,  was 
occupied  in  ancient  times  by  the  Nubae,  whose  name  has  extend- 
ed itself  to  the  whole  valley  as  far  as  Syene,  and  into  the  eastern 
desert,  where,  in  the  ti  ne  of  Eratosthenes,  the  Megabari  and  the 
Blemmyes  dwelt8. 

Where  the  Nile  skirts  the  Desert  of  Bahiouda  on  the  north,  its  » 
banks  are  little  known,  since  travellers  seldom  follow  its  windings : 


'  Cflillinnd,  1,  849         «  Strabo,  B.  It,      786.       '  Slrabn,  nbi  **pra 


GEBEL-EL-BIRKEL. 


13 


but  it  is  ascertained  that  they  contain  no  antiquities.  The  traces 
of  ancient  civilization  re-appear  below  the  Fourth  Cataract,  at  Nouri, 
Gebel-el-Birkel  and  Merawe.  Nouri,  on  the  left  bank,  exhibits  the 
remains  of  thirty-five  pyramids,  of  which  about  half  are  in  good 
preservation;  but  they  have  no  sculptures  or  hieroglyphics;  nc 
temples  stand  near  them,  nor  are  there  any  ruins  which  indicate 
the  former  existence  of  a  city.  It  can  only  be  conjectured  that 
ihey  may  be  the  necropolis  of  such  a  city,  of  which  the  traces  have 
been  buried  in  the  sands.  Gebel-el-Birkel1,  about  eight  miles 
lower  down,  on  the  right  bank,  is  a  hill  of  crumbling  sandstone, 
between  300  and  400  feet  in  height,  and  a  mile  distant  from  the 
river.  On  its  western  side,  standing  in  the  Desert,  are  two  groups 
of  pyramids,  from  35  to  60  feet  in  height,  amounting  together  to 
thirteen.  Like  those  of  Meroe,  some  of  them  have  a  sanctuary  and 
sloping  walls  in  front,  with  arched  roofs  and  sculpture.  The 
Egyptian  deities  Osiris  and  Athor,  with  their  usual  emblems,  and 
the  ornaments  common  in  Egyptian  architecture,  are  found  here. 
In  one  of  the  sanctuaries,  a  personage  apparently  royal,  holding  a 
bow  of  great  length  and  thickness,  is  receiving  oblations  similar  to 
those  which  are  represented  in  the  Egyptian  tombs.  Gebel-el- 
Birkel  contains  also  the  remains  of  several  temples,  two  of  them  so 
*  far  preserved,  that  their  original  plan  and  dimensions  can  be  dis- 
covered. The  largest  has  been  nearly  500  feet  in  length,  and  con- 
sisted of  two  courts,  the  first  150  feet  long  and  135  wide,  the 
second  125  feet  long  and  102  wide.  The  sanctuary  contains  a 
granite  altar,  on  which  the  name  of  Tirhakah  is  inscribed,  and  an- 
other of  basalt,  with  the  shield  of  an  Egyptian  king3.  The  sculp- 
tures with  which  the  walls  appear  to  have  been  adorned  have  al- 
most entirely  perished,  and  such  is  the  havoc  which  time  and 
barbarism  have  made,  that  of  more  than*  eighty  columns  wJiich  the 
temple  must  have  contained,  one  only  remains  erect, 

5  CaOia-ad,  3,  197.    Hoskins,  cb.  11. 

*  Hoskins  (p.  146)  says  the  name  is  Papi,  but  he  has  not  given  a  copy. 


14 


AXCIENT  EOTPT. 


Another  of  much  smaller  dimensions,  being  only  115  feet  in 
length,  and  partly  excavated  in  the  rock,  was  constructed  by 
Tirhakah,  whose  name,  with  that  of  his  queen,  is  read  upon  the 
walls  of  the  excavated  part1.  It  was  dedicated  to  the  god  Typhon 
or  Pthah-Sokari.  The  sculptures  exhibit  offerings  made  to  various 
gods  of  the  Egyptian  pantheon,  and  the  whole  style  of  the  build- 
ing is  decidedly  of  an  Egyptian  character.  Two  other  temples, 
one  85  feet  in  length,  remain  surrounded  by  ruins  which  indicate 
the  ancient  importance  of  the  city  in  which  they  stood.  In  one 
of  them  a  king  appears  lifting  a  battle-axe  on  some  captives  tied 
together  by  their  hair2.  Two  lions  of  red  granite,  one  bearing  the 
name  of  Amunoph  III.,  the  other  of  Amuntuonch,  perhaps  his  son 
or  brother,  were  found  among  the  ruins  and  brought  to  England 
by  Lord  Prudhoe*.  They  are  now  appropriately  placed  at  the 
entrance  of  the  Gallery  of  Egyptian  antiquities  in  the  British  Mu 
seum.  Notwithstanding  the  mutilation  they  have  suffered,  their 
grand  and  simple  outlines  and  attitude  of  majestic  repose  reveal  to 
a  discriminating  observer  the  high  perfection  of  taste  and  skill 
which  characterized  Egyptian  art  under  the  eighteenth  dynasty. 
The  characters  for  Amun,  in  the  first  part  of  the  name,  have  been 
obliterated,  as  in  many  other  instances ;  and  a  king  Amunasso,  of 
a  much  later  age,  perhaps  of  the  Ptolemaic  or  Roman  times4,  has  * 
engraved  his  own  name  on  one  of  them,  in  characters  which  show 
the  decline  of  art.  Whether  these  lions  mark  the  southern  limits 
of  the  dominions  of  Egypt,  or  are  trophies  of  conquest,  brought 
from  Thebes  or  Soleb  by  Ethiopian  kings,  is  a  doubtful  question. 
A  fragment  has  also  been  found  here,  which  appears  -to  have  borne 
the  name  of  Kameses  II.,  and  another  with  that  of  Aspelt  or 
Otport. 

1  Hoskins,  p.  136.  "  Hosting  p.  141. 

•  Birch's  Gallery  of  Antiquities,  p.  60. 

«  Hoskins,  161,  288.    Rosellini,  Dyn,  25.    Sir  G.  Wilkinson  in  Tram 

Roy.  Soc  Lit.  2n<l  Ser.  1,  54. 


GEBEL-EL-BIRKEJL 


15 


No  monument  has  yet  been  discovered,  by  whlc].  the  name  of 
this  city  could  be  fixed ;  but  it  is  probably  Napata,  Die  papitai  01 
Candace,  the  Queen  of  the  Ethiopians,  which  was  taken  by  Petrc- 
nius  in  the  reign  of  Augustus1,  and  also  of  those  kings  Ethiopia, 
who  are  mentioned  in  the  history  of  the  Ptolemies  and  the  Pha- 
raohs. The  name  Merawe,  given  to  a  village  a  short  distance 
below  Gebel-el-Birkel,  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Nile,  has  been 
identified  by  some  writers  with  Meroe.  But  the  site  of  that  king- 
dom has  been  fixed  by  decisive  evidence ;  and  if  the  modern  name 
have  any  connexion  with  the  ancient,  it  can  only  be  that  Merawe 
marks  the  northern  limit  of  the  kingdom  of  Meroe.  It  stands 
very  near  the  commencement  of  the  route  which  conducts  across 
the  Desert  of  Bahiouda  to  the  banks  of  the  Nile, 'opposite  Shendy. 
Another  route  through  the  Desert  from  the  north,  commencing  at 
the  isle  of  Argo,  appears  also  to  have  terminated  at  Napata,  by 
which  the  bend  of  the  river  to  Dongola  was  cut  off2.  The  impor- 
iance  which  it  thus  acquired,  as  an  entrepot  between  Nubia  and 
Meroe,  would  account  for  its  size  and  population. 

The  south-western  deflection  of  the  Nile  continues,  after  it  has 
passed  Merawe,  till  it  reaches  the  18th  degree  of  N.  latitude,  when 
it  turns  again  to  the  north.  In  this  part  of  its  course  it  is  about 
half  a  mile  wide.  Scarcely  any  land  is  now  under  cultivation, 
except  in  the  islands,  and  the  desert  spreads  in  interminable  extent 
everywhere  beyond  the  banks.  The  kingdom  of  Dongola  begins 
just  where  the  river  resumes  its  northern  direction,  and  continues 
to  near  the  Second  Cataract.  The  whole  of  this  district  much 
surpasses  in  fertility  that  which  has  been  just  described.  The 
banks  are  no  longer  rocky ;  the  inundation  consequently  diffuses 
itself  further  over  the  surrounding  country  ;  fine  pastures  abound, 
and  maintain  a  breed  of  valuable  horses.  No  remains  of  anti- 
quity are  found  till  we  reach  the  island  of  Argo,  in  lat.  19°  12'  N., 

1  Strabo,  17,  p.  820.    Plin.  6,  85.       9  See  Russegger's  Karte  von  Kubien 


16 


ANCIENT  EOYI'T. 


a  little  above  the  Third  Cataract1.  It  is  twelve  miles  in  length 
and  tolerably  fruitful,  and  is  probably  the  Gagaudes  insula  ol 
Pliny'.  Two  overthrown  colossal  statues  of  grey  granite,  in 
Ethiopian  costume,  with  Egyptian  features,  are  without  a  name ; 
but  near  them  lies  a  fragment  of  a  statue  of  Sabaco.  They  all 
appear  to  have  belonged  to  a  temple  which  once  stood  upon  this 
spot,  and  the  two  statues  may  have  been  erected  before  its  en- 
trance9. They  were  cut  from  a  quarry  at  Toumbos,  near  the  Third 
Cataract,  where  a  similar,  but  smaller  statue  still  exists,  and  a 
hieroglyphic  tablet,  bearing  the  names  of  Thothmes  I.  and  Amu- 
noph  III. 

Below  the  Third  Cataract,  a  little  to  the  north  of  the  island  of 
Argo,  the  Nile  makes  a  considerable  deflection  to  the  east,  and 
travellers  usually  take  a  straight  line  through  the  desert  to  Soleb 
or  Dherbe  on  the  left  bank.  In  this  deflection,  the  only  ruins  tha< 
occur  are  those  of  Seghi  or  Sesce,  on  the  right  bank ;  they  con 
sist  of  a  few  columns,  on  the  base  of  which  captives  are  repre- 
sented ;  but  no  name  has  been  found  to  determine  whose  triumph 
they  record4.  Soleb  presents  the  ruins  of  a  temple,  equally 
remarkable  for  the  elegance  of  its  architecture,  and  its  imposing 
and  picturesque  position,  on  the  very  line  of  separation  between 
the  verdure  and  fertility  of  the  Nile,  and  the  desolation  of  the 
Desert,  spreading  to  the  horizon  in  a  monotonous  plain  of  sand6. 
A  dromos  or  avenue  136  feet  long,  of  granite  sphinxes,  with  bodies 
of  lions  and  heads  of  rams,  led  up  to  a  portico  or  propylon,  open- 
ing into  a  court  90  feet  in  length  and  113  in  width,  ornamented 
with  twenty-eight  columns.  It  is  succeeded  by  another  78  feet 
long,  where  the  remains  of  thirty-two  columns,  each  17  feet  in 
circumference,  can  be  traced.    A  chamber  beyond  tfio  second 

1  Hoskins's  Ethiopia,  ch.  xv.       3  N.  H.  6,  35.  *  Hoekins,  p.  212. 

*  Ritter,  Africa,  611.     They  were  not  seen  by  Hoskina,  who  took  Ihr 
Desert- road. 
8  Cailliaud,  I,  375.    Hoskins,  jx  246. 


SKMNEH. 


17 


court  contained  twelve  columns,  on  the  bases  of  -which  prisoners 
of  dhTerent  nations  are  represented,  as  on  Egyptian  monuments, 
by  embattled  ovals.  Thirty-eight  of  these  have  been  counted,  but 
they  have  neither  been  drawn  nor  described  with  such  accuracy 
as  to  enable  us  to  identify  them.  Amunoph  III.  is  the  king  whose 
victories  are  recorded,  and  the  temple  was  dedicated  to  Amunra, 
the  chief  god  of  Thebes.  The  foundations  were  of  crude  brick, 
which  in  Egypt  also  has  been  used  for  the  same  purpose,  though 
apparently  a  slight  support  for  the  enormous  masses  of  stone 
which  were  placed  upon  them.  Sukkot,  also  on  the  left  bank,  a 
little  lower  down,  contains  some  ruins  of  the  age  of  Amunoph  III., 
and  traces  of  a  town  of  considerable  size1.  The  river  is  divided, 
a  few  miles  below  Sukkot,  by  the  island  of  Sais,  the  next  in  mag- 
nitude to  that  of  Argo,  and  soon  after  enters  the  district  called 
Batn-el-Hajar,  abounding  with  granitic  rocks  which  approach  each 
Other  so  nearly,  that  the  Nile  is  contracted  in  one  place  into  two 
passages,  scarcely  a  stone's  throw  wide.  The  rocks  impend  over 
the  shore  and  fill  the  bed  with  shoals,  among  which  the  river  runs 
with  so  many  eddies,  rapids  and  shallows,  that  navigation,  even  in 
the  time  of  the  highest  waters,  is  dangerous,  and  at  other  times 
impracticable".  A  short  distance  below  the  island  of  Sais,  on  the 
right  bank,  stand  the  remains  of  the  small  temple  of  Amara. 
The  two  columns  of  the  portico,  which  alone  remain,  have  square 
bases,  an  appendage  not  found  in  the  oldest  specimens  of  Egyptian 
architecture ;  and  this,  joined  to  the  indifferent  execution  of  the 
sculpture,  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  they  are  not  of  the  Pha- 
raonic  times'.  The  shields,  which  might  have  given  us  precise 
information  of  the  builder's  name,  have  never  been  filled  up4. 

Semneh,  on  the  left  bank,  in  lat.  21°  29',  about  half-way 
between  the  Island  of  Sais  and  the  Second  Cataract,  exhibits  the 
remains  of  a  temple,  on  an  elevated  rock  near  the  river,  surroundec 

1  Hoekina,  255.  *  Ritter,  Africa,  p.  617. 

2  Ciilliaud,  8,  253.    Hoskins,  p,  261.  *  Cailliaud,  1,  84a 


18 


ANCIENT  EOVPT. 


by  a  covered  gallery  supported  by  columns  and  square  pillars. 

The  walls  are  ornamented  with  sculpture,  in  which  the  Egyptian 
king  Thothmes  HI.  appears,  making  offerings  to  a  predecessor  of 
the  name  of  Sesortasen  or  Osortasen1,  who  is  joined  in  a  triad  with 
the  gods  Nouni  or  Cnuphis,  and  Totoun.  The  names  of  Ame- 
nemhe  III.,  the  founder  of  the  Labyrinth  and  of  Sebekatep,  or 
Sebekopth,  have  also  been  found  here2.  Directly  opposite,  on  the 
right  bank,  stands  another  temple  of  larger  dimensions,  but  so 
decayed  and  buried  in  the  sand,  that  its  plan  has  not  been  traced. 
It  is,  however,  of  equal  antiquity,  the  name  of  Thothmes  III., 
joined  with  that  of  Amunoph  III.V  being  found  on  the  sculptures. 
No  spot  on  the  upper  course  of  the  Nile  exhibits  a  more  impres- 
sive or  picturesque  view.  The  temples  on  their  opposite  eminences 
appear  like  the  ruins  of  fortresses,  guarding  the  narrow  pass 
through  which  the  river  forces  its  way.  Though  now  surrounded 
only  by  the  sands  of  the  Desert,  they  no  doubt  mark  the  site  of  a 
populous  city,  whose  buildings  have  vanished,  as  its  name  has  dis- 
appeared from  history*.  In  the  nourishing  times  of  the  monarchy 
of  the  Pharaohs,  it  was  strongly  fortified  as  being  the  frontier 
town  of  their  dominions  towards  Ethiopia.  It  was  also  the  highest 
point  on  the  course  of  the  Nile  on  which  its  rise  was  recorded4,  as 
in  later  times  at  Elephantine. 

The  district  of  Batn-el-Hajar  continues  to  the  Second  Cataract, 
or  Wadi  Haifa,  in  lat.  22°,  anciently  called  Belmi5 ;  but  as  the 
river  approaches  this  place,  the  porphyritic  and  granitic  rocks  on 
its  banks  give  place  to  sandstone,  forming  hills  of  a  less  rugged 

1  Hoskins,  p.  269. 

•  Birch,  Trans,  of  Royal  Soo.  of  Lit  2,  822,  N.  a 

•  Hoskins,  p.  276. 

*  The  inference  of  Lepsius,  that  the  place  of  the  inscriptions  which  he 
ha*  copied,  marks  the  height  of  the  inundation,  appears  to  me  very  doubt 

*  Rosellini,  Monument!  del  Culto,  p.  15. 


THE  SECOND  CATARACT. 


19 


character.  The  Cataract  of  Wadi  Haifa,  called  by  the  ancients 
the  Great  Cataract1,  is  itself  composed,  like  all  the  others,  of  primi- 
tive rocks,  rising  through  the  sandstone.  In  depth  it  exceeds  that  of 
Syeire,  and  its  roar  may  be  heard  at  the  distance  of  half  a  league ; 
yet  it  appeared  to  Burckhardt2  rather  a  collection  of  rapids  than  a 
fall,  and  Belzoni  ascended  it  during  the  inundation.  It  is  not  a 
single  shoot  of  water,  extending  across  the  channel  of  the  river ; 
but  a  succession  of  islands  dividing  the  stream,  which  foams  and 
rushes  between  them.  This  has  been  the  site  of  an  ancient  town  : 
large  remains  of  pottery  are  spread  over  what  is  now  the  Desert, 
and  three  temples  have  been  traced  with  the  names  of  Sesortasen, 
Thothmes  III.,  and  Amenophis  II.,  all  on  the  left  bank.  The 
largest  and  most  southern  of  these  was  probably  dedicated  to 
Thoth,  who  was  an  object  of  special  reverence  in  Nubia.  Its  walls 
and  propylon  were  constructed  of  crude  bricks,  the  columns  and 
pilasters  of  the  pronaos,  of  stone.  Like  those  of  Benihassan, 
which  will  be  hereafter  mentioned,  they  were  fluted  in  eighteen 
facets.  A  flight  of  steps  led  from  the  Nile  to  the  front  of  the 
temple,  which  stands  on  rising  ground.  In  the  sanctuary  of  a 
smaller  temple  was  excavated  a  stele  or  tablet  of  the  age  of  Se- 
sortasen, now  placed  in  the  Museum  of  Florence,  and  recording  his 
victories  over  the  neighboring  African  Tribes3.  In  the  pronaos  of 
the  same  edifice  was  found  a  similar  monument  of  the  age  of 
Menephtha  L,  indicating  that  the  temple  had  been  built  by  his 
father  Rameses  I.,  and  dedicated  to  Amun-Khem*. 

The  whole  interval  of  220  miles  from  Wadi  Haifa  to  Syene  is 
remarkable  for  the  number  of  the  temples  which  are  found,  some 
on  the  right,  some  on  the  left  bank,  detached,  or  excavated  in  the 
sandstone  rock,  according  to  the  width  of  the  interval  between  it 

1  Strabo,  B.  17,  p.  786. 
a  Travels  in  Xubia,  p.  85. 

3  Roselliui,  Monumenti  del  Oilto,  p.  15;  Monumenti  Stor.  8,  S8, 
*  Roselliui,  Mon.  del  Culto,  p.  14 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


and  the  river1.  At  the  distance  of  a  day's  navigation  from  Wadi 
Haifa,  at  Meschiahit,  on  the  right  bank,  is  a  small  grotto  temple, 
in  which  is  sculptured  the  homage  of  an  Ethiopian  prince,  named 
Poeri,  to  an  Egyptian  sovereign.  He  kneels  in  the  presence  of 
three  deities,  the  goddess  Anuke  or  Vesta,  the  crocodile-headed 
Sebak,  Anubis,  and  a  king,  probably  deceased,  whose  shield 
appears  to  identify  him  with  the  Sesortasens.  A  little  lower  down, 
on  the  right  bank,  is  the  grotto  temple  of  Gebel  Addah,  now  a 
Christian  church,  but  originally  dedicated  by  King  Horus  of  the 
18th  dynasty  to  the  god  Thoth.  It  appears  also  to  have  been  a 
place  of  sepulture,  and  perhaps  served  as  a  necropolis  to  some  of 
the  neighboring  towns,  which  would  otherwise  appear  to  have  been 
wholly  destitute  of  cemeteries. 

The  most  remarkable  of  all  the  temples  between  the  Second 
Cataract  and  Syene  is  that  of  Aboosimbel  or  Ipsambul,  anciently 
Ibsciak,  two  days'  journey  below  Wadi  Haifa,  and  on  the  left  bank. 
It  was  nearly  covered  by  the  sands  of  the  desert,  which  have 
poured  down  in  a  stream  through  an  opening  in  the  hill,  when 
Belzoni2  undertook  to  clear  them  away,  and  discovered  that  the 
rock  had  been  hewn  into  two  grotto  temples,  one  dedicated  to 
Athor  by  Nofreari,  the  queen  of  Rameses  the  Great,  the  other  to 
Amun  and  Phre,  by  Rameses  himself.  The  front  of  the  larger 
temple  has  a  cornice  of  apes,  sacred  to  Thoth,  and  is  adorned  with 
colossal  figures  51  feet  in  height,  yet  so  deeply  buried  in  the  sand 
that  only  a  portion  of  the  head  of  one  was  visible.  The  pronaoa 
is  57  feet  long  and  52  wide ;  many  apartments  lie  beyond  it, 
covered  with  hieroglyphics  and  historical  paintings  and  sculptures, 
which  have  been  preserved  with  scarcely  any  injury  even  to  the 

1  The  monuments  of  Lower  Nubia  are  faitlifully  delineated  in  the  work 
of  Gau,  Antiquity  de  la  Nubie,  1822  ;  but  his  speculations  on  the  respective 
antiquity  of  buildings  and  excavations,  as  they  preceded  the  discovery  of 
the  hieroglyphic  character,  are  often  erroneous. 

•  Belzoni,  Researches,  1,  816.  fol 


ABOOSIMBEL. 


21 


brilliancy  of  the  colors,  through  so  long  a  series  of  ages.  Chain 
pollion  and  Rosellini,  following  the  footsteps  of  Belzoni  with 
ampler  means,  have  explored  every  part  of  the  temple,  ascertained 
the  age  of  its  construction,  and  discovered  that  it  records  the  vic- 
tories of  Rameses  III.  over  various  nations  of  Africa  and  Asia.  Its 
importance  as  an  historical  document  will  appear  when  we  come 
fro  treat  of  this  sovereign's  reign.  Smaller  excavations  of  the  same 
kind  are  found  at  Ibrim,  the  Premis  of  the  Greek  and  Roman 
geographers,  after  another  day's  navigation  ;  one  is  a  chapel  of  the 
age  of  Thothmes  I.,  another  of  Thothmes  III.,  another  of  Amu- 
noph  II.,  his  successor,  and  a  fourth  of  Rameses  IIP. 

After  passing  Ibrim,  the  channel  of  the  river  is  compressed 
between  a  range  of  sandstone  hills,  which  for  two  miles  rise  almost 
perpendicularly,  and  scarcely  allow  room  to  pass  between  them  and 
its  bed.  Derri  or  Derr  (anciently  Teiri),  the  present  capital  of 
Lower  Nubia,  situated  on  the  left  bank,  contains  an  excavated 
temple  dedicated  by  Rameses  the  Great  (III.)  to  the  gods  Pthah 
and  Phre,  whose  sacred  bark  appears  carried  in  procession  by 
twelve  priests.  Amada,  about  two  hours'  sail  below  Derri,  has  a 
temple  founded  by  Thothmes  JII.,  continued  by  Amenophis  II., 
and  completed  by  Thothmes  IV.  Its  sculptures  are  of  a  high 
order  of  merit,  and  the  columns,of  the  pronaos  bear  a  striking 
resemblance  to  the  early  Doric.  It  is  at  this  pcint  of  th„  Nile's 
course  that  the  long  Akaba,  or  valley  of  Korosko,  leads  frcra  the 
right  bank  into  the  heart  of  the  eastern  Desert.  The  caravans, 
avoiding  the  circuitous  course  by  which  we  hava  followed  tae 
Nile  through  Upper  Nubia  and  Dongola,  rejoin  it  after  a  desert 
journey  of  twelve  to  fourteen  days  (250  miles),  at  the  po^i 
between  Napata  and  Meroe,  where  it  makes  its  great  deflecticr-  to 

Rosellini,  Monumenti  del  Culto,  p.  87.  That  in  honor  of  Amonophk 
EL  appears  to  have  been  sculptured  by  a  wince  of  the  blood  royal,  if  I  o 
*raa  governor  of  Nubia 


22 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


the  southwest1.  Wadi  Esseboua,  the  Valley  of  Lions,  on  the 
right  bank,  has  derived  its  name  from  the  sphinxes,  the  remains 
of  a  line  of  sixteen  which  once  led  up  from  the  Nile  to  the  temple. 
It  is  partly  an  excavation  in  the  rock,  and  partly  a  detached 
building  of  the  age  of  Rameses  III.,  dedicated  to  Amun.  Its 
architecture  is  of  an  ordinary  kind3.  The  temple  of  Affeedonee  or 
Meharraka  appears  from  its  architecture  to  be  of  low  antiquity , 
its  remains  are  considerable,  but  it  contains  no  hieroglyphical 
inscriptions  or  sculptures  by  which  its  precise  age  can  be  deter- 
mined. Dakkeh,  twenty  miles  lower  down,  the  ancient  Pselcis3, 
was  the  site  of  a  temple  of  Thoth,  erected  by  Thothmes  III. ;  but 
its  principal  temple  was  begun  by  the  Ethiopic  king  Erkamen,  the 
Ergamenes  of  Diodorus*,  one  of  the  dynasty  who  appear  to  have 
made  themselves  independent  after  the  fall  of  the  ancient  throne 
of  the  Pharaohs.  The  temple  was  continued  by  Ptolemy  Euer- 
getes,  who  reunited  Nubia  to  Egypt.  The  Libyan  chain,  bending 
to  the  Desert,  leaves  here  a  considerable  space  on  the  left  bank,  on 
which  the  ruins  stand.  They  are  only  the  central  part  of  a  vast 
square  which  once  occupied  the  plain.  An  inscription  of  the 
Roman  times  designates  the  Great  Hermes  (Thoth)  as  sharing  iD 
the  border  land  of  Egypt  and  Ethiopia.  The  central  part  of 
Nubia  was  specially  under  his  protection ;  the  southern  under  that 
of  Anuke  and  Sate ;  the  northern,  near  Philae,  of  Kneph  and 
Osiris.  Pselcis  is  the  furthest  point  to  the  south  at  which  any 
traces  of  Greek  or  Roman  dominion  have  been  found  on  monu- 
ments ;  northward  they  are  abundant.  Ghirscheh,  or  Gerf  Hussein, 
on  the  right  bank,  a  few  miles  below  Dakkeh,  has  been  partly 
constructed,  partly  excavated  in  the  rock :  the  construction  has 

1  See  before  p.  12.    Hoskins,  p.  17. 

Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  3,  pt  2,  194;  Mon.  del  Culto,  p.  60. 
"  Selk,  with  the  article  Pselk,  was  a  form  of  Isis,  to  whom  the  city  wm 
dedicated. 

•  Diod.  8,  6.    He  was  contemporary  with  the  second  Ptolemy. 


BKITOUALLI. 


2! 


been  destroyed ;  the  excavation  appears  to  have  be^n  a  sanctus.-y 
dedicated  by  Rameses  III.  to  the  honor  of  the  god  Pthah,  fiom 
whom  the  place  was  called,  like  Memphis,  Phtkah~hei .  The 
Temple  of  Dandour  is  of  a  very  different  age,  that  of  the  emperor 
Augustus.  Kalabsche,  the  ancient  Talmis,  which,  like  D^ndoar, 
stands  on  the  left  bank,  contains  a  temple  dedicated  to  the  god 
Mandulis  or  Malulis,  as  appears  both  by  a  hieroglyphical  and  a 
Greek  inscription ;  and  its  bas-reliefs  exhibit  his  mythological 
history2.  It  had  been  founded  by  Amunoph  II.,  rebuilt  by  one  of 
the  Ptolemies,  and  repaired  by  Augustus,  Caligula  and  Trajan. 
The  Libyan  chain,  which  rises  directly  behind  the  temple,  offered 
in  its  sandstone  hills  inexhaustible  materials  for  building,  and 
ancient  quarries  may  be  traced  in  various  parts  of  it.  Kalabsche 
stands  in  lat.  23°  30',  consequently  immediately  under  the  Tropic 
of  Cancer.  The  temple  of  Beitoualli,  at  a  short  distance  from 
Kalabsche,  is  filled  with  memorials  of  the  victories  of  Rameses  II , 
forming  one, of  the  most  important  documents  of  the  history  of  his 
reign.  The  first  portion  represents  his  triumphs  over  the  Ethiopian 
nations ;  the  others,  the  tribute  brought  by  them,  and  his  Asiatic 
victories3.  The  temple  of  Beitoualli  probably  escaped  the  devasta- 
tion which  fell  on  the  rest  of  the  buildings  of  Lower  Nubia,  in  the 
invasion  of  Cambyses,  by  the  circumstance  of  its  being  excavated 
in  the  rock.  The  space  between  Kalabsche  and  Beitoualli  is 
covered  with  heaps  of  earth  and  fragments  of  pottery,  mixed  with 
human   bones  and   bandages  impregnated  with  bitumen,  the 

1  Rosellini,  Mem.  del  Culto,  p.  65. 

8  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  312.  It  contains  a  monument  in 
the  Greek  language,  supposed  to  be  of  the  age  of  Diocletian,  in  which 
Bileo,  a  king  of  Ethiopia  and  Nubia,  records  his  victories  over  the  Blemmyes. 
Mandulis  is  represented  as  the  son  of  Horus  and  Isis,  though  commonly 
isis  appears  as  the  mother  of  Horus. 

8  Gallery  of  Antiquities  of  the  British  Museum,  p.  94.  One  of  the  rooma 
of  the  Museum  exhibits  a  colored  facsimile  of  the  sculptures  of  this  tempi* 
from  the  drawings  of  Mr.  Hay. 


24 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


evident  traces  of  a  large  necropolis.  Tafa,  the  ancient  Tapfcls. 
contains  some  temples  of  the  Roman  time's,  and  Kardassi,  a  temple 
of  Isis  without  any  sculptures.  That  of  Deboud  (Parembole),  a 
short  distance  above  the  First  Cataract,  was  chiefly  built  by 
Atharaman,  an  Ethiopian  king  of  the  same  dynasty  as  Ergamenes, 
and  dedicated  to  the  ram-headed  God  of  Thebes  and  Meroe. 

Such  a  line  of  sacred  edifices  as  we  have  described  from  tha 
Second  Cataract  to  the  First,  implies  a  population  very  different 
from  the  scattered  and  impoverished  tribes  that  now  inhabit  the 
valley  of  Lower  Nubia.  Their  habitations  may  easily  have  disap- 
peared, but  the  traveller  is  surprised  to  find  so  few  traces  of  their 
sepulchres.  Not  many,  however,  have  explored  this  region  ;  they 
have  gone,  till  lately,  in  haste  and  fear,  without  time  or  means  to 
make  excavations,  and  not  venturing  beyond  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  the  river.  An  ample  field  of  inquiry  remains  for 
any  scientific  expedition  which  should  be  able  to  explore  what  lies 
buried,  as  well  as  measure  and  delineate  what  stands  on  the 
surface.  The  climate  of  Nubia  is  superior  to  that  of  Egypt,  and 
its  mean  temperature  ten  degrees  higher,  but  its  general  fertility 
is  less  ;  and  Lower  Nubia  especially,  from  the  near  approach  of 
the  hills  to  the  river,  which  prevents  the  deposit  of  alluvium, 
contains  less  land  capable  of  culture,  and  is  more  exposed  to  the 
encroachment  of  the  sand1.  The  rise  of  the  Nile  is  in  seme  places 
as  much  as  thirty  feet,  but  the  height  of  the  banks  denies  the 
adjacent  land  the  benefit  of  the  inundation,  unless  powerful  wheels 
be  used  to  raise  its  waters  to  a  higher  level. 

Just  above  the  Cataract  of  Syene,  where  the  Nile  is  3000  fret 
wide,  lies  the  island  pf  Philae9,  which  might  be  considered  as  the 

1  Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  1,  117,  223. 

*  <£iXu«  is  plural  in  Greek  and  Latin,  the  smaller  ielaud  being  included 
The  access  to  the  larger  is  from  the  southern  side.  The  hieroglyphic  name, 
Philak  (or  Manlak^  is  said  to  mean  boundary  land.  RoseUini,  Mon.  dd 
Culto,  p.  179. 


pniLiE. 


25 


boundary  between  Egypt  and  Ethiopia.  It  is  not  above  a  quartei 
of  a  mile  long,  but  is  covered  with  picturesque  ruins  of  temples, 
almost  entirely  of  the  times  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphia,  Epiphanes, 
and  Philometor,  with  additions  by  the  Roman  emperors.  The 
small  remains  of  the  temple  of  Athor  are  of  the  age  of  the  last  of 
the  Pharaohs,  Nectanebus.  The  principal  monuments  lie  at  the 
southern  end  of  the  island ;  a  wall,  erected  on  the  rocks  which  rise 
abruptly  from  the  river,  ran  round  the  whole,  and  made  it  an 
Abaton  or  inaccessible  sanctuary1.  From  the  landing-place  two 
parallel  colonnades  conducted  to  the  chief  temple,  before  which 
lay  two  colossal  lions  of  granite  in  front  of  a  pair  of  obelisks, 
forty-four  feet  in  height.  The  angles  of  the  sanctuary  were  occu- 
pied by  two  monolith al  shrines,  in  which  a  sacred  hawk  used  to 
be  kept.  One  of  these  is  now  in  the  Louvre,  the  other  i»  the 
Museum  of  Florence.  Right  and  left  of  the  entrance  arc  two 
small  buildings,  one  of  which,  dedicated  to  Athor,  represents  the 
birth  of  Ptolemy  Philometor,  under  the  form  of  Horus.  Philse 
was  dedicated  to  the  worship  of  Osiris,  said  to  be  buried  here2, 
whose  mythic  history  is  displayed  in  the  sculptures  which  every- 
where cover  the  walls,  and  especially  two  secret  chambers.  A 
still  smaller  island,  anciently  called  Snem  or  Senmut,  now  Beghe, 
lies  near  Philae.  The  inscriptions  show  that  it  was  a  place  of 
sanctity  in  the  Pharaonic  times.  The  names  of  Amunoph  III., 
Rameses  the  Great,  Psammitichus,  Apries  and  Amasis,  all  appear 
on  its  granite  rocks8,  along  with  memorials  of  the  Ptolemies  and 
Roman  emperors. 

1  Plut  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  359.    The  Egyptians  fabled  that  neither  birds  flew 
over  it  nor  fish  approached  the  shore.    Senec  N.  Q.  4,  2,  7. 
a  Diod.  1,  22. 

•  Rosellini,  Mon.  del  Culto,  p.  186.  The  resort  of  visitors  to  Philae  was 
•o  great  in  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies,  that  the  priests  petitioned  Phyaoon 
not  to  allow  public  functionaries  to  come  and  live  at  their  expense.  The 
obelisk  on  which  this  petition  was  inscribed  was  brought  to  England  by 

VOL.  I.  2 


2* 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


The  falls  begin  immediately  below  Philae,  and  extend  to  Syenf 

and  the  island  of  Elephantine.  The  granite  rocks  by  which  they 
are  caused,  cross  the  river  and  extend  into  the  Desert  on  either 
side.  They  are  much  higher  and  more  rugged  than  those  of  the 
Second  Cataract ;  rising  to  the  height  of  forty  feet,  their  fracture 
exhibits  a  beautiful  rose  coloi,  but  their  bare  sides  and  peaks  are 
brown.  There  are  three  principal  falls  ;  at  the  steepest,  which  is 
about  thirty  feet  wide,  the  descent  is  frcxa  ten  to  twelve  feet  in 
100 ;  yet  during  the  high  water  it  may  be  shot,  though  not  alto- 
gether without  danger1.  The  entire  descent  in  a  space  of  five 
miles,  is  only  eighty  feet3.  The  description  given  by  the  ancients 
of  the  deep  fall  and  deafening  sound  of  the  waters  is  an  exaggera- 
tion, for  no  change  of  level  can  have  taken  place  since  the  days 
o£  Cicero  and  Seneca9,  which  could  reconcile  their  accounts  with 
the  fact.  From  them  the  whole  neighborhood  obtained  the  name 
of  Manebmou,  "  the  place  of  pure  waters."  The  Egyptians  con- 
sidered this  as  in  a  certain  sense  the  source  of  the  Nile,  and  in  a 
sculpture  of  the  temple,  the  river  is  represented  in  a  human  form, 
crowned  with  lotus,  at  the  bottom  of  a  grotto,  pouring  a  perennial 
stream  from  two  urns,  which  he  holds  upright  in  his  hands4. 
When  the  course  of  the  Nile  above  Egypt  was  little  known,  as  it 
would  be  to  the  natives  of  the  Delta,  the  violent  agitation  of  the 
waters  at  this  place  was  not  unnaturally  accounted  for  by  tho 

Mr.  Bankes,  and  the  comparison  of  its  hieroglyphics  with  those  of  the 
Eosetta  stone,  assisted  in  the  discovery  of  the  phonetic  alphabet. 

1  Seneca,  N.  Q.  4,  2,  gives  a  lively  picture  of  this  operation.  "  Bini  par- 
vula  navigia  conscendunt,  quorum  alter  navem  regit,  alter  exhaurit ;  cum 
toto  flumine  effusi  na\lgium  ruens  minus  temperant,  magnoque  spectan- 
tium  metu  in  caput  *\ixi,  quum  jam  adploraveris,  mersosque  atque  obrutoi 
tanta  mole  credideris,  longe  ab  eo  in  quern  ceciderant  loco  navigant,  tor- 
menti  mod)  missL" 

*  Pvussegger,  Reisen,  1,  213. 

'  Somn.  Scip.  5.    Nat.  Qurest.  4,  2. 

•  Roaellini,  Mon.  del  Culto,  pL  xxviL  8. 


THK  CATARACT  OF  SYENE. 


27 


bursting  forth  of  a  subterraneous  stream.  It  was  even  believed  in 
Lower  Egypt,  or  at  least  so  Herodotus  was  told  by  a  learned 
functionary  of  Sais1,  that  the  Nile  rose  here,  and  flowed  half 
towards  Ethiopia  and  half  towards  Egypt. 

The  quarries  on  either  bank  have  furnished  the  colossal  statues, 
obelisks  and  monolithal  shrines2  which  are  found  throughout 
Egypt,  or  as  trophies  of  conquest  adorn  Rome  and  Constantinople. 
The  marks  of  the  wedges  and  tools  are  still  visible ;  an  obelisk, 
fifty-four  feet  long,  lies  wholly  detached  and  ready  for  transport ; 
others  are  marked  out  by  a  line  of  holes  in  which  the  wedges 
were  to  be  inserted3.  Notwithstanding  the  many  centuries  which 
have  elapsed  since  these  quarries  were  wrought,  their  fracture  still 
*ppears  fresh  and  of  a  much  brighter  color  than  the  natural  rock  ; 
so  short  is  the  time  since  the  tool  of  an  Egyptian  quarryman  laid 
open  their  surface,  compared  with  that  during  which  their  brown 
sides  and  peaks  have  been  exposed  to  the  action  of  the  atmo- 
sphere. The  road  which  leads  from  Philse  to  Syene  on  the  right 
bank  is  about  four  miles  in  length,  and  is  bordered  on  both  sides 
by  round  masses  of  the  granite  rock,  piled  upon  one  another 
The  remains  of  a  large  square  enclosure  of  crude  brick  are  sup- 
posed to  indicate  the  prisons  or  barracks,  in  which  the  slaves  were 
lodged  by  whom  these  quarries  were  wrought4.  Inscriptions  and 
tablets  in  various  parts  commemorate  acts  of  homage  by  the 
Pharaohs  and  other  illustrious  persons  to  the  divinities  of  the 
Cataract,  Kneph  or  Chnuphis,  Sate  and  Anuke.  The  island  of 
Elephantine6,  just  opposite  to  Syene,  diversifies  by  its  fertility  and 
verdure  the  dreary  aspect  which  sand  and  granite  give  to  the 

1  Her.  2.  28. 
3  Her.  2,  175. 

*  Description  de  l'Egypte,  Ant  vol.  1,  p.  140. 

*  Rosellini,  Mon.  del  Culto,  p.  189. 

*  The  ancient  name  of  Elephantine  was  Ebo.  Eb  is  the  name  of  th*  ele» 
phant  and  of  ivory  in  hieroglyphics.    Rosellini,  Mod.  Stor.  4,  204. 


28 


ANCIENT  KOTFT. 


neighborhoDd  of  the  Cataracts.  Two  temples  which  stood  upon 
it,  one  dedicated  by  Amunoph  II.  to  Kneph,  the  other  to  Araun, 
have  been  recently  destroyed  by  the  Pacha  of  Egypt  to  build 
warehouses  and  a  barrack.  The  remains  of  the  Nilometer 
described  by  Strabo1  are  still  visible.  The  waters  of  the  Nile 
were  admitted  into  a  receptacle  of  squared  stone,  into  which  a 
ong  flight  of  steps  descended ;  and  the  walls  were  graduated  so 
as  to  mark  the  progressive  rise  of  the  inundation.  The  measures 
inscribed  upon  it  are  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  age2. 

The  latitude  of  Assuan,  the  ancient  Syene,  is  24°  5'  23",  and  it 
consequently  lies  35'  23"  north  of  the  true  tropic3.  The  ancients 
believed  that  it  was  immediately  under  the  tropic ;  that  the  sun's 
disc  was  reflected  in  a  well  at  noon  on  the  day  of  the  solstice,  and 
that  an  upright  staff  cast  no  shadow4.  It  has  been  thought  that 
these  observations,  though  untrue  for  historical  times,  had  been 
handed  down  from  very  remote  ages,  when  the  position  of  the 
tropic  was  different  The  northern  limb  of  the  sun's  disc  would 
nowever  be  nearly  vertical  over  Syene,  though  not  the  centre,  and 
the  length  of  a  shadow,  being  only  4^0^  °f  t-ne  staff,  would  be 
scarcely  appreciable.  Considering  the  entire  want  of  accurate 
astronomical  instruments  among  the  Egyptians,  an  inaccuracy  of 
observation  or  exaggeration  of  statement  is  far  more  probable  than 
such  a  change  in  the  inclination  of  the  earth's  axis5. 

1  Strabo,  B.  11,  817.    Pleliod.  JEth.  9,  22. 

a  Hieroglyphics  published  by  the  Egyptian  Soc.,  pL  51-62.  Wilkinson, 
Manners  and  Customs,  2.  47. 

*  Ritter's  Lhiza,  p.  694,  from  the  observations  of  the  French. 

4  *Kv  Eu/jj'J?  Kara  titpivas  rpoiras  h  rJAioj  Kara  tcopvtyrjs  yiyverai  (Strabo,  2,  133) 
'Ev  Ev<jvjj  koX  to  (ppeap  icrl  rd  6iaar)fiaivov  raj  Ocpivas  Tponag)  didri  tJ5  rpowiK^ 
kvk\w  vnoKtivrai  ol  t6itoi.ovtoi  koX  iroioioiv  dvKiovs  rovs  yvajjiovas  Kara  p.Lor\n0piav 

{11,  p.  817.) 

'  Svene  is  supposed  to  have  been  so  called  from  a  goddess  Suan  (opener) 
answering  to  the  Ilithya  of  the  Greeks.    Rosellini,  u.  s. 

It  may  Ik  convenient  to  exhibit  here  a  table  of  the  distances  in  English 


OMBI. 


At  Syene  we  enter  upon  Upper  Egypt,  which  continues  as  fai 
as  Herinopolis  Magna,  in  lat.  28°,  where  Middle  Egypt,  called  in 
later  times  the  Heptanomis,  begins.  From  Syene  to  the  apex  of 
the  Delta  the  Nile  runs  with  a  declivity  without  falls  or  rapids, 
the  whole  descent  to  the  Mediterranean  being  only  between  500 
and  600  feet.  The  valley  through  which  it  flows  varies  in 
breadth,  as  the  hills  which  are  parallel  to  it  approach  or  recede, 
its  average  width  being  seven,  its  greatest  not  exceeding  eleven 
miles.  A  short  distance  below  Syene  begins  a  district  of  sand- 
stone-rock which  continues  nearly  to  Latopolis  in  lat.  25°.  Tim 
part  of  the  valley  is  narrow,  and  as  the  Nile  can  deposit  little  fer 
tilizing  matter,  the  general  aspect  of  the  shores  is  dreary  and 
barren.  The  first  place  at  which  any  remains  of  antiquity  occur  is 
Koum-Ombos,  the  ancient  Ombi,  on  the  right  bank.  The  two 
temples,  of  which  considerable  ruins  are  standing,  of  an  imposing 
architecture,  and  still  showing  the  brilliant  colors  with  which  they 
were  adorned,  are  of  the  Ptolemaic  age ;  but  a  fragment  of  a  much 
earlier  foundation  has  been  discovered,  a  doorway  of  sandstone, 
built  into  a  wall  of  brick.  It  was  part  of  a  temple  built  by 
Thothmes  III.,  in  honor  of  the  crocodile-headed  god  Sebak1.  The 

miles  of  the  principal  places  in  Egypt.  They  are  taken  from  Sir  Gardner 
Wilkinson's  Manners  and  Customs,  3,  404,  and  Russegger's  Map : — 


Syene  to  Latopolis  .  100 

Latopolis  to  Thebes   .88 

Thebes  to  Keneh,  opposite  to  Tentyra  ...  .49 

Keneh  to  Panapolis    ....   83 

Panapolis  to  Lycopolis    ...  .        ...  85 

Lycopolis  to  Speos  Artemidos  ......  80 

Speos  Artemidos  to  Minieh  .......  26 

Minieh  to  Benisooe^  opposite  the  Fyoum  ....  85 

Benisooef  to  Cairo      .    .       ....       ...  83 

Cairo  to  Rosetta  110 

789 

1  Rowllini,  Mon.  del  Culto,  196. 


30 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


king  is  represented,  on  the  jambs,  holding  the  measuring  reed  and 
chisel,  the  emblems  of  a  construction,  and  in  the  act  of  dedicating 
the  temple.  The  crocodile  was  held  in  special  honor  by  the 
people  of  Ombi,  whose  feud  with  the  people  of  Tentyra  has  been 
celebrated  by  Juvenal1.  Crocodile  mummies  have  been  found  in 
the  adjacent  catacombs,  confirming  the  ancient  accounts  of  the 
veneration  in  which  it  was  held,  here ;  the  Roman  coins  of  the 
Ombite  nome  also  exhibit  the  crocodile2.  The  river  here  inclines 
strongly  to  the  Arabian  side,  and  threatens  to  undermine  and 
bury  in  its  waters  the  hill  on  which  the  temples  stand.  Sixteen 
miles  below  Ombi3,  at  Gebel  Selsileh,  or  the  Hill  of  the  Chain,  the 
Arabian  and  Libyan  range  draw  so  near  to  each  other,  that  the 
river,  contracted  to  about  half  its  previous  width,  seems  to  flow 
between  two  perpendicular  walls  of  sandstone.  This  spot  was 
appropriately  chosen  for  the  special  worship  of  the  Nile,  who 
seems  here  to  occupy  the  whole  breadth  of  Egypt.  Under  the 
name  of  Hapimoou,  and  the  emblem  of  the  crocodile,  Rameses  II. 
consecrated  a  sanctuary  to  him.  On  both  sides  of  the  river,  but 
especially  on  the  eastern  bank,  are  vast  quarries  of  the  beautiful 
and  durable  stone  of  which  the  temples  of  Upper  Egypt  are 
constructed.  The  opening  of  a  quarry  for  such  a  purpose  appears 
to  have  been  regarded  by  the  Egyptians  as  a  religious  act; 
inscriptions  record  the  event  and  the  edifices  for  which  the  stone 
was  wrought,  the  officers  who  superintended  the  works,  and  the 
sovereigns  who  visited  this  part  of  Egypt  for  religious  or  festive 
purposes.  One  excavation  in  the  western  rock,  of  superior  dimen- 
sions to  the  rest,  with  five  entrances  from  the  bank  of  the  river, 
was  begun  in  the  reign  of  Horus  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  and 
records  his  expedition  into  Ethiopia  and  triumph  over  its  inhabit- 
ants.   On  the  internal  walls  of  this  gallery,  which  runs  parallel  t. 

1  Sat  15. 

■  Tochon  d'Annecy,  Recherches  but  lea  M6daillei  des  Nome*,  [  .  W. 
•  Wilkimon,  Modern  Egypt  and  Thebes,  2,  283. 


ArOLLINOPOLIS  MAGNA. 


31 


the  Nile,  successive  sovereigns  and  princes  of  this  and  the  follow- 
ing dynasty  have  inscribed  their  names,  with  acts  of  adoration. 
The  position  of  these  quarries,  so  close  to  the  banks  of  the  river, 
made  it  easy 'to  transport  columns  and  architraves  of  any  size  to 
the  most  distant  parts  of  Egypt.  The  block  of  a  colossal  sphinx 
is  still  lying  on  the  shore  ;  others  are  traced  for  excavation  on  the 
rock  :  and  it  was  hence,  no  doubt,  that  the  criosphinxes  were 
brought,  which  form  the  long  dromos  uniting  the  temple  of  Luxor 
at  Thebes  with  the  palace  of  Karnak.  Two  monolithal  shrines 
are  lying  fractured  on  the  ground,  one  of  which  bears  the  date  of 
the  twenty-seventh  year  of  Amenophis-Memnon1. 

Edfu,  or  Apollinopolis  Magna,  stands  on  the,  right  bank  in  lat. 
25°,  and  here  the  valley  begins  to  expand  sufficiently  to  allow  some 
effect  to  the  inundation.  The  remains  of  the  principal  temple,  dis- 
tant about  a  third  of  a  mile  from  the  river,  give  a  very  perfect  idea 
of  the  usual  construction  of  an  Egyptian  temple.  Of  all  the  edifices 
of  this  class  in  Egypt  it  is  the  best  preserved,  but  its  beauty  is 
impaired  by  the  sands  which  have  accumulated  against  its  sides 
and  the  heaps  of  rubbish  which  hide  the  columns  to  two-thirds  of 
their  height — the  ruins  of  the  huts  of  mud  with  which  the  Arabs 
have  covered  the  platform  of  the  temple.  The  whole  of  the  sacred 
precincts  is  surrounded  by  a  strong  wall  20  feet  high,  and  is  entered 
by  a  gateway  (or  pylon)  which  is  50  feet  in  height,  and  is  flanked 
by  two  converging  wings,  rising  to  107  feet2.  A  large  square 
court,  surrounded  by  a  colonnade,  is  in  front  of  the  pronaos  or  por- 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  del  Culto,  p.  234. 

2  Writers  on  Egyptian  antiquities  frequently  give  the  name  of  pylon  to  the 
converging  piles  which  rise  on  each  side  the  gateway ;  but  iv\wv  is  properly 
a  lofty  gate,  bearing  the  same  analogy  to  n-iX 77,  as  portone  in  Italian  to  porta. 
The  converging  piles  are  called  vrcoa,  wings;  and  the  whole  front,  including 
gateway  and  wings,  irp6itv\ov.  Diodorus,  1,  4/7,  gives  the  name  of  irv\6v,  a 
parte  potiori,  to  the  whole  front.  Russegger  (1,  180)  gives  90  feet  as  the 
height  of  the  converging  wings.  They  contain  ten  stories,  and  probably 
»erved  as  lodgings  for  the  priests  or  servitors  of  the  lercple. 


32 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


tico,  which  is  63  feet  in  height,  and  has  a  triple  row  of  columns, 
whose  capitals  exhibit  a  rich  variety  of  graceful  foliage.  The  tem- 
ple is  145  feet  wide;  and  from  the  entrance  to  the  opposite  end 
424  feet  long,  and  every  part  is  covered  with  hieroglyphics.  It 
was  dedicated  tc  Ilor-hat,  the  llorus- Apollo  of  the  Greeks  ;  but  it 
is  wholly  of  the  Ptolemaic  times,  its  earliest  portion  having  been 
erected  by  Ptolemy  Philometor.  The  smaller  temple,  which  had 
been  called  a  Typhonium,  is  properly  an  appendage,  in  the  hiero- 
glyphics Manmisi,  representing  the  birth  and  education  of  the 
vouthful  God,  whose  parents  were  adored  in  the  larger  edifice1. 

Eilithya  (El  Kab),  a  few  miles  lower  down  the  Nile  and  on  the 
eastern  bank,  is  remarkable  for  its  hypogaea,  which  pierce  the  sand- 
stone rock  in  every  direction  and  mark  the  ancient  importance  of 
the  town.  Two  of  them  deserve  more  especial  notice.  They  are 
tombs  of  the  family  of  the  sacred  scribes  and  high  priest  of  the 
temple  of  Eilithya,  whose  names  have  been  read  Pipe,  Sotepau,  and 
Hanseni,  and  are  as  old  as  the  reign  of  Rameses  Meiamun.  Almost 
the  whole  domestic  life  of  the  Egyptians  is  here  portrayed,  in  sculp- 
tures and  stucco,  with  colors  as  vivid  as  when  the  artist  had  just 
ceased  to  work  upon  them.  The  operations  of  husbandry,  the 
gathering  of  the  vintage  and  the  making  of  wine,  the  capture  and 
preservation  of  fish,  the  navigation  of  the  Nfte,  trades  and  manufac- 
tures, the  song  and  the  dance,  the  preparation  of  a  mummy,  are  all 
delineated  on  these  walls.  Another  tomb  belonged  to  the  com- 
mander of  the  fleet  in  which  Amasis,  the  first  of  the  eighteenth 
dynasty,  ascended  the  Nile  for  the  subjugation  of  Ethiopia ;  and  a 
third  records  the  names  of  several  sovereigns  of  the  same  dynasty, 
whose  succession  would  not  otherwise  have  been  known.  From 
this  point  «  valley  opens  which  conducts  in  a  south-eastern  direc- 
tion through  the  Desert  to  Berenice  on  the  Red  Sea.  Eilithya  has 
probably  been  a  seat  of  the  commerce  of  ancient  Egypt ;  a  wall  of 


•Rosellini,  Mon,  del  Culto,  p.  269;  Kon.  Stor.  3,  1,  215. 


33 


u  r:  burnt  bricks,  27  feet  in  height,  34  in  thickness,  and  2000  each 
way  in  length,  enclosed  the  ruins  of  the  town,  and  ore  of  larger 
extent  the  temples.  The  latter,  of  which  the  remains  were  drawn 
by  the  French  Commission1,  have  wholly  disappeared  under  the 
hands  of  the  present  ruler  of  Egypt,  but  the  fragments  are  sufficient 
to  show  that  they  belonged  to  the  same  epoch  as  the  tombs,  and 
that  the  tutelary  goddess  was  Suan.  The  sandstone  rock  which 
has  hitherto  bordered  the  valley  on  both  sides,  is  found  only  on  the 
eastern  from  a  short  distance  below  Edfu  ;  four  miles  below  Eilithya, 
the  limestone  makes  its  appearance.  The  pyramid  of  El  Koofa, 
which  is  about  two  miles  from  the  river,  is  built  of  it2. 

At  Esneh  (Latopolis)  on  the  western  bank,  in  lat.  25°  30',  the 
valley  of  the  Nile  receives  a  great  expansion  and  attains  the  width 
of  between  four  and  five  miles.    The  remains  of  its  temple  are 
magnificent  and  resemble  in  style  that  of  Edfu,  but  are  wholly  of  the 
Roman  times,  extending  from  Claudius  to  Getn,,  whose  hierogly- 
phics have  been  erased  by  his  brother  and  murderer  Caracalla.  What 
now  exists  is  only  the  pronaos.    When  the  Roman  emperors  began 
their  work,  they  appear  to  have  destroyed  even  the  foundations 
of  the  temple.    A  fragment  still  remains,  the  jamb  of  a  gateway, 
converted  into  a  doorsill,  of  the  age  of  Thothmes  II.,  and  a  door- 
way in  the  pronaos,  bearing  a  dedication  by  Ttolemy  Epiphanes ; 
and  it  is  true  generally,  that  the  Ptolemies  erected  their  splendid 
works  only  on  sites  already  consecrated  to  the  ancient  divinities  of 
the  country.    Kneph  or  Chnuphis,  Neith  or  Sate  and  Hak,  their 
joint  offspring,  appear  to  have  been  the  tutelary  deities  of  Edfu. 
The  architectural  effect  of  the  temple  is  imposing,  but  the  sculp- 
tures and  hieroglyphics  are  very  badly  executed,  showing  the  deep 
decline  of  art  in  the  imperial  times'.    Two  zodiacs  found  here,  gave 
rise  at  their  first  discovery  to  inferences  respecting  the  antiquity 

1  Description  de  lrEgypte,  Anliq.  vol  1,  843.  6.  7. 
'Vyse  on  the  Pyramids,  3,  85,  1,  pL  66-71 
"Rosellini,  Mon.  del  Culto,  p.  283. 

2* 


34 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


of  Egyptian  astronomy,  whkh  have  been  set  aside  by  further  inves- 
tigation. The  pronaos  of  the  greater  temple,  on  the  ceiling  of 
which  one  of  them  is  found,  was  begun  by  the  Emperor  Claudius. 
The  smaller  temple,  sometimes  called  of  Esneh,  but  which  stood  at 
E'Dayr,  two  miles  and  three-quarters  north  of  Esneh,  lately 
destroyed1,  contained  another  zodiac,  but  was  not  older  than 
Ptolemy  Euergetes.  Strabo  says  that  Latopolis  derived  its  name 
from  the  worship  of  Minerva  and  the  fish  Latus2,  which  accordingly 
appears  among  the  sculptures  of  the  temple,  surrounded  by  that 
oval  ring  or  shield  which  usually  marks  royalty  or  divinity3. 

The  course  of  the  river  is  again  contracted  by  the  rocks  of  Gebe- 
lein  or  the  two  mountains,  which  on  opposite  sides  approach  so  near 
to  it  and  rise  so  steeply,  that  to  avoid  them  the  road  quits  the  vici- 
nity of  the  Nile.  With  these  hills  the  sandstone  wholly  disap- 
pears4, and  limestono  hills  border  the  valley  till  it  opens  into  the 
Delta  below  Memphis.  Its  character  is  consequently  changed,  the 
banks  slope  more  gently  from  the  stream,  especially  on  the  western 
side,  and  afford  a  wider  interval  of  cultivated  land.  In  a  plain  of 
this  enlarged  valley  stands  Hermonthis  on  the  western  bank.  Its 
temple  was  built  under  the  reign  of  the  last  Cleopatra,  the  con- 
temporary of  Julius  Cresar  and  Antony ;  and  the  sculptures  appear 
to  allude  to  the  birth  of  Cajsarion,  her  son  by  the  former,  symbol- 
ized as  that  of  the  god  Harphre,  the  son  of  Mandou  and  Ritho. 
Its  astronomical  ceiling  can  therefore  afford  no  evidence  of  the  state 
of  science  under  the  Pharaohs  ;  it  is  probably  genethliacal,  i.  e. 
refers  to  the  aspect  of  the  heavens  at  the  time  of  the  birth. 

A  much  wider  expansion  of  the  valley  takes  place  at  the  plain 

1  It  was  destroyed  to  construct  a  canal.    The  larger  temple  has  been, 
eleared  and  preserved  for  a  cotton  warehouse  (Lepsius,  Einleitung,  p.  63). 
'Strabo,  17,  p.  812,  S17. 
•  Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  5,  253. 

4  On  Russegger's  Geognostical  Chart  of  Egypt  the  sandstone  is  represented 
m  termurating  a  few  miles  south  of  Gebelein. 


MEDAMOOT. 


35 


on  which  stood  Thebes,  the  city  of  a  hundred  gates.  Both  the 
chains  of  hills  make  a  sweep  away  from  the  river,  approaching  and 
again  contracting  the  valley  at  Gournah  to  the  north,  where  the 
plain  of  Thebes  and  the  remains  of  its  edifices  end.  The  river  is 
enlarged  to  the  width  of  a  mile  and  a  quarter,  and  is  divided  by 
islands.  On  the  Libyan  or  western  side,  the  hills,  which  are  1200 
feet  high1,  form  precipitous  rocks,  and  are  penetrated  by  hypogsea, 
in  which  all  classes  of  the  Theban  population  found  sepulchres. 
The  Arabian  or  eastern  chain  is  a  succession  of  hills  rising  more 
gradually  to  the  summit;  it  contains  no  sepulchral  monuments. 
The  ancient  city  was  divided  by  the  river.  On  the  right  bank  the 
plain  is  occupied  by  two  modern  villages,  Luxor  to  the  south  and 
close  to  the  river ;  Karnak  nearer  to  the  hills  and  about  a  mile  and 
a  quarter  to  the  north.  On  the  other  side  of  the  Nile,  Medinet 
Abou  and  Gournah  stand  on  the  ground  which  the  western  half 
of  Thebes  anciently  occupied.  But  the  monuments  of  this  capital 
of  the  Pharaohs,  in  the  times  of  their  most  extensive  dominion,  are 
so  vast  and  important  as  to  require  a  more  detailed  account  than 
can  be  given  of  them  now,  when  our  object  is  rather  to  trace  the 
course  of  the  Nile,  and  we  shall  return  to  Thebes  hereafter. 

In  descending  the  river  from  Thebes,  the  traveller  passes,  at  a 
little  distance  from  the  eastern  bank,  Medamoot2,  the  site  of  a  town 
whose  ancient  name  is  not  ascertained.  It  contains,  along  with 
remains  of  the  Roman  and  Ptolemaic  times,  some  fragments  of  the 
age  of  Amunopli  II.  and  Rameses'  II.  At  Apollinopolis  Parva 
(Koos)  on  the  same  bank,  the  propylon  of  a  temple  was  till  lately 
seen,  nearly  buried  in  the  sand,  dedicated  by  Cleopatra  (Cocce)  and 
her  son  Ptolemy  to  the  God  Aroeris ;  but  among  the  ruins  a  tablet 
has  been  found  bearing  date  the  sixteenth  year  of  Rameses  Meia- 
mun8.    Coptos  (now  Keft,  in  hieroglyphics  Kobto),  also  on  the 

'Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  4,  119.    Russegger,  Reisen,  2,  1,  114. 
•Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  133. 
•  Champollion,  Lettres  d'Egypte,  p.  92. 


36 


ANCIENT  EOYPT. 


right  bank,  contains  monuments  Of  the  Roman  times,  but  none  oi 
ancient  Egypt.  Among  the  stones  which  the  Christians  have 
employed  in  the  construction  of  their  church,  the  royal  legends  of 
Thothmes  III.  and  Nectanebus  have  however  been  discovered1. 
From  this  place  a  second  valley  opens  to  the  south-east,  leading  to 
the  quarries  of  porphyry  in  the  Arabian  Desert  and  to  Cosseir  on 
the  Red  Sea.  Coptos  was  enriched  by  the  commerce  with  India 
carried  on  by  this  route,  and  was  a  flourishing  city  till  its  destruc- 
tion by  Diocletian'.  The  traffic  with  Cosseir  still  continues,  but  it 
is  chiefly  carried  on  from  Keneh,  a  little  further  to  the  north. 
The  river,  after  passing  the  opening  of  this  lateral  valley,  bends  to 
the  northwest,  and  follows  for  some  distance  the  line  of  its  pro- 
longation, but  soon  recovers  its  normal  direction  to  the  north. 

About  thirty-eight  miles  below  Thebes,  on  the  left  bank,  stands 
Dendera,  the  ancient  Tentyra,  whose  inhabitants,  celebrated  for 
their  skill  in  hunting  the  crocodile3,  were  involved  in  hostility  with 
'■-he  people  of  Ombi,  whose  devotion  to  the  god  Sebak,  worshipped 
under  this  emblem,  has  been  already  noticed4.  No  remains  of 
Egyptian  architecture  have  excited  the  admiration  of  travellers 
more  than  the  temple  of  Athor  at  Tentyra5.  It  is  the  first  in  tole- 
rable preservation  which  they  meet  as  they  ascend  the  Nile ;  it 
stands  remote  from  the  river  and  the  abodes  of  men,  amidst  the 
sands  of  the  Desert,  at  the  foot  of  the  Libyan  hills.    The  majestic 

'Wilkinson,  u.     2,  129.  'Gibbon,  vol.  2,  ch.  13. 

1  Pliny,  N.  H.  8,  25.    iElian,  Hist.  Anim.  10,  21. 

*  Inter  finitiraos  vetus  atque  antiqua  simultas 
Ardet  adhuc  Ombos  et  Tentyra  ;  eummus  utrinque 
IriJe  furor  vulgo,  quod  numina  vicinorum 

Odij  uterque  locus. — Juv.  Sat  15,  33. 
Ombi  and  Tentyra  are  not  so  near  as  the  words  of  the  poet  would  lead  08 
to  suppose ;  but  the  Tentyrites  had  probably  exercised  their  skill  in  catch- 
ing crocodiles  within  the  limits  of  the  Ombite  nome. 

•  Tentyra  hps  been  explained  as  Tei-n-alhor,  the  abode  of  Athor  (Wilkinr 
son,  Mod.  Eg.  2,  119> 


ABTDOS. 


37 


architecture  of  its  portico,  composed  of  six  columns,  from  which 
the  features  of  the  goddess  Athor  look  down  with  a  mysterioiu 
tranquillity,  and  the  supposed  primaeval  antiquity  of  its  zodiac, 
combined  with  its  situation  to  produce  admiration  and  awe.  un- 
der the  influence  of  such  feelings,  it  was  natural  that,  as  it  is  cer- 
tainly one  of  the  most  impressive  of  Egyptian  monuments,  it 
should  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  oldest  This,  however,  is  not  Ue 
case.  The  sculpture  with  which  every  part  is  crowded,  betrays 
itself  to  be  of  a  late  age ;  the  Greek  inscriptions  on  the  pronaos 
refer  to  Tiberius  and  Hadrian1,  and  the  hieroglyphic  legends  on 
the  oldest  portions  of  the  walls  to  the  last  Cleopatra.  Tentyra 
contains,  behind  the  great  temple,  a  smaller  one,  dedicated  to  Isis, 
and  a  Typhonium  ;  but  they  are  also  of  the  Roman  times.  The 
zodiac  is  delineated  on  the  ceiling  of  the  pronaos  ;  the  conclusion 
which  Visconti  drew  from  the  position  of  the  signs,  that  it  must 
have  been  constructed  between  a.d.  12  and  a.d.  132,  was  confirm- 
ed by  Mr.  Hamilton's  reading  of  the  name  of  Tiberius  in  the  Greek 
inscription8,  and  the  hieroglyphical  discoveries  of  Champollion. 
In  an  upper  apartment  a  circular  planisphere  is  delineated  on  the 
ceiling8,  the  object  of  which  has  not  yet  been  ascertained.  Che- 
noboscion  (Quesr-Syad),  on  the  right  bank,  is  remarkable  for  some 
very  ancient  grottos,  in  which  are  inscribed  the  names  of  several 
kings  of  Egypt,  earlier  than  any  which  remain  on  obelisks  or 
temples. 

Near  Diospolis  Parva  (How),  on  the  left  bank,  opposite  to  Che- 
noboscion,  begins  the  canal  or  ancient  branch  of  the  Nile,  called 
the  Babr-Jusuf,  or  River  of  Joseph,  which  flows  between  the  river 
r  f&  th.  Libyan  hills  to  the  entrance  of  the  Fyoum.  One  of  the 
ti.st  places  which  it  passes  is  Abydos,  or  This.  If  modern  disco- 
veries have  disproved  the  high  antiquity  of  Dendera,  they  have 

1  \>etronne'»  Inscriptions,  1,  p.  89. 

•  Wilkinson,  Mod  Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  121.    Lepsius,  Einreitung,  p.  103 

•  Denon't  Voyage  en  Egypte,  1,  p.  84,  plate  48. 


38 


ANCIENT  EGYTT. 


fully  confirmed  th*.  claims  of  Abydos.  In  the  times  of  the  native 
kings  of  Egypt,  it  had  been  the  second  city  of  the  Thebaid1,  the 
birthplace  of  Menes  the  founder  of  the  monarchy ;  the  origin  of 
its  temple  was  attributed  to  Memnon,  and  it  was  supposed  to  be 
the  place  of  sepulture  of  Osiris.  As  he  was  the  god  of  the  unseen 
world,  pious  votaries  desired  to  rest  here  under  his  auspices.  It 
became  therefore  a  celebrated  necropolis,  and  the  adjacent  Libyan 
hills  are  full  of  sepulchres,  some  of  which  date  as  far  back  as  the 
time  of  Sesortasen.  Its  remains  are  found  at  Arabat  el  Matfoon, 
buried  in  sand,  which  reaches  to  the  capitals  and  architraves  of  the 
columns.  Here,  in  1818,  Mr.  Bankes  discovered  a  tablet  inscribed 
with  the  shields  of  a  series  of  Egyptian  kings,  which  has  contri- 
buted more  than  any  other  monument,  except  the  Rosetta  stone, 
to  advance  our  knowledge  of  Egyptian  history.  Abydos  coritains 
two  edifices  ;  one,  called  by  the  ancients  the  Palace  of  Memnon2, 
built  by  the  father  of  Rameses  the  Great ;  the  other,  a  temple 
built  or  finished  by  Rameses  himself.  The  royal  tablet  just  men- 
tioned was  placed  on  the  wall  of  one  of  the  side  apartments  of  this 
temple,  and  as  it  terminates  with  his  name,  and  records  his  offer- 
ings to  his  predecessors,  it  is  presumed  that  it  was  erected  in  his 
reign.  It  unfortunately  suffered  great  mutilation  in  the  interval 
between  its  discovery  and  its  final  removal  by  the  French  Consul 
Mimaut,  on  whose  death  it  came  into  the  British  Museum9.  A 
road  passed  by  Abydos  to  the  Greater  Oasis. 

Ekhmin,  Chemrais  or  Panopolis,  on  the  eastern  bank,  which 
was  anciently  inhabited  by  linen  weavers  and  masons,  contains 
some  ruins  of  the  age  of  Ptolemy  Philopater,  dedicated  to  Amun 
Khem4.  The  Greeks  confounded  him  with  their  Pan,  whose  nam^ 
appears  in  the  inscription  on  the  temple.    It  is  doubtful  whettMi 

1  Strabo,  B.  17,  p.  813. 
■  Plin.  N.  Hist  5,  11. 

•  Gallery  of  Egyptian  Antiquities  in  the  British  Museum,  p.  M. 

*  Strabo,  B.  17,  p.  813.    Steph.  Byz.  s.  v.  U.av6iro\ts. 


SrEOS  ARTEMIDOS. 


39 


auy+liing  remains  of  a  temple  described  by  Herodotus1,  dedicated 
to  Perseus,  the  son  of  Danae,  and  said  to  have  been  founded  by 
him.  E'  Syout,  the  ancient  Lycopolis,  in  lat.  27°  10'  14",  on  the 
•western  bank,  has  no  conspicuous  ruins,  but  in  the  excavated 
chambers  of  the  adjacent  rocks  mummies  of  wolves  are  found, 
confirming  the  etymology  of  the  name2.  The  shield  of  a  king 
preserved  here  has  been  read  Rekamai  ;  he  lived  probably  during 
the  dominion  of  the  Shepherds.  Near  Manfalout,  a  little  lower 
down,  the  eastern  and  western  banks  contain  grottos  which  have 
served  as  repositories  to  embalmed  dogs,  cats  and  crocodiles.  The 
latter  animal  was  especially  worshipped  at  Athribis  on  the  western 
side  of  the  river,  nearly  opposite  to  Ekhmin.  The  magnificent 
portico  of  Hermopolis  Magna,  on  the  western  side,  was  of  the 
Pharaonic  times.  The  remains  of  Antinoe,  built  by  Hadrian  in 
honor  of  his  favorite,  exhibited  Roman  architecture  in  singular 
contrast  with  the  native  style  of  Egypt.  This  district  was  more 
exposed  th^n  the  Thebaid  to  the  ravages  of  invading  armies,  and 
the  material  of  buildings  offered  a  temptation  to  burn  them  into 
lime.  Hermopolis  and  'Antinoe  had  escaped  those  perils,  but 
have  perished  in  our  own  age  from  the  ignorance  and  cupidity  of 
a  semi-barbarous  people.  A  little  to  the  south  of  Antinoe  is  a 
grotto,  the  tomb  of  Thoth-otp,  of  the  age  of  Sesortasen,  containing 
a  representation  of  a  colossal  statue  dragged  by  the  force  of  men's 
arms  to  the  place  of  its  erection3. 

To  the  north  of  Antinoe,  on  the  eastern  bank,  are  the  grottos 
of  Benihassan,  the  Speos  Artemidos  of  the  Greeks.  The  name 
has  been  explained  by  the  united  French  and  Tuscan  expedition, 
who  found  in  a  desert  valley  of  the  Arabian  chain,  a  temple  con- 
structed by  the  kings  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  and  dedicated  to 

1  Her.  2,  91. 

a  See  the  account  of  these  hypogsea  in  the  Description  de  l'Egypte,  Anti 
^uit6s,  torn.  2,  ch.  13.    Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  1,  81. 
8  Minutoli,  Reisen,  Atlas,  plate  18. 


40 


ANCIENT  iOTPT. 


Pasht,  the  Bubastis  of  the  Greek  writers  on  Egypt,  identified  by 
them  with  their  Artemis1.  The  hypog^ea  near  this  temple  are 
filled  with  the  mummies  of  cats  and  some  dogs,  and  others  aie 
buried  under  the  sands  of  the  Desert.  The  grottos  of  Benihassan 
itself,  which  are  above  thirty  in  number,  appear  to  have  been  the 
general  cemetery  of  the  nome  of  Hermopolis,  to  whose  inhabitants 
it  was  more  convenient  to  transport  their  dead  for  interment  to 
the  eastern  hills,  which  here  approach  very  near  to  the  river,  than 
to  carry  them  to  those  on  their  own  side,  which  recede  to  a  con- 
siderable distance  from  it.  This  is  a  singular  instance  of  a  reli- 
gious usage  controlled  by  convenience ;  for  in  general  the  western 
hills  were  exclusively  appropriated  to  interments.  Two  of  these 
hypognea  are  especially  deserving  of  notice ;  one  is  the  tomb  of 
Nevopth,  a  military  chief  of  the  reign  of  the  early  king  Sesortasen, 
and  of  his  wife,  Rotei.  It  has  in  front  an  architrave  excavated 
from  the  rock,  and  supported  by  two  columns  of  23  feet  in  height 
and  slightly  fluted  with  sixteen  faces,  which  are  just  worked  to  a 
sufficient  depth  in  the  rock  to  allow  them  to  be  insulated  from  it. 
They  have  no  base  or  capital,  but  a  square  abacus  is  interposed 
between  the  architrave  and  the  head  of  the  column,  and  over  the 
architrave  a  denteled  cornice  has  been  cut,  giving  to  the  whole 
an  air  of  grace  and  lightness.  The  chamber  within  is  30  feet 
square,  and  the  roof  is  divided  into  three  vaults  of  elegant  curva- 
ture by  two  architraves,  each  of  which  was  once  supported  by  a 
column  no  longer  existing.  The  vaults  are  painted  in  checkers  of 
the  most  vivid  coloring.  The  walls  represent  Nevopth  himself, 
engaged  in  fishing  and  the  chase  ;  or  husbandmen  in  various 
operations  of  agriculture,  and  artisans  plying  their  respective  handi- 
crafts. In  one  compartment  we  see  a  procession  of  three  Egyp- 
tians and  thirty-seven  strangers,  apparently  prisoners,  with  the 
date  of  the  sixth  year  of  the  reign  of  Sesortasen  II'.  Adjacent 

1  Herod  2,  58.    Roeellini,  Mon.  Civ.  1,  p.  78. 
Some  writers  have  thought  that  this  was  a  representation  of  the  arrival 


ALABASTKON.  41 

to  tha  tomb  cf  Novopth,  and  very  similar  in  construction,  is  that 
of  Amenheme,  of  nearly  the  same  age ;  one  of  the  walls  is 
covered  with  representations  of  men  in  various  postures  of  wrest- 
ling. The  other  grottos  exhibit  scenes  from  the  domestic  and 
civil  life  of  the  Egyptians.  The  hope  expressed  by  an  intelligent 
English  traveller1,  who  visited  Egypt  early  in  this  century,  that  by 
their  means  we  might  obtain  as  accurate  a  knowledge  of  the 
domestic  antiquities  of  Egypt,  as  Herculaneum  and  Pompeii  had 
given  us  of  Roman  life  and  manners,  has  been  amply  fulfilled  by 
the  publications  of  the  French  Commission,  of  Rosellini,  and  of 
our  countryman,  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson.  The  grottos  of  Koum- 
el-Ahmar,  nine  miles  lower  down,  supposed  to  stand  on  the  site 
of  Alabastron,  are  inferior  in  size  and  splendor  to  those  of  Beni- 
hassan,  but  they  contain  the  names  of  some  of  the  earliest  Egyp- 
tian kings2.  The  quarries  of  the  beautiful  white  or  veined 
alabaster,  which  the  Egyptians  employed  for  their  sarcophagi  and 
other  works  of  art,  are  in  the  Arabian  Desert,  near  this  place3. 
The  ruins  of  Oxyrrynchos  (Behneseh)  and  Ileracleopolis  (Anasieh), 
both  on  the  western  bank,  and  near  the  Libyan  hills,  are  incon- 
siderable ;  nor  does  the  course  of  the  Nile  present  any  remarkable 
feature  till  it  arrives  at  Benisooef,  opposite  to  the  latter  town,  in 
lat.  29°.  The  Libyan  chain  of  hills  here  begins  to  retire  from  the 
vicinity  of  the  river,  and  bends  towards  the  north-west,  and  again 
returning  towards  the  east  and  approaching  the  river,  incloses  the 
ancient  province  of  Arsinoe,  the  modern  Fyoum4,  in  which  were 

of  Jacob  and  his  family  in  Egypt ;  but  they  were  not  thirty-seven  in  num- 
ber, nor  were  they  captives,  and  they  came  in  wheel-carriages  (Gen.  xlvi. 
27,  xlv.  21). 

1  Hamilton,  iEgyptiaca,  p.  290. 

8  Wilkinsop,  Mod.  Egypt,  2,  43. 

'  juiss^gger,  lleisen,  21,  298. 

*  The  name  is  ancient,  Fhioum,  signifying  in  Coptic  M  the  waters,"  L  e  th# 
Lake  of  Mceris. 


42  ANCIENT  EGYPT. 

the  Lake  of  Moeris,  the  Labyrinth,  and  Ji3  city  of  Crocodilo- 
polis. 

The  entrance  to  this  insulated  region  is  by  a  valley  about  four 
miles  wide,  through  which  the  canal  or  branch  of  the  Nile  called 
the  Bahr  Jusuf,  passes.  Its  present  surface  is  about  340  square 
miles ;  its  extent  anciently  about  forty  miles  in  one  direction  and 
thirty  in  another.  It  is  one  of  the  most  fertile  districts  of  Egypt1, 
though  the  inferiority  of  the  modern  to  the  ancient  system  of 
irrigation  has  much  lessened  the  extent  of  productive  soil.  Be- 
sides grain  and  vegetables,  it  abounds  with  groves  of  dates  and 
fig-trees,  and  the  vine,  which  is  a  stranger  to  the  valley  of  the  Nile, 
thrives  in  the  Fyoum.  The  basin  in  which  it  lies  consists  of  the 
same  limestone  rock  as  the  rest  of  this  district,  but  it  is  covered 
by  the  deposit  of  the  Nile.  As  it  lieo  higher  than  Egypt,  it  must 
have  become  fertile  at  a  later  period,  a  rise  in  the  bed  of  the  river 
by  deposition  being  necessary,  before  the  water  could  reach  it, 
from  the  Nile  at  Ueracleopolis.  But  many  circumstances  render 
it  probable  that  the  Bahr  Jusuf  is  an  ancient  branch  of  the  river; 
no  mounds  of  earth  are  seen  beside  it,  such  as  accompany  the 
course  of  ancient  canals,  and  the  windings  of  its  bed  indicate  a 
natural  rather  than  an  artificial  channel*.  The  point  at  which  it 
originates  is  about  130  feet  higher  than  the  present  level  of  the 
Nile  opposite  to  the  entrance  of  the  Fyoum,  and  in  this  way  it 
may  have  been  fertilized  in  very  remote  times,  though  subsequent, 
as  history  informs  us,  to  the  establishment  of  the  monarchy. 

On  the  side  of  the  Desert  the  Fyoum  was  bounded  by  the  natural 
lake  called  the  Birket-el-Kerun,  seven  miles  broad  and  about  thirty- 
five  miles  from  S.W.  to  N.E.,  which  seems  to  have  been  the  Lake 

1  Strabo,  B.  17,  p.  809.  It  produces  good  olive  oil,  which  the  rest  of 
Egypt  does  not  (Jomard,  Descr.  de  l'Egypte,  4,  440). 

*  Linant,  Memoire  sur  le  Lac  Moeris.  Translated  in  Borrer'e  Tra*  sir  p. 
558.  The  author  has  been  long  employed  as  a  surveyor  by  the  Pas*  a  of 
Egypt,  and  has  examined  as  an  engineer  the  levels  of  the  Frocm. 


LAKE   OP  M(EKIS. 


of  Mceris1,  as  described  by  Herodotus,  Strabo  and  Pliny.  Its 
waters  are  brackish,  being  strongly  impregnated  with  the  alkaline 
salts  with  which  the  Desert  abounds,  and  with  muriate  of  lime 
washed  by  the  rains  from  the  hills  which  border  it.  But  it  is  not 
absolutely  salt,  and  in  the  season  of  the  inundation  the  fishermen 
of  the  Nile  come  here  to  pursue  their  business.  Of  its  north-west 
ern  shore  very  little  is  known,  but  it  does  not  appear  to  contain 
any  antiquities  of  the  Pharaonic  times.  The  present  level  of  its 
surface  is  about  that  of  the  sea,  and  from  the  quality  of  its  waters 
and  the  sandy  nature  of  the  soil  around,  Strabo  conjectured  that  it 
had  once  been  connected  with  the  Mediterranean.  Herodotus  too 
represents  it  as  the  tradition  of  the  country,  that  the  Lake  of 
Mceris,  at  its  northern  extremity,  turned  westward  and  had  a  sub- 
terranean outlet  into  the  Syrtes.  No  such  outlet  is  known  ;  the 
tradition  of  Herodotus  is  probably  of  the  same  origin  as  the  hypo- 
thesis of  Strabo,  and  if  either  of  them  had  a  foundation  in  fact,  it 
must  have  been  in  geological,  not  historical  times.  The  present 
average  depth  of  water  is  not  more  than  twelve  feet,  in  the  deep- 
est part  twenty-eight,  and  the  bottom  is  the  limestone  rock ;  but  it 
is  probable  that  in  ancient  times,  when  it  received  larger  supplies 
from  the  Nile,  the  water  may  have  stood  rather  higher  than  at 
present2.  Herodotus,  indeed,  speaks  of  two  pyramids  which  stood 
in  the  lake,  and  were  fifty  fathoms  above  the  water  and  fifty  be- 
low it3.  This  is  not  only  irreconcilable  with  the  actual  depth  of 
the  Birket-el-Kerun,  or  any  that  it  can  have  had  in  ancient  times, 
but  equally  with  Linant's  supposition  that  the  Lake  of  Mceris  was 
an  artificial  excavation  in  the  centre  of  the  Fyoum.  The  only 
remains  that  in  any  way  answer  to  the  description  of  Herodo+iL. 
are  the  truncated  pyramids  of  Biahmu,  about  five  miles  from 
Medinet-el-Fyoum.    They  may  have  stood  formerly  in  the  watere 

1  Herod.  2,  149.    Strabo,  u.  s.    Pliny,  N.  H.  36,  12,  75. 
"  Linant,  ubi  supra,    Wilkinson,  Mod.  Egypt,  2,  B45. 
1  Her.  2,  149. 


44 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


of  the  inundation  ;  indeed  their  sides  bear  uraccs  of  immersion1; 
and  thus  Herodotus  may  have  been  led  to  describe  them  as  in  the 
lake.  They  appear  also  anciently  to  have  served  as  the  pedestals 
to  statues ;  but  at  present  they  are  only  about  thirty  feet  in  height, 
and  from  the  size  of  the  base,  they  can  never  Lave  beei*  fifty 
fathoms  high.  Perhaps  their  truncated  form  may  have  led  the 
guides  to  exaggerate  their  original  height.  The  Fyoum  contains 
an  obelisk,  probably  the  oldest  in  existence,  near  Bijij,  bearing  the 
shield  of  Sesortasen2 ;  and  the  site  of  the  Labyrinth,  which  had 
been  long  a  subject  of  doubt,  has  been  fixed  by  the  researches  of 
the  Prussian  Expedition  where  the  French  commission  had  placed 
it,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  ancient  CrocodilopQlis.  The  pyra- 
mid and  sepulchre  of  the  founder,  Amenemhe  III.,  adjoins  the 
Labyrinth.  For  a  fuller  account  of  these  remains  we  must  await 
the  publication  of  the  great  work  which  Lepsius  is  preparing. 

Returning  to  the  Nile,  opposite  to  the  opening  which  leads  to 
the  Fyoum,  we  find  nothing  remarkable  on  its  banks,  till  approach- 
ing Cairo  the  Pyramids  are  seen.  The  first  that  are  passed,  in 
descending  the  stream,  are  those  of  Dashour,  on  the  eastern  edge 
of  the  Libyan  chain,  which  has  again  approached  and  overlooks 
the  valley.  From  these,  the  pyramids  of  Saccara  are  separated  by 
a  short  interval.  Those  of  Gizeh  and  Abousir  close  the  long  line 
of  monuments  which  mark  the  necropolis  of  the  ancient  Memphis, 
the  former  by  their  size  and  towering  height  proclaiming  their 
superior  dignity  as  royal  sepulchres.  Memphis,  however,  liko 
Thebes,  is  too  important  to  be  treated  of  incidentally,  and  its 
monuments  will  be  reserved  to  a  separate  chapter.  The  hills  of 
Gebel-el-Mokattam  correspond  on  the  eastern  side  to  those  on 
which  the  Pyramids  stand.  From  the  quarries  of  Tourah  and 
Massarali  the  limestone  was  obtained  for  the  casing  and  finer  work 

1  Perring  in  Vyse  on  the  Pyramids,  3,  84. 
■  Wilkinson,  Mod.  %  and  Thebes,  2,  S48. 


HELI0P0LI8, 


of  the  Pyramids,  and  the  causey  by  which  the  stones  were  con- 
veyed, may  still  be  traced  across  the  intervening  plain. 

The  double  chain  of  hills,  between  which  the  Nile  has  so  long 
flowed,  here  terminates.  Those  on  the  eastern  side  turn  off  towards 
the  head  of  the  Red  Sea,  the  Libyan  chain  retiring  at  the  same 
time  towards  the  north-west.  The  Nile  has  thus  room  to  expand, 
its  current  is  weakened,  and  the  divided  stream  finds  its  way  to 
the  sea  in  sluggish  branches.  The  point  of  the  first  separation, 
the  apex  of  the  Delta,  was,  according  to  the  earliest  records,  at 
Cercasoros1,  about  ten  miles  below  Memphis,  but  by  a  process 
common  to  all  rivers2,  this  point  has  gradually  advanced,  and  the 
Delta  now  commences  at  Batn-el-Bakarah,  six  or  seven  miles 
lower.  It  spreads  out  to  the  north,  east  and  west,  a  boundless 
plain  of  alluvial  land,  without  a  natural  rock,  a  hill,  or  any  varia- 
tion of  the  surface,  except  where  some  high  mound  marks  the  site 
of  an  ancient  city.  Though  seven  mouths  of  Nile  were  reckoned 
by  the  ancients,  only  three  branches  appear  ever  to  have  carried 
down  any  great  amount  of  water — the  Pelusiac  or  eastern  arm, 
the  Canopic  or  western,  and  the  Sebennytic,  which,  continuing 
in  the  direction  of  the  undivided  stream,  may  with  most  propriety 
be  considered  as  the  Nile.  The  Pelusiac  arm  is  now  become  dry ; 
on  the  eastern  side  of  it,  and  almost  close  to  the  apex  of  the  Delta, 
stood  Ileliopolis,  the  On  of  Scripture,  the  Ain  Shems,  or  fountain 
of  the  sun,  of  the  modern  Arabs.  The  only  remains  of  this  ancient 
city,  where  the  father-in-law  of  Joseph  filled  the  office  of  priest, 
where  Moses  perhaps  was  initiated  into  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyp- 
tians3, where  in  the  days  of  Strabo  were  still  shown  the  halls  in 
which  Plato  had  studied4,  is  an  obelisk  of  granite,  bearing  the 
name  of  Sesortasen.    The  place  in  which  it  stands  is  now  distant 

'  Herod.  2,  15,  16. 

■  Renn ell's  Geography  of  Herodotus,  2,  133. 

•  Gen.  xll  45.    Acts  vil  22.    Joseph,  c.  Ap.  1,  c.  M. 

*  Strabo,  R  17,  p.  806. 


46 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


between  four  and  five  miles  from  the  river,  but  it  was  probably 
nearer  in  ancient  times.  Heliopolis  stood  at  the  verge  of  tha 
Desert,  and  may  have  had  a  considerable  mixture  of  Arabian 
population1.  Twenty  miles  lower  down,  on  the  same  branch,  was 
Bubastus,  now  Tel  Basta,  conspicuous  for  its  lofty  mounds  of  brick, 
raised  to  protect  it  from  the  inundation,  and  inclosing  a  space  now 
covered  with  ruins2.  These  are  sufficient  to  attest  its  ancient 
magnificence  ;  the  names  of  Rarueses  the  Great,  Osorkon  and 
Amyrtaeus  have  been  found  here.  Pelusium,  even  in  the  time  of 
Strabo3,  was  twenty  stadia  from  the  sea ;  its  remains  are  now  more 
than  four  times  that  distance;  yet  originally  it  was  probably  a 
harbor,  and  from  its  position  was  the  key  of  Egypt  on  the  side  of 
Arabia  and  Palestine.  The  soil  in  which  the  ruins  stand  corres- 
ponds with  the  name  which  the  city  has- borne  in  Hebrew,  Coptic, 
Greek,  and  Arabic*,  all  signifying  a  marsh ;  and  such  is  the  pesti- 
lent malaria  which  it  exhales,  that  no  traveller  has  ventured 
thoroughly  to  explore  the  ruins5. 

The  wide  expanse  of  the  Lake  of  Menzaleh,  which  extends  along 
the  coast  from  Pelusium  to  Damietta,  has  absorbed  the  ancient 
Tanitic  and  Bucolic  mouths  of  the  Nile ;  but  the  ruins  of  San,  in 
lat.  31°,  identify  the  site  of  Tanis,  the  Zoan6  of  Scripture,  one  of  the 
oldest  cities  of  the  Delta.  Monuments  found  here  show  that  it 
existed  in  the  days  of  Rameses  the  Great ;  others  bear  the  names 
of  Menephthah,  Sesortasen  III.,  and  Tirhakfch7 ;  the  fragments  of 
obelisks  and  columns,  of  pottery  and  glass,  show  its  ancient  size 

7  Juba,  ap.  Plin.  N.  H.  6,  34.  Juba  tradit  Solis  quoque  oppidum,  quod 
nf  n  procul  Memphi  in  Egypto  situra  diximus,  Arabas  conditores  habere. 

•  Herod.  2,  137.    Wilkinson,  1,  428. 
»  Strabo,  17,  p.  803. 

4  Champollion,  Egypte  sous  les  Pharaona,  2,  86t 

•  Wilkinson,  1,  406. 

•  Pa.  lxxviii  12,  43. 
1  TFilkinflon,  1,  448. 


SAI8. 


41 


ana  importance.  The  present  canal  of  Moueys  probably  coincides 
tj  early  with  the  Tanitic  branch,  and  the  ruins  of  Attrib,  at  the 
point  where  this  canal  leaves  the  Nile,  represent  the  ancient 
Athribis1.  The  Mendesian  branch,  a  derivation  from  the  Seben- 
nytic,  has  equally  been  lost  in  Lake  Menzaleh,  but  the  former 
channel  may  be  traced  by  soundings  through  the  present  shallow 
waters. 

The  modern  branch  of  Damietta  corresponded  in  the  upper  part 
of  its  course  with  the  ancient  Sebennvtic  branch,  as  far  as  Semen- 
houd  (Sebennytus),  a  little  to  the  north  of  Mansoora ;  but  in  its 
lower  part  with  the  Phatnitic  or  Phatmetic,  which  though  arti- 
ficial has  drawn  to  itself  the  greater  portion  of  the  water.  Where 
the  Sebennvtic  had  its  mouth,  nearly  due  north  of  Memphis,  the 
Lake  of  Bourlos  has  collected  and  obliterated  the  channel.  Busiris 
stood  near  the  middle  of  the  Delta,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Damietta 
branch.  Its  name  is  preserved  in  Abousir,  a  little  to  the  north  of 
Semenhoud.  There  are  some  extensive  ruins  of  a  temple  of  Isis 
at  Bah-beit,  a  little  below  Semenhoud2,  which  from  their  size  and 
destination  appear  to  correspond  with  that  which  Herodotus  de- 
scribes as  existing  at  Busiris3.  The  temple  stood  in  the  midst  of 
an  extensive  inclosure  of  crude  brick,  1500  feet  long  and  1000 
broad.  It  has  been  of  extraordinary  magnificence,  being  entirely 
built  of  granite.  The  remains  of  the  sculpture,  which  is  all  of  the 
age  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  show  that  it  was  ^dedicated  to  the 
worship  of  Isis.  Being  in  true  relief,  contrary  to  the  usual  Egyp- 
tian style  of  art,  it  seems  to  betray  the  hand  of  a  Greek  artist. 

The  Canopic  branch,  the  most  westerly,  is  represented  by  the 
first  part  of  the  present  Rosetta  branch  as  far  as  the  lat.  of  31°, 
where  it  turned  off  to  the  west,  and  discharged  itself  into  the  sea, 

1  Wilkinson,  1,  423. 

1  Minutoli,  Reisen,  301.    "Wilkinson,  1,  432,  434. 

1  The  modern  Abonsir  is  several  miles  distant  from  Bah-beit,  but  w« 
often  find  ancient  names  transferred  to  places  in  their  neighborhood. 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


very  near  the  promontory  and  bay  of  Aboukir.  A  shaLow 
lagoon  lias  formed  here,  as  at  the  other  mouths  of  the  Nile,  call3d 
the  Lake  of  Madieh.  The  Canopic  branch,  in  the  first  part  of  its 
descent  from  the  apex  of  the  Delta,  closely  skirted  the  western 
Desert.  At  Teranieh,  the  ancient  Terenuthis,  a  pass  through  the 
hills  communicated  with  the  Valley  of  the  Natron  Lakes,  about 
thirty  miles  from  the  Nile.  Continuing  to  descend  the  river,  we 
find  the  site  of  the  ancient  Sais  on  the  right  bank, — ascertained 
not  only  by  the  modern  name  of  Sa-el-Hadjar,  but  by  ruins 
corresponding  in  extent  to  the  important  place  which  this  city 
occupied  under  the  later  Pharaohs.  They  have  been  raised  high 
above  the  level  of  the  plain,  to  avoid  the  inundation  ;  and  though 
they  now  present  only  a  confused  mass  of  ruins  of  brick,  the 
fragments  of  granite  and  marble  found  among  them,  and  the 
evident  traces  of  a  large  inclosure,  give  reason  to  conclude  that 
valuable  remains  lie  buried  here,  and  that  excavation  might 
bring  to  light  the  plan  of  the  celebrated  temple  of  Neith  and  the 
sepulchres  of  the  Saitic  kings1.  Naucratis,  long  the  Canton  of 
the  Greek  merchants,  the  only  port  which  they  were  permitted  to 
frequent2,  was  a  few  miles  lower  down  than  Sais  and  on  the  left 
bank,  but  its  exact  site  has  not  been  ascertained.  That  part  of 
the  present  Rosetta  branch  which  lies  between  the  ancient  course 
of  the  Canopic  and  the  sea,  represents  the  Bolbitine  mouth, 
originally  an  artificial  canal,  and  it  appears  from  Herodotus8 
that  in  his  time  a  branch  from  the  Sebennytic  must  have  joined 
the  Canopic,  passing  near  Sais.  Westward  of  the  Canopic  mouth, 
there  was  no  town  of  any  importance  in  the  Fharaonie  times. 
The  lake  Mareotis  extended  parallel  to  the  sea,  as  far  as  the 
Tower  of  Perseus  on  the  Plinthinetiasi  Bay,  about  twenty  six 


1  Champollion,  Lettres  d'Egypte,  p.  50.  "Wilkinson,  Mod.  Egypt  and 
Thebes,  1,  183,  185. 
1  Uer.  %  17».  •  Her.  2,  17. 


COAST  OF  EGYPT. 


4  9 


miles  S.  W.  of  Alexandria,  the  western  limit  of  Egypt ;  and  it  is 
closely  bordered  by  the  sands  of  the  Libyan  Desert. 

From  the  western  limit  of  Egypt  to  Pelusium,  the  coast,  as  far 
as  so  irregular  an  outline  can  be  measured,  extends  about  180 
geographical  miles ;  but  the  space  now  included  between  the 
Rosetta  and  Damietta  branches  is  probably  not  equal  to  more 
than  half  the  ancient  Delta.  The  coast  has  that  fan-shaped  form 
which  the  deposits  of  a  great  river  naturally  assume  where  it 
meets  the  sea,  being  carried  out  the  furthest  opposite  to  the  direct 
line  of  its  course,  the  lateral  and  therefore  weaker  currents 
depositing  their  burden  nearer  the  shore.  Cape  Bourlos,  the 
most  projecting  point  of  the  low  sandy  shore,  is  nearly  in  the 
same  line  with  the  bisection  of  the  stream  at  the  apex  of  the 
Delta.  To  the  operations  of  the  Nile  it  has  been  chiefly  owing 
that  Egypt  presents  a  coast  not  only  inhospitable,  but  dangerous 
to  the  navigator.  lie  finds  himself  in  shallow  water  before  he  has 
discovered  the  low  alluvial  shore,  which  scarcely  lifts  itself  above 
the  level  of  the  horizon.  From  Parsetonium  in  Libya  to  Joppa  in 
Syria,  there  was  not  a  single  good  harbor  except  that  of  Pharos1. 
The  influence  of  tlie  river  exteDds  far  out  into  the  sea,  which  is 
discolored  by  the  great  volume  of  turbid  water  during  the 
inundation  ;  and  the  sounding-line,  at  the  distance  of  seventeen 
leagues  from  shore,  brings  up  alluvial  mud2.  The  action  of 
the  waves  upon  the  sandy  shore  has  formed,  and  continues  to 
form  along  the  whole  coast  a  rock  of  gray  sandstone,  in  which 
the  fragments  of  land  and  sea  shells  are  blended  together3. 
Where  the  shore  is  lowest,  the  sea,  impelled  by  the  north  winds, 
sometimes  breaks  in,  as  on  the  coast  of  Holland,  converts 
freshwater  lakes  into  salt  lagoons,  or  covers  what  had  been  dry 
land,  leaving  only  a  few  insulated  spots  above  the  water.    In  th« 


1  Diodor.  Sia  1,  81.  1  Herod  %  6.    Bruce,  TrayelB,  1,  & 

1  Russegger,  Reisen,  11,  p.  363. 
VOL.  L  3 


60 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


early  ages  of  the  Church,  these  islands,  like  the  Desert  of  the 

Thebais,  afforded  a  refuge  to  the  holy  men,  who  wished  to  seclude 
themselves  from  the  world1. 

We  have  thus  described  the  course  of  the  Nile  from  the 
junction  of  its  principal  branches  to  the  sea,  and  the  antiquities 
which  are  found  along  its  banks.  Those  which  belong  to  the 
history  of  Ancient  Egypt  extend  for  more  than  1000  miles  from 
Upper  Nubia  to  the  Mediterranean.  They  have  been  so  minutely 
specified  because  they  are  in  fact  our  documents;  and  as  th« 
historian  of  other  countries  enumerates  the  archives  in  which  his 
authorities  are  deposited,  the  necessary  preliminary  to  Egyptiai 
history  is  the  description  of  the  temples,  palaces  and  sepulchres, 
on  whose  walls  the  names  and  actions  of  her  sovereigns  are 
inscribed. 


Caeeianus,  quoted  by  Jablonsky,  Pantheon  JSgyptiacum,  lib.  5,  %  \\ 

M 


CHAPTER  n. 


THE   COUNTRY  BETWEEN   EGYPT  AND  THE   RED  SEA. 

Although  the  nucleus  of  the  population  of  Egypt  and  the 
origin  of  its  national  peculiarities  are  to  be  sought  within  its 
double  chain  of  hills  and  the  extended  arms  of  the  Delta,  it  was 
not  entirely  cut  off  from  all  that  lay  beyond  these  limits.  The 
Red  Sea  is  nowhere  more  than  150  miles  from  the  valley  of  the 
Nile ;  the  Gulf  of  Suez  is  only  sixty  from  the  most  eastern  branch 
of  the  ancient  Nile,  and  we  shall  find  the  sovereigns  of  Egypt  in 
very  early  times  endeavoring  to  unite  their  country  with  it  by . 
means  of  a  canal,  and  thus  place  themselves  in  communication 
with  the  Indian  Ocean.  They  early  established  colonies  withiu 
the  peninsula  of  Mount  Sinai.  Wadi  Magara,  in  this  district, 
exhibits  names  contemporaneous  with  the  erection  of  the  Great 
Pyramid ;  Surabit-el-Kadim,  on  the  road  from  Suez  to  Sinai, 
contains  hieroglyphical  inscriptions  and  fragments  of  pottery, 
showing  the  existence  of  a  colony  or  settlement  under  the  18th 
dynasty.1  Copper  mixed  with  iron  ore  is  found  in  the  sandstone 
which  borders  the  primitive  rocks  of  Sinai ;  the  scoriae  produced 
by  their  smelting  yet  remain  in  large  heaps,3  and  to  obtain  these 
metals  was  no  doubt  the  purpose  for  which  this  desert  region  was 
occupied. 

When  we  ascend  beyond  the  head  of  the  Delta,  the  space 
1  Laborde,  Petra,  p.  80,  Eng.  translation. 

"  Lepsius's  Journey  to  Mount  Sinai,  p.  14.  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  and 
Thebes,  I,  406. 


62  ANCIENT  EGYPT. 

• 

between  the  Red  Sea  and  the  valley  of  the  Nile  is  occupied  by 
tertiary  limestone  hills,  the  Gebel-el-Mokattain  and  Gebel-Attaka 
of  modern  geography,  resting  on  a  cretaceous  formation  which 
is  found  at  Suez  and  on  the  opposite  shore1.  For  the  space  of 
thirty  miles  from  the  river  they  rise  gradually  towards  the  east, 
and  after  continuing  for  some  distance  at  nearly  the  same  level 
sink  again,  in  a  space  of  fifty  miles  to  the  Red  Sea.  A  general 
iine  of  elevation  appears  to  run  north  and  south  through  this 
region,  westward  of  which  the  country  slopes  to  the  Nile  and 
eastward  to  the  sea.  It  has  been  caused  probably  by  the 
intrusion  of  the  plutonic  rocks,  which  everywhere  abound2.  In 
the  latitude  of  28°  26'  a  primitive  region  begins,  which  rises  into 
a  mountain  of  6000  feet  in  height3.  The  same  cause  appears  to 
have  produced  the  gorges  by  which  the  limestone  and  sandstone 
hills  are  penetrated ;  most  of  them  soon  terminate,  but  there  are 
two  which  being  more  prolonged  serve  as  routes  of  communica- 
tion with  the  Red  Sea.  The  most  northerly  is  at  Coptos  and 
Keneh,  the  other  opposite  to  Apollinopolis  Magna  or  Edfu.  The 
routes  from  both  these  places  to  Berenice  unite  about  three  days' 
journey  in  the  Desert4,  and  from  their  point  of  junction  a  branch 
goes  north-westward  to  Kosseir,  the  ancient  Philoteras,  in  lat.  26° 
9',  and  to  Myos  Hormos,  27°  32'.  Berenice  is  in  the  lat.  of  23° 
50',  a  little  to  the  south  of  the  promontory  of  Cape  Nose.  There 
is  also  a  route  which  goes  nearly  due  west  from  Coptos  to  Kosseir. 
This  road  is  almost  throughout  desert,  but  not  difficult,  as  the 
French  passed  their  artillery  through  it  without  impediment 
except  at  one  point.    It  is  bordered  by  hills  of  limestone,  sand- 

1  Russegger's  Reisen,  1,  P.  1,  264. 

9  Russegger's  Geognostische  Karte.  Ad  insulated  mass  of  the  granite  of 
the  Cataracts  is  found  as  far  north  as  27°  10'. 

•  "Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  pL  18  ;  Modern  Egypt,  2,  883. 
4  Belzoni,  pL  88. 


COUNTRY  BETWEEN  EGYPT  AND  THE  RED  SEA* 


53 


stone,  and  further  on,  at  the  distance  of  two  days'  and  a  half 
journey,  grzan  breccia.  From  the  latter  the  Egyptians  derived 
the  beautiful  material  which  under  the  name  of  Verde  (TEgitto 
is  so  much  admired  among  their  remains  of  art1.  These  quarries 
were  opened  at  a  very  early  period  in  the  history  of  the  monarchy, 
and  continued  to  be  wrought  even  in  the  Roman  times.  The 
inscriptions  go  back  as  far  as  to  the  sixth  dynasty  of  Manetho, 
and  record  the  names  of  those  who  directed  the  workings  and  the 
kings  under  whom  they  held  office.  The  god  in  whose  lionor  the 
more  recent  proscynemata  are  made  is  Amun-Khem,  answering  to 
the  Pan  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  to  whom  deserts  especially 
belonged.  The  road  from  Apollinopolis  to  Berenice  presents 
more  remains  of  antiquity  than  that  from  Coptos  to  Kosseir.  At 
intervals  of  from  seven  to  twelve  miles,  inclosures  with  walls  or 
cisterns  occur,  which  appear  to  mark  the  site  of  the  ancient 
stations  of  caravans  on  their  way  from  the  Nile  to  the  Red  Sea2. 
About  thirty  miles  from  the  river  is  a  temple  in  which  the  figure 
of  an  Egyptian  king  appears,  holding  captives  by  the  hair  as  if 
about  to  immolate  them.  Pyramidal  masses  of  masonry  are  seen 
on  the  hills,  apparently  designed  as  landmarks  through  these 
deserts,  in  which  the  wind  speedily  obliterates  all  traces  of  a  route. 
The  porphyry  and  granite  which  are  found "  towards  the  western 
side  were  quarried  for  purposes  of  art3 ;  the  mines  of  emeralds 
also  attracted  the  ancient  Egyptians  into  these  barren  regions, 
and  have  caused  them  to  be  again  explored  in  modern  times. 
They  lay  out  far  from  the  Red  Sea,  between  24°  and  25° 
N.L.    Mount  Zabareh  was  the  principal  mine,  but  at  Bender-el- 

1  It  is  composed  of  rounded  fragments  of  greenstone,  gneiss  and  por- 
phyry, cemented  by  a  slightly  calcareous  paste.  Newbold,  Geology  of 
Egypt,  Proc.  of  GeoL  Soc  1842,  8,  2,  91  foil 

1  Belzoni,  2,  34. 

'  There  were  quarries  of  granite  at  Mons  Claudianus(now  Gebel  Fatireh^ 
and  of  porphyry  at  Mons  Porphyrites  (now  Gebel  Dochau). 


54 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


Sogheir  to  the  north  and  Sekket  to  the  south,  there  are  traces  of 
ancient  mining  operations.  The  temple  at  the  latter  place  is 
indeed  of  the  Ptolemaic  times,  but  it  is  certain  that  the  mines 
were  known  and  wrought  in  those  of  the  Pharaohs,  at  least  as 
early  as  Amunoph  III.  At  Wadi  Jasoos,  to  the  north  of  Kcsseir, 
the  shields  of  Sesortasen  II.  and  his  predecessor  Amenemhe  II. 
occur  with  a  record  of  victories1.  In  the  road  from  Coptos  to 
Kosseir,  Mr.  Burton  and  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson  have  copied 
inscriptions  of  various  sovereigns  from  the  early  reign  of  Papi  or 
Apappus  down  to  Darius,  Artaxerxes  and  Nectanebus,  and  Lepsius 
has  recently  added  to  their  number3.  There  were  gold-mines  also 
on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Nile,  in  the  primitive  district  which  lies 
between  the  Cataracts  and  the  Red  Sea9.  The  workings  belong 
to  the  Ptolemaic  times,  yet  they  can  hardly  have  been  unknown 
to  the  Pharaohs4. 

The  general  character  of  this  region  and  its  geological  structure 
resembles  that  of  the  peninsula  of  Sinai,  and  is  wholly  unlike  that 
of  the  Libyan  Desert  on  the  western  side  of  the  Nile.  Its  surface 
is  varied,  and  a  scanty  vegetation  in  the  valleys  affords  the  means 
of  pasturage  to  a  wandering  population.  As  it  is  Arabian,  not 
African  in  its  features,  so  its  inhabitants  have  probably  in  all  ages 
been  of  the  Arabian  family.  The  Desert  between  Kosseir  and 
Berenice  is  now  occupied  by  the  Ababdeh,  who  represent  the 
population  of  the  Ptolemaic  and  Pharaonic  times.  The  tribes 
who  live  to  the  north  of  these  are  Arabs  of  more  recent  immi- 
gration, but  probably  the  successors  of  others  of  tbe  same 
origin.    According  to  the  Greek  geographers6,  the  coast  from  the 

1  Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  1,  45,  231  ;  Mod.  Eg.  2,  3&5,  388. 

3  Journey  to  M.  Sinai,  p.  5. 

"  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  3,  229.  Mr.  Birch  thinks  that  what  Lepsius  sup 
posed  to  be  a  plan  of  the  tomb  of  Sethos,  is  a  plan  of  an  ancient  gold-mind 

4  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Egypt  and  Thebes,  2,  389. 

5  Artemidorus  apud  Strab.  B.  16,  p.  768,  115. 


COUNTRY  BETWEEN  EGYPT  AND  THE  RED  SEA.  55 

Gulf  of  Suez  to  Berenice  was  inhabited  by  the  Troglodytes,  a 
nomadic  people,  who,  as  their  name  indicates,  made  their  dwell- 
ings in  the  excavated  rock.  Hence  we  may  infer,  that  they  die 
not  extend  further  than  the  limestone  and  sandstone  districts  of 
the  coast,  and  they  may  have  belonged  to  various  races,  agreeing 
in  this  mode  of  habitation.  The  practice  of  circumcision  appears 
to  connect  them  with  the  Arabic  or  Ethiopian  tribes1 ;  they  were 
in  the  lowest  state  of  civilization,  characteristic  of  a  people  who 
have  not  industry  or  skill  to  procure  themselves  habitations,  but 
take  up  with  such  as  nature  or  the  labor  of  others  has  provided. 
Dwelling  promiscuously  in  caves,  they  had  no  distinctions  of 
family,  but  their  wives  and  children  were  in  common,  except  those 
of  the  chief.  Southward  of  the  Troglodytes  dwelt  on  the  sea-coast 
tribes  who  lived  on  fish,  and  others  more  inland,  of  whose  figure 
and  mode  of  life  strange  tales  were  related  by  the  Greek  and 
Roman  writers2. 

The  country  between  Egypt  and  the  Red  Sea  was  no  doubt 
virtually  subject  to  the  Egyptian  kings;  but,  except  where  its 
mines  and  quarries  invited  a  settlement,  or  traffic  rendered  a  line 
of  communication  necessary,  it  could  riot  repay  the  expense  of  a 
permanent  occupation,  or  reward  any  attempt  to  cultivate  the  soil 
and  civilize  the  inhabitants. 

1  Her.  2,  104.  Strabo,  R  16,  p.  115,  786.  Herodotus,  4,  183,  speaks  of 
Ethiopian  Troglodytes. 

2  Pliny,  N  H.  6,  30. 


CHAPTER  IH 

THE   WESTERN  DESERT. 

The  countrj  which  borders  Egypt  on  the  west,  presents  even  a 
more  striking  contrast  to  the  luxuriant  fertility  and  overflowing 
population  of  the  Valley  of  the  Nile,  than  the  rough  and  barren 
region  on  the  east.  Since  the  Libyan  Desert  has  been  examined 
by  scientific  travellers,  it  has  been  divested  of  many  of  its  fabulous 
terrors ;  its  hosts  of  serpents,  which  by  their  number  and  venom 
could  even  impede  the  march  of  armies1 ;  its  tribes  who  shrieked 
like  bats,  instead  of  speaking  with  a  human  voice' ;  its  pestilential 
blasts  extinguishing  life  instantaneously  wherever  they  reached  ; 
and  its  whirlwinds  of  sand,  burying  armies  as  they  fell.  Enough, 
however,  remains  to  characterize  it  as  one  of  the  most  inhospitable 
regions  of  the  earth,  and  perhaps  the  most  formidable  barrier 
anywhere  interposed  to  the  intercourse  of  nations.  It  is  not  in 
Africa  alone  that  it  produces  this  effect.  Egypt  intersects  it  with  a 
narrow  stripe  of  fertile  land,  but  it  immediately  reappears  in  the 
Desert  which  separates  Egypt  from  Palestine,  and  Palestine  from 
the  country  on  the  Euphrates;  it  occupies  the  coast  beyond  the 
Persian  Gulf,  and  only  ends  on  the  Indus.  Probably  among  the 
changes  which  our  globe  has  undergone,  in  ages  before  the  exist- 
ence, or  at  least  the  history  of  man,  the  Sahara  may  have  formed 
the  bed  of  the  sea,  the  level  of  which  even  now  it  does  not  greatly 
exceed*.  As  it  yields  no  exhalation,  so  it  receives  no  rain,  and 
hence  appears  condemned  to  perpetual  barrenness. 

1  Lucan,  Pharsalia,  p.  765.  *  Herod.  4,  188. 

•  Russegger,  Reisen,  vol.  2,  part  1,  p.  279. 


THE  WESTERS  DESERT. 


57 


The  vague  descriptions  of  the  ancients  had  led  to  the  opinion 
that  in  the  midst  of  this  ocean  of  sand,  verdant  spots  called  Oases 
appeared,  like  islands  in  the  sea1,  having  escaped  by  their  greater 
elevation  the  sand  with  which  the  wind  had  covered  all  the  rest  of 
the  cultivated  soil.  The  oases,  however,  are  not  elevations,  but  de- 
pressions in  th9  surff-oe.  They  are  composed  of  sandstone  and  clay 
on  which  the  lime*:cr;e  which  forms  the  basis  of  the  western  Desert 
everywhere  rests ;  the  limestone  rises  in  mural  escarpments  around 
*  them,  and  the  cay  retaining  the  water,  supports  a  vegetation 
which  made  them  appear  like  a  paradise  to  the  Desert  traveller, 
and  procured  them  the  name  of  Islands  of  the  Blessed3.  They 
serve  to  keep  up  communication  between  Egypt  and  the  countries 
of  western  and  southern  Africa :  without  such  resting-places  and 
supplies  of  water,  even  the  adventurous  caravans  could  not  traverse 
the  Desert.  Though  it  is  in  general  destitute  of  life  and  vegeta- 
tion, it  is  not  a  mere  plain  of  sand  ;  it  has  considerable  inequali- 
ties and  even  hills  of  gravel.  The  effects  of  the  hot  wind3  of  the 
Desert  have  been  much  exaggerated.  In  the  summer  months, 
blowing  from  the  south  and  south-east,  over  a  soil  scorched  by  an 
almost  vertical  sun,  it  acquires  an  intensity  of  heat  which  dries  up 
all  moisture,  relaxes  the  muscular  power  and  renders  respiration 
difficult,  but  does  not  smite  with  sudden  death  as  Oriental  exag- 
geration represents.  The  same  wind,  sweeping  over  a  surface 
where  nothing  breaks  its  force,  raises  eddies  of  sand  high  in  the 
air4,  which  falls  in  a  heavy  shower,  inconvenient  but  not  dangerous 
to  the  traveller,  except  as  it  effaces  his  track.6   The  failure  of  his 

1  Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  4,  119. 
■  Herod.  3,  26. 

*  Called  in  Egypt  Kliamsin  (fifty),  from  the  number  of  days  that  It  is 
■upposed  to  blow ;  in  the  Desert,  Simoum,  by  a  corruption  *f  the  Arabic 
Semex,  poison. 

*  Bruce,  Travels,  6,  458.    Compare  Burckhardt's  Nubia,  1  207. 

*  Arrian,  Exp.  Alex  8,  3. 

3* 


£3 


ANCIENT  EOTPT. 


cupply  of  water,  or  the  illness  of  himself  or  his  bea6t  of  burden, 
is  the  danger  which  he  has  most  to  dread  on  a  journey,  where 
every  one  is  too  fully  occupied  with  his  own  wants  to  have  aid  or 
even  sympathy  to  spare  for  others. 

Herodotus  describes  a  chain  of  these  oases  extending  from  east 
to  west  through  the  Desert  of  Libya1.  Some  of  these,  as  Augiia 
and  Fezzan,  assume  the  size  of  kingdoms,  while  others  are  mere 
halting-places  for  caravans 2;  we  have  here  only  to  speak  of  those 
which  border  on  Egypt  and  are  connected  with  its  history.  They* 
are  five  in  number.  The  most  northerly,  the  largest  and  the  most 
remote  from  the  Nile,  is  the  oasis  of  Siwah,  the  ancient  Ammoni- 
um. It  lies  nearly  in  the  latitude  of  Fyoum,  and  in  longitude  26° 
20'  E.  From  Lower  Egypt  it  is  approached  from  Terenieh  on  the 
Rosetta  branch  of  the  Nile,  by  a  route  to  the  W.  S.  W.,  which 
passca  the  Natron  Lakes.8  They  are  six  in  number,  lying  in  a 
valley  which  runs  N.  W.  about  twelve  miles  in  length.  They 
swell"  w  ith  the  rains,  which  fall  in  the  months  of  December,  Janu- 
ary and  February,  and  are  therefore  highest  when  the  Nile  is 
lowest.  They  thus  imbibe  saline  matter  from  the  sand  of  the 
Desert,  impregnated  with  it  by  the  ancient  ocean  which  has  covered 
this  part  of  Africa,  since  the  deposition  of  the  tertiary  strata.  The 
heat  of  summer  produces  strong  evaporation ;  a  crust  forms  upon 
the  surface  and  edges  of  the  lakes4  containing  muriate,  carbonate 
and  sulphate  of  soda,  which  is  collected  and  carried  off  to  be  used 
in  the  operations  of  glass-making  and  bleaching.  The  Bahr-be- 
la-Ma  or  River  with  no  Water,  a  name  given  by  the  Arabs  to 
many  valleys  which  they  think  have  the  appearance  of  ancient 

Herod.  4,  181. 

The  Coptic  Ouah,  whence  Oasis  is  derived,  means  Manuo.  Se« 
Peyron,  Lex.  Ling.  Copt  «.  v. 

•  Minutoli,  Rcise  zum  Tempel  des  Jupiter  Amnion. 

4  Quo  iter  est  ad  Hammonem  lacus  sunt  palustres,  qui  ita  sunt  ut 
habeant  insuper  se  salem  cougelatura  (Vitruv.  8,  8). 


THE  OASES. 


59 


stream-beds,  runs  parallel  to  the  valley  of  the  Natron  Lakes,  and 
is  only  separated  from  it  by  a  narrow  ridge.  The  water-worn 
pebbles  which  are  found  on  the  sides  of  the  hills  have  suggested 
the  hypothesis,- that  the  Nile  may  once  have  found  its  way  to  the 
Mediterranean  from  above  Memphis  by  this  channel;  and  the 
agatized  wood  which  is  strewed  about  has  been  considered  an 
evidence  of  ancient  navigation.  Such  appearances,  however,  are 
very  common  in  other  parts  of  Libya,  and  there  is  nothing  in  the 
configuration  of  the  country  which  warrants  the  supposition  of  a 
connexion  either  with  the  Nile  or  the  Birket-el-Kerun.  The  Bahr- 
be-la-Ma  is  entirely  destitute  of  that  sedimentary  deposit  which  a 
river  flowing  through  it  would  have  left ;  the  pebbles  are  found 
abundantly  in  the  limestone  of  Lower  Egypt  and  the  adjacent 
Desert,  and  are  derived  from  its  decomposition  ;  the  agatized  wood 
has  no  doubt  the  same  origin  as  the  petrified  forest  near  Cairo, 
which  we  shall  hereafter  describe1.  The  road  towards  Ammonium 
inclines  from  the  Natron  Lakes  towards  the  south ;  the  soil  is  in 
some  places  so  salt  that  it  is  covered  with  an  incrustation  through 
which  the  foot  of  the  camel  breaks  as  through  a  thin  coat  of  ice. 
Yet  it  is  not  all  desert;  springs  occur  at  intervals  which  nourish  a 
scanty  vegetation  and  a  few  groves  of  palms.  The  oasis  of  El- 
Gerah2,  distant  two  days'  march  from  Siwah,  consists  of  a  little 
district  four  or  five  miles  in  circumference,  formerly  no  doul  t 
dependent  on  the  neighboring  oasis. 

Siwah  itself  is  about  six  miles  in  length,  and  two  or  three  in 
oreadth.  The  ground  is  strongly  impregnated  with  salt,  which  in 
ancient  times  Ammonium  furnished  in  the  greatest  purity  for 
sacrifice  and  the  royal  table9 ;  yet  the  abundance  of  water  main- 
tains a  high  degree  of  fertility,  especially  in  the  production  of 

1  Russegger,  Reisen,  voL  1,  p.  267.  "Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  1, 
800. 

'  The  Uminesogeir  of  Horneniann  and  others. 
•  Arrian,  Exp.  Alex.  B,  3.  c.  4. 


60 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


fruit,  and  dates  form  an  article  of  extensive  commerce.  The  pre 
sent  population  has  been  estimated  at  8000.  The  ruins  of  the 
temple  of  Ammon  are  found  at  Ummebeda,  about  two  miles  from 
the  principal  village  and  fortress.  Its  style  and  arrangement  be- 
speak its  Egyptian  origin  and  its  consecration  to  the  worship  of 
the  ram-headed  god  of  Thebes1,  but  it  is  probably  not  older  than 
the  Persian  times.  The  oracle,  however,  was  no  doubt  of  much 
higher  antiquity  than  the  temple ;  the  name  was  derived  from 
Amun,  and  the  population  in  the  time  of  Herodotus  partly  from 
Egypt  and  partly  from  Ethiopia,  in  both  which  countries  this  god 
was  worshipped2.  Etearchus,  the  name  of  the  king  whom  Herodo- 
tus mentions,  in  his  account  of  the  expedition  of  the  Nasamonians 
in  search  of  the  sources  of  the  Nile3,  appears  to  be  Greek.  Da- 
naus  founded  it,  according  to  one  tradition4 ;  another  made  its  es- 
tablishment contemporaneous  with  that  of  the  most  ancient  oracle 
of  Greece,  the  Dodonaean*.  It  "ould  not  long  remain  unknown  to 
the  Greeks  after  the  colonization  of  Gyrene  in  the  seventh  century 
B.C.  The  fountain  of  the  Sun,  of  which  the  ancients  from  Hero- 
dotus downwards  have  related  so  many  wonders",  is  near  the  ruins 
cf  the  temple,  and  appears  to  be  a  tepid  spring,  such  as  are  found 
elsewhere  in  the  oases,  which  during  the  day  feels  colder,  and 
during  the  night  warmer,  than  the  surrounding  air.  Alexander 
the  Great,  in  visiting  the  oracle  of  Ammon,  followed  the  coast  of 
the  Mediterranean  as  far  as  Paraetonium  and  then  turned  inland, 
but  probably  returned  to  tho  neighborhood  of  Memphis  by  the 
route  which  has  been  just  described". 

1   Stat  certior  illie 

Jupiter,  ut  memorant ;  sed  non  aut  fulmina  vibrans 
Aut  similis  nostro,  sed  tortis  cornibus  Ammon. 

Lucan,  Phars.  10,  38. 

»  Herod.  2,  42.       8  Herod.  2,  32.       4  Diod.  17,  60.       6  Herod.  2,  64, 

•  Heroi  4,  181.    Oomp.  Wilkinson's  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  358. 

•  Arrian,  B.  3,  c.  4  ad  Jin.  It  is  singular  that  such  a  point  8ho"\d  hay* 
been  doubtfuL    Q.  Curtius  (4,  33)  makes  him  return  by  the  coast 


TUB  OASES. 


61 


Of  the  oases  which  lie  near  to  Egypt  the  most  northerly  is  that 
of  El-Bacharieh,  of  which  the  principal  village,  Zahou,  is  in  lat  . 
28°  21',  and  E.  long.  29°  10'.  It  is  about  100  miles  distant  from 
Oxyrrhynchus  or  Bahneseh  on  the  Nile,  and  has  sometimes  been 
called  the  oasis  of  Bahneseh.  It  is  also  reached  by  a  route  from 
the  Fyoum.  The  soil  is  good  and  produces  many  fruit-trees,  but 
there  are  no  inscriptions  or  remains  of  buildings  which  decisively 
prove  that  it  was  permanently  occupied  by  the  Egyptians,  even  in 
the  Persian  times.  A  triumphal  arch,  the  ruins  of  an  aqueduct 
and  hypogsea  containing  sarcophagi,  mark  its  occupation  by  a  Ro- 
man force.  It  was  necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  order  in  Egypt 
under  the  Empire,  as  well  as  the  security  of  commerce,  to  take  pos- 
session of  these  solitary  spots,  which  would  otherwise  have  become 
banding-places  for  the  malefactors  of  the  province. 

It  is  in  the  oasis  of  El-Bacharieh  that  the  remarkable  discovery 
has  been  made  of  the  use  of  Artesian  wells  by  the  ancients. 
Olympiodorus,  a  native  of  Egyptian  Thebes,  who  lived  about  the 
beginning  of  the  fifth  century  after  Christ,  has  described  them  in 
a  manner  which  cannot  be  mistaken,  in  a  passage  of  his  history 
preserved  by  Photius1.  Their  depth,  200  to  500  cubits,  far  exceeds 
that  of  wells  of  the  ordinary  construction,  and  the  spontaneous 
rise  of  the  water  in  a  rushing  stream  shows  that  no  machinery 
was  employed  to  pump  or  lift  it.  A  Frenchman  who  has  esta- 
blished himself  in  this  oasis,  to  manufacture  alum,  with  the  ele- 
ments of  which  it  abounds,  has  discovered  and  re-opened  several 
of  them,  having  a  depth  of  360  to  480  feet2.  How  long  they  had 
been  in  use  before  Olympiodorus  wrote  we  do  not  know.  There  is 
no  trace  of  Artesian  wells  being  known  to  the  ancient  Egyptians, 

1  "Ort  irepl  rfjj  'Oatrecof  n-oXXa  TrapaSo£o\oytt  koli  t&v  dpyaaofisvoiv  (ppearwv  cl>s  els  SiclkO' 
aiots  Kal  rptaicoeiuvs,  £a0'  Ere  61  Kai  Is  irevraKoaiovs  rtf\^as  dpvcradfteva  dv  afi  \v  £ov  c  i 
ri  psidpov  avTot   ro3  arropiov  ir  p  o  %e  6  ptv  o  v ,    (Phot.  BibL  80,  p.  191 

©d.  Hoesch) 
•  Rusaegger,  Reiaen,  vol.  2,  P.  4j  p.  284,  88ft. 


02 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


nor  to  the  Greeks  and  Romans ;  but  the  art  of  boring  them  has 
been  long  known  in  China1,  and  it  may  have  been  brought  thence, 
like  the  culture  of  the  silk-worm,  in  the  imperial  times,  and  intro- 
duced into  the  oases.  The  water  which  supplies  them  is  supposed 
to  be  derived  by  infiltration  from  the  Nile2. 

The  largest  of  all  the  oases  is  El-Khargeh,  which  extends  from 
the  latitude  of  Dendera  to  that  of  Edfu,  its  central  part  being 
nearly  opposite  to  Thebes,  whence  it  has  been  called  the  oasis  of 
Thebes.  In  the  "  Notitia  Imperii "  its  chief  town  is  called  Hibe, 
and  from  the  hieroglyphics  its  Egyptian  name  appears  to  have 
been  Heb.  Its  nearest  point  is  about  ninety  miles  from  the  river ; 
it  is  eighty  miles  in  length,  and  eight  to  ten  in  breadth ;  the  cul- 
tivated land  in  ancient  times  extended  further  than  at  present  to 
the  north.  The  limestone  hills,  which  are  higher  here  than  in  the 
oases  already  described,  rise  in  precipices  above  it,  and  the  doum 
palm  and  the  acacia  of  the  Nile  grow  luxuriantly  at  the  base.  A 
multitude  of  ruins  attest  its  ancient  importance  and  papulation,  but 
none  of  them  are  of  the  Pharaonic  times.  Herodotus  calls  it  the 
city  of  Oasis,  and  says  that  it  was  occupied  by  Samians  of  the^Es- 
chrionian  tribe3,  who  had  probably  settled  here  in  consequence  of 
their  friendship  with  the  Cyrenians4.  It  was  garrisoned  under  the 
Persians,  the  names  of  Darius  and  Amyrtseus  having  been  found 
here6 ;  but  the  principal  buildings  which  remain  are  of  the  Greek,' 
if  not  the  Roman  times.  The  great  temple  dedicated  to  Araun  is 
4G8  feet  in  length ;  its  architecture  resembles  that  of  Hermonthis 
and  Apollinopolis  Magna.  Besides  its  convenience  as  a  station, 
the  alum  found  in  its  neighborhood  attracted  the  Egyptians,  to 
whom  it  was  a  source  of  wealth6,  as  well  as  of  essential  impor- 

1  Ritter,  Asien,  part  4,  vol.  3,  p.  416.       8  Russegger,  Rehen,  ubi  mprcL 

•  Herod.  3,  26.  4  Herod.  4,  152. 

•  Sir  G.  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Egypt  and  Thebes,  2,  367. 

•  Herod.  2,  180.  Amasis  gave  100(1  talent*  of  alum  towards  rebuilding 
the  temple  of  Delphi 


TIIE  OASES. 


03 


tan cc  in  the  processes  of  art.  The  oasis  of  El-Dakkel,  sometimes 
called  The  Little  Oasis,  lies  to  the  N.W.  of  the  oasis  of  Thebes, 
l'rom  which  it  is  separated  by  a  high  calcareous  ridge.  A  temple 
at  Ain  Amour,  on  the  route  between  them,  shows  that  it  was  used 
bv  the  Egyptians  ;  the  oasis  itself  has  tombs  and  a  temple  of  the 
Ptolemaic  times.  Its  productions  are  now  chiefly  dates,  fruits  and 
olives ;  under  the  Romans  it  was  celebrated  for  its  wheat.  It 
contains  a  number  of  springs,  some  of  them  thermal,  which  are 
used  for  irrigation.  The  oasis  of  El-Farafreh,  which  lies  nearly 
north  of  El-Dakkel,  at  the  distance  of  about  eighty  miles,  served 
as  an  intermediate  station  both  to  Ammonium  and  El-Khargeh. 

The  absence  of  all  positive  traces  of  establishments  in  these 
oases  by  the  Egyptians,  under  their  native  rulers,  is  contrasted  with 
the  records  which  we  have  found  of  their  earliest  kings  in  the 
deserts  near  the  head  of  the  Red  Sea  and  on  the  road  to  Kosseir. 
But  on  the  west,  Egypt  was  itself  the  frontier  of  civilization ;  till 
the  settlements  of  the  Phoenicians  and  Greeks,  only  barbarous 
tribes  dwelt  beyond  it  in  Africa,  from  whose  hostility  it  had  no- 
thing to  fear,  and  who  had  nothing  to  communicate  which  it  could 
not  more  easily  obtain  from  the  interior  by  the  channel  of  the 
Nile.  The  Isthmus  of  Suez  and  the  ports  of  the  Red  Sea,  on 
the  contrary,  placed  it  in  connexion  with  the  wealth  and  fertility  of 
Asia.  The  difficulty  of  traversing  the  Sahara  must  have  been 
almost  insurmountable1  for  numerous  companies  before  the  intro- 
duction of  the  camel,  which  never  appears  in  the  monuments  of 
the  Pharaonic  times3.    Its  use  had  been  long  known  to  the  Per- 

1  Psammitichus,  when  he  wished  to  explore  the  Deserts  of  Africa,  trained 
youths  to  endure  unusual  degrees  of  thirst ;  very  few  of  them,  however, 
escaped  with  life  (Athen.  8,  p.  845). 

9  The  camels  mentioned  among  Pharaoh's  cattle  (Exod.  ix.  3)  had  proba- 
bly been  obtained  from,  the  Israelites.  "We  have  such  ample  representa- 
tions of  Egyptian  life,  that  if  the  camel  had  been  naturalized  here  as  a  beast 
of  burden,  it  must  have  occurred  in  the  paintings. 


64 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


sians,  and  by  them  the  oases  were  first  permanently  occupied. 
Cambyses  failed  to  reach  Ammonium,  and  has  been  unjustlj 
charged  with  madness  for  an  attempt,  which  appears  to  have  been 
dictated  by  sound  policy.  Darius,  however,  succeeded  in  esta- 
blishing his  power  in  the  oases  :  in  the  time  of  Herodotus  they  wera 
the  resting-places  of  a  traffic  which  penetrated  Africa  nearly  from 
east  to  west,  and  under  the  Ptolemies  and  the  Romans  they  be- 
came military  outposts  of  their  empire. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THE  INUND1TI0N  OF  THE  KILE,  SOIL,  PRODUCTIONS  AND  CLIMaTI 
OF  EGYPT. 

If  we  carry  back  our  thoughts  to  the  commencement  of  those 
changes  which  have  given  to  Egypt  its  actual  form,  we  see  a  long 
rocky  valley  of  sandstone  and  limestone,  terminating  in  a  deep 
bay,  where  the  Arabian  and  Libyan  chains  now  give  place  to  the 
plain  of  the  Delta.  Its  aspect  from  this  point  suggested  the  ear- 
liest geological  speculation  on  record,  if  we  except  those  which 
may  have  taken  the  form  of  mythical  traditions.  "  The  greater 
part  of  Egypt,"  says  Herodotus1,  "  appears  to  me  also,  as  the 
priests  represented,  to  be  acquired  land.  For  the  space  which  lies 
between  the  mountains  above  Memphis  seemed  to  me,  like  the 
country  about  Ilium  and  Teuthrania  and  Ephesus  and  the  plain 
of  the  Maeander,  to  have  been  once  a  gulf  of  the  sea,  if  we  may 
compare  small  things  with  great.  For  the  rivers  which  have  filled 
up  these  places  with  their  deposit  are  not  to  be  compared  in  mag- 
nitude with  any  one  of  the  five  mouths  of  the  Nile,  which  is  so 
large  and  so  energetic  in  its  operations,  that  in  the  time  which 
has  elapsed  before  I  was  born  it  may  well  have  filled  up  even  a 
much  larger  gulf  than  this.  That  this  has  been  the  case  with 
Egypt  I  believe,  not  only  on  the  authority  of  those  who  have  told 
me  so,  but  because  I  have  myself  observed  that  it  projects  beyond 
the  adjacent  country,  and  that  shells  are  found  upon  the  hills, 
and  that  salt  effloresces  so  as  even  to  injure  the  pyramids ;  and 
that  this  hill  above  Memphis  is  the  only  one  which  has  sand  upon 

1  Herod  2,  12. 


66 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


it ;  and  that  the  soil  of  Egypt  does  not  resemble  that  of  either  of 
the  conterminous  countries,  Libya  or  Syria.  It  is  dark  and  friable, 
as  being  the  mud  and  alluvial  deposit  brought  down  by  the  river 
from  Ethiopia1 ;  whereas  the  soil  of  Libya  is  reddish,  with  a  sub- 
stratum of  sand ;  that  of  Arabia  and  Syria  clayey,  with  a  substra- 
tum of  rock." 

Modern  science  has  added  little  to  this  simple  hypothesis.  Bor- 
ings made  m  the  Delta  to  the  depth  of  forty-five  feet  have  shown 
that  the  soil  consists  of  vegetable  matter  and  an  earthy  deposit 
such  as  the  Nile  now  brings  down ;  but  as  no  marine  remains  are 
found  in  the  mud  which  covers  the  upper  and  middle  portion  of 
the  Delta,  it  appears  that  the  present  alluvium  must  have  been 
deposited  upon  a  surface  previously  elevated  above  the  Mediterra- 
nean. That  Egypt  has  undergone  changes  not  recorded  in  his- 
tory, nor  surmised  by  its  ancient  inhabitants  or  visitors,  is  evident 
from  the  phenomena  of  the  petrified  forest  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Cairo.  The  platform  on  which  it  lies  is  considerably  above  the 
present  level  of  the  Nile,  on  the  side  of  the  Mokattam  range. 
The  trees,  some  of  which  are  from  fifty  to  sixty  feet  in  length,  are 
scattered  over  a  space  of  three  and  a  half  miles  wide  and  four 
miles  long ;  their  substance  is  in  many  cases  converted  into  silex, 
agate  and  jasper,  and  they  are  partially  covered  with  rolled  peb- 
bles and  sand.  It  is  difficult  to  account  for  these  appearances 
without  supposing  that  they  have  been  submerged  subsequently  to 
their  growth  and  again  elevated  to  their  present  position3.  If  the 
agatized  wood  in  the  Bahr-be-la-Ma  is  of  the  same  origin  and  was 
deposited  there  before  the  valley  of  the  Nile  intervened,  we  are 
carried  far  back  into  that  indefinite  antiquity  which  Herodotus 
prudently  assumes3. 

1  'l\vvre  ko\  npd^vviv  2|  Atdiomrx  KaTCvijveiyfisvriv  vird  row  irorafiuv  (Her.  U. 
«  Newbold,  Geology  of  Egypt    Proc.  Geol.  Soc  S,  2,  91  (1842). 

*  Ei  s8c\T)(rtt  Urptipai  to  j.sitipov  b  NeiAos  is  rov  'Apajiov  ko^-zov,  ri  ptr  cwAfci 
i«£wa0>>at  ivrA\    y*  iiopvpiuv  i  r  f  w  v  ;  2,  11. 


DEPOSIT  OF  THE  NILE. 


♦37 


In  supposing  the  alluvial  deposit  by  which  the  Delta  had  been 
formed  to  have  been  brought  down  from  Ethiopia,  Herodotus  was 
perhaps  influenced  by  an  opinion  which  prevailed  among  the  an- 
cients1, that  as  the  people  of  Ethiopia  were  black,  so  must  the  soil 
be.  The  deposit  of  the  Nile  is  composed  of  clay2,  lime  and  sili- 
cious  sand,  but  the  proportion  of  these  ingredients  varies  with  the 
nature  of  the  formation  over  which  the  river  has  flowed.  In  the 
granitic  and  sandstone  regions  of  Upper  Egypt  and  Lower  Nubia, 
less  calcareous  and  argillaceous  matter  and  a  larger  proportion  of 
silex  is  found  than  in  the  neighborhood  of  Cairo  and  in  the  Delta. 
The  annual  deposit  varies  in  the  same  situation  from  an  inch  to  a 
few  lines,  and  therefore  all  calculations  must  be  very  uncertain 
which  attempt  to  deduce  the  antiquity  of  the  country  from  the  rate 
of  increase.  The  whole  amount  of  the  alluvial  deposit,  however, 
bears  a  general  proportion  to  the  distance  from  the  sea  and  the 
slope  of  the  soil.  In  Nubia  and  Upper  Egypt  cliffs  of  alluvium 
are  found  of  the  height  of  forty  feet;  the  average  height  in  Middle 
Egypt  is  thirty  feet,  at  the  apex  of  the  Delta  eighteen.  The  earthy 
matters  which  the  water  contains  are  also  deposited  in  different 
quantities  and  proportions  in  the  vicinity  of  the  river  and  at  a  dis- 
tance from  it3.  The  largest  quantity  settles  close  to  the  stream,  the 
smallest  at  the  edge  of  the  inundation  ;  and  hence  a  transverse 
section  of  the  valley  exhibits  a  convex  line,  gradually  rising  to  the 
level  of  the  highest  Nile,  and  again  declining  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion. In  consequence  of  this  fall  from  the  bank  towards  the  De- 
it  ri,  the  limit  to  which  the  inundation  reaches  is  gradually  extend- 
ing; the  sites  of  ancient  cities  disappear  beneath  an  increasing 

1  Et  viridem  iEgyptum  nigra  foectmdat  arena 

Usque  coloratis  devexus  amnis  ab  India. 

Virg.  Georg.  4,  29L 
■  According  to  the  acdysis  of  Regnault  ("Wilkinson,  4,  50.  Memoiret 
Gat  rEgypte,  H.  K  20,  11\  the  proportion  of  clay  (alumen)  is  48  in  100. 
Wilkinson,  Manners,  and  Customs,  4,  50,  108. 


68 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


accumulation  of  deposited  soil,  and  even  the  colossal  statues  of  the 
plain  of  Thebes  must  be  ultimately  buried.  If  less  land  be  now 
under  cultivation  than  in  the  time  of  the  Pharaohs  and  the  Ptole- 
mies, it  has  not  been  because  the  Nile  is  fulfilling  the  prediction 
of  Herodotus1  and  raising  the  land  by  its  alluvion  above  the  reach 
of  its  own  waters,  but  because  there  is  less  security  and  less  encou- 
ragement for  the  labors  of  the  husbandman.  Despotism  is  the 
Typhon  that  resists  and  defeats  the  benevolent  labors  of  Osiris- 
Nilus  to  extend  the  fertility  of  Egypt. 

Similar  effects  to  those  now  described  are  produced  by  every 
great  river  on  the  country  through  which  it  flows  ;  but  they  are 
very  much  increased  and  modified  in  Egypt  by  the  periodical  in- 
undation of  the  Nile.  This  phenomenon  was  variously  explained 
by  the  ancients.  It  was  natural  that  an  inhabitant  of  Greece,  ac- 
customed to  see  the  rivers  of  his  own  country  swollen  in  summer 
by  the  melting  of  snow  upon  the  mountains,  should  attribute  the 
rise  of  the  Nile  to  the  same  cause.  Such  was  the  opinion  of  An- 
axagoras,  adopted  by  ^Sschylus,  Sophocles"  and  Euripides',  but 
rejected  by  Herodotus  on  the  ground  that  no  snow  could  fall  in 
the  climate  of  Ethiopia4.  Thales  supposed  that  there  was  no  real 
increase  of  the  waters  of  the  Nile,  but  that  the  Etesian  winds, 
blowing  from  the  north  in  summer  full  upon  its  mouth,  prevented 
their  discharge  into  the  sea  and  threw  them  back  upon  the  low 
grounds  of  Egypt5.  This  is  a  real  cause,  but  not  adequate  to  ex- 
plain the  whole  effect.  Democritus  and  probably  Ilecataeus  attri- 
buted its  rise  to  its  connexion  with  the  ocean,  which  was  conceived 
to  flow  round  the  south  of  Libya,  and  thought  its  waters  hac  been 
sweetened  by  long  exposure  to  the  sun*.     Probably  some  vague 

1  Her.  2,  13.  He  had  overlooked  the  circumstance  that  the  Nile  raises 
its  own  bed,  as  well  as  its  banks,  so  that  the  relative  proportion  is  pre* 
served. 

»  SchoL  ApolL  Rhod.  4,  269.  '  Helen,  init 

•  »,  22.  •  Diodor.  1,  88-4(1  a  Diodor.  1,  4a 


nruNDATioN  oy  the  nils. 


•  notion  of  tlie  tides  of  the  ocean  was  combined  in  their  minds  -with 
that  of  the  origin  of  the  Nile,  to  explain  its  periodical  swelling. 
Another  explanation  attributed  the  increase  of  the  waters  to  an 
exudation  from  the  earth,  saturated  with  condensed  moisture  dur- 
ing the  winter,  which  the  summer  heat  expanded  and  set  free1. 
Herodotus  himself  supposed  that  he  had  explained  the  phaenomp 
non  by  the  remark,  that  the  rivers  in  Southern  Libya  were  neces- 
sarily lowest  in  winter,  when  the  sun  was  vertical  over  those 
regions,  though  this  offered  no  solution  of  the  overflow  in  summer. 
The  true  cause,  the  rainy  season  in  Ethiopia,  was  first  assigned  by 
Agatharchides  of  Cnidus,  in  the  second  century  b.c2.  It  is  the  pro- 
gress of  the  sun  from  the  Equator  to  the  Tropic  of  Cancer.  As 
he  becomes  successively  vertical  over  different  points  northward  of 
the  Equator,  the  air  is  heated  and  rarefied,  and  colder  currents  set 
!n  from  the  Mediterranean  to  restore  the  equilibrium.  They  de- 
posit none  of  their  moisture  in  their  passage  over  the  heated  and 
level  soil  of  Egypt,  but  when  they  reach  the  lofty  mountains  of 
Abessinia,  some  of  which  rise  to  the  height  of  13,000  feet3,  the  cold 
condenses  their  vapours  into  torrents  of  rain,  such  as  are  hardly 
known  in  any  other  country.  So  close,  according  to  Bruce,  is  the 
connexion  between  the  sun's  position  in  the  ecliptic  and  the  rains 
of  Abessinia,  that  they  usually  begin  on  the  very  day  on  which  he 
is  vertical  over  any  particular  place.  While  they  last,  the  fore- 
noon of  each  day  is  usually  clear,  but  a  violent  storm  comes  on 
between  two  o'clock  and  six4.  The  high  grounds  of  Abessinia,  in 
which  the  Bahr-el-Azrek,  the  Tacazze  and  their  tributaries  rise, 
receive  a  large  proportion  of  this  rain,  which  from  the  form  of  the 
country  nearly  all  drains  towards  the  western  side,  and  is  ulti- 
mately poured  into  the  channel  of  the  Nile.  The  Bahr-el-Abiad 
is  also  atfeeted  by  the  periodical  rains,  and  begins  to  rise  about 


1  Ephorus,  ed.  Marx,  p.  218. 
•  Rtippell,  Reisen. 


'  Diodor.  1, 41. 

*  Brace,  Travels,  vol.  6.  p.  882. 


70  ANCIENT  EGYPT. 

twenty  days  earlier ;  but  as  its  course  is  less  precipitous,  the  varia- 
tion in  the  volume  of  its  waters  is  not  so  great.  It  is  not  till  the 
last  days  of  June  or  the  beginning  of  July  that  the  rise  begins  to 
be  visible  in  Egypt.  The  change  is  at  first  scarcely  perceptible  ; 
in  a  few  days,  however,  it  becomes  more  rapid ;  it  reaches  half 
its  extra  height  about  the  middle  of  August,  when  the  dykes  are 
usually  cut1,  and  its  maximum  from  the  20th  to  the  30th  of  Sep- 
tember. It  then  remains  stationary  for  fourteen  days,  sinks  about 
th'j  10th  of  November  to  the  same  height  as  in  the  middle  of  Au- 
gust, and  continues  to  decrease  slowly  till  the  20th  of  May  in  the 
following  year,  when  it  reaches  its  minimum.  At  this  time  its 
depth  at  Cairo  is  not  more  than  six  feet,  and  its  waters  are  nearly 
stagnant  throughout  the  level  plains  of  Lower  Egypt.  The  mean 
increase  in  the  quantity  of  water  discharged  into  the  sea,  when  the 
inundation  is  at  its  height,  is  ninefold  ;  the  velocity  is  increased  at 
the  same  time,  according  to  observations  made  at  Lycopolis  (E'  Si- 
out),  near  the  middle  of  Egypt,  to  nearly  six  feet  in  a  second2. 
The  rise  in  the  height  of  the  river  varies  of  course  in  different 
parts  of  its  channel ;  at  Cairo,  where  it  is  most  regularly  observed, 
because  the  amount  of  tribute  paid  depends  upon  it,  its  highest 
rise  was  to  twenty-four  feet,  its  lowest  to  eighteen,  according  to  the 
register  kept  by  the  French  for  four  years  while  they  were  in  pos- 
session of  the  country3.  This  quantity  appears  to  have  been  con- 
stant as  far  back  as  observations  have  been  recorded.  Fifteen  or 
sixteen  cubits  was  the  height  of  a  good  Nile  in  the  time  of  Hero- 
dotus4. The  statue  of  the  Nile  placed  by  Vespasian  in  the  Tem- 
ple of  Peace,  of  which  a  copy  is  still  to  be  seen  in  the  Vatican,  was 
surrounded  by  sixteen  diminutive  figures,  emblematic  of  the  num- 
ber of  cubits  to  which  the  river  shcfRld  rise6.    Sixteen  cubits  i& 

1  Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  4,  9,  note. 

3  Ritter,  Africa,  p.  849,  from  Girard.  8  Rittcr,  ibid  p„  838, 

*  Herod.  2, 18. 

"  Pliny,  Nat  Hist,  3G,  9.    Visconti,  Mus.  Pio-Ckmcnt.  1,  p.  291. 


INUNDATION   OF  THE  MILE. 


71 


assigned  by  Abdollatiph  as  the  medium  between  defect  and  excess 
The  sixteenth  cubit  on  the  Meqyas  or  Nilometer  is  called  "  the 
watei  of  the  Sultan,"  because  no  tribute  is  paid  if  it  do  not  reach 
this  height.  Its  rise  was  carefully  noted  in  ancient  times  on  the 
Niloscopium  at  Memphis,  and  the  news  of  its  beginning  to  rise  or 
decline  was  communicated  by  letters  to  different  parts  of  Egypt, 
that  the  peasants  might  be  relieved  from  apprehension  and  be  able 
to  regulate  their  agricultural  operations1.  Sometimes  the  Nile 
exceeds  its  normal  height  and  reaches  thirty  feet,  spreading  devas- 
tation over  the  country.  Houses  are  undermined,  cattle  are 
drowned,  and  the  stored-up  produce  of  former  years  swept  away. 
The  waters  retire  more  slowly  than  usual ;  the  labors  of  the  hus- 
bandman are  delayed,  and  the  following  harvest  endangered ; 
pestilential  diseases  arise  from  the  stagnant  waters  and  the  unbu- 
ried  remains  of  animals.  If  the  rise  falls  short  of  twenty-four  feet, 
a  proportional  diminution  of  the  produce  of  Egypt  ensues  ;  but  if 
it  be  below  eighteen  feet,  dreadful  famines  ensue,  such  as  the  fail- 
ure of  the  rice-crop  has  produced  in  India,  and  the  population,  who 
in  both  countries  live  ordinarily  on  the  smallest  quantity  of  food 
that  can  support  life,  perish  by  thousands.  Diodorus  relates  that 
in  a  famine  the  people  of  Egypt  consumed  human  liesh,  and  the 
same  thing  has  happened  in  more  recent  times'. 

The  mean  quantity  of  water  brought  down  by  the  Nile,  in  nor- 
mal years,  as  it  depends  on  cosmical  causes,  probably  continues 
the  same  from  age  to  age,  and  the  extent  of  land  which  it  is  capa- 
ble of  fertilizing  by  its  overflow  tends  to  increase,  till  its  diffusion 

1  Diod.  1,  86.  Description  de  l'Egypte,  voL  18,  p.  595,  foL 
'  Diod.  1,  84.  See  an  account  of  a  famine  caused  by  a  low  Nile  (less 
than  13  cubits)  in  the  year  1200  a.  p,  in  Abdollatiph's  History  of  Egypt 
(White's  ed.  p.  197).  Very  little  rain  had  fallen  in  Ethiopia.  Volney 
(1,  c  11)  gives  an  account  of  a  famine  in  the  years  1784-5,  the  conse- 
quence of  two  low  Niles,  which  reduced  the  inhabitants  to  the  lowest 
depth  of  misery,  and  drove  them  in  crowds  into  Palestine  and  Syria. 


72 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


is  stopped  by  the  Arabian  and  Libyan  hills.  Long  before  the 
inundation  reaches  its  maximum,  the  dykes  which  close  the  com- 
munication between  the  canals  and  the  Nile  are  opened,  and  the 
water  diffuses  itself  first  of  all  over  the  lands  which  he  towards  the 
Desert;  gradually  .as  it  rises  it  irrigates  the  nearer  country,  bat  the 
immediate  banks  of  the  river  are  seldom  covered,  and  serve  as 
a  highway  for  the  people  while  the  inundation  continues.  In  the 
Delta,  where  the  slope  is  small,  the  whole  country  is  laid  under 
water  during  an  extraordinary  rise,  and  boats  take  the  place  of 
the  ordinary  modes  of  communication.  European  travellers  com- 
monly choose  the  winter  and  spring  for  a  journey  through  Egypt, 
and  therefore  do  not  see  the  Nile  at  its  height ;  but  those  who 
have  resided  there  through  all  seasons  assure  us  that  the  descrip- 
tion of  Herodotus  is  still  realized,  the  villages  on  their  elevateu 
sites  rising  out  of  a  lake,  like  the  Cyclades  from  the  Egean  Sea1. 
The  effects  of  such  a  mighty  volume  of  water  upon  the  surface  of 
the  country  through  which  it  is  discharged  are  great ;  the  bank  of 
sand  deposited  by  one  flood  is  mined  and  scattered  by  another ; 
and  thus  its  materials  gradually  travel  onward  towards  their  final 
resting-place  in  the  sea,  or  in  places  which  the  river  subsequently 
abandons. 

Having  created  the  soil  of  Egypt,  the  Nile  thus  renews  it  from 
year  to  year,  and  maintains  it  in  that  state  of  perpetual  fertility 
which  in  other  countries  is  the  result  of  the  toil  and  skill  of  the 
cultivator5.  Besides  clay,  which  as  already  mentioned  amounts  to 
48  parts  in  100  of  Nile  water,  it  contains  nine  parts  of  carbon,  18 
of  carbonate  of  lime  and  4  of  carbonate  of  magnesia,  besides 
portions  of  silica  and  oxide  of  iron.    These  ingredients  form  a 

1  Belzoni,  Researches,  2,  26,    Herod  2,  9*7. 

*  Pliny  (N.  H.  18,  21)  reckons  that  the  soil  o*  Egypt  returns  150-fold  to 
the  cultivator ;  but  he  says  the  same  thing  of  the  soil  of  Leontini,  which, 
according  to  Cicero,  in  the  moat  favorable  years  produced  only  tenfold  (Verr 
«,  47). 


QD-ALITT  OF  THE   NILE  WATER. 


73 


compost  of  such  richness  that  no  artificial  manure  is  needed,  to 
enable  the  same  land  to  produce  in  succession  heavy  crops  of  corn1. 
As  the  inundation  spreads,  the  peasants  receive  its  waters  into 
their  fields  and  confine  it  there  by  mounds,  till  it  has  at  once  satu- 
rated them  with  the  moisture  which  must  be  their  sole  supply  for 
three  quarters  of  the  year,  and  fully  deposited  all  its  earthy  parti- 
cles. The  sun  and  N.  W.  wind  soon  evaporate  the  superfluous 
moisture  from  the  surface,  and  the  seed  scattered  upon  it  or  in  a 
shallow  furrow  was  trodden  in  by  the  feet  of  cattle.  In  the 
absence  of  natural  springs,  the  Nile  is  the  great  resource  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Egypt  for  water.  In  its  medium  state  it  is  clear, 
but  becomes  feculent  in  its  lowest;  the  first  rise  of  the  waters 
covers  it  with  a  greenish  vegetable  matter,  and  it  then  is  said  to 
produce  an  eruptive  disease3.  In  the  Amenophion  at  Luxor  are 
two  figures  of  the  Nile ;  one,  which  represents  its  ordinary  state, 
is  colored  blue,  the  other  red3.  The  red  is  the  symbol  of  the 
inundation,  the  water  assuming  this  color  soon  after  it  has  begun, 
owing  to  a  mixture  of  the  red  oxide  of  iron.  These  changes  have 
been  conjecturally  attributed  to  the  overflowing  of  lakes,  or  the 
passage  of  the  rivers  through  strata  which  they  do  not  ordinarily 
reach4 ;  but  their  real  cause  is  unknown,  and  must  remain  so  till 
the  upper  course  of  the  Blue  and  White  Rivers  is  explored.  The 
long  continuance  of  the  green  fecula  indicates  that  the  river  is 
sluggish  and  stagnant,  and  is  ominous  of  a  low  Nile.  Even  when 
the  water  is  most  turbid  it  is  not  unwholesome,  and  may  be  easily 
cleared  by  filtration ;  when  pure  it  is  said  to  be  delicious  to  the 
taste.    The  Persian  kings  used  it  for  their  own  drinking  after  the 

1  TloTa  BaaiXeia  ovruyg  ytyovz  no\v%pvcros  ]  Ov  yap  ra  Ik  Ucpacbi>  ical  J$a8v\wvui 
XaBovaa  xpftfiarz,  J}  jxeraWa  ipyaaa\LZVT\,  ?)  TLaKT0j\ov  I%ovaa  ^pvaovv  ipfjyfia  Kara<pc- 
potra  (sc.  yeyove  xo\v^pv<xni).  NaAoj  fiera  rpofuiv  d<p66vu)v  xal  %pvodv  cUi/?<$?jXw» 
gmrafepti,  aKivSvvus  yeupyovjiH/ov  di$  naciv  i^apxsiv  avdp&iroif  (Athenaeus,  5,  36). 

•  Voiney,  1,  146. 

•  Pliny  (N.  H.  31,  5),  after  Ctesias,  speaks  of  a  red  fountain  in  Ethiopia. 
4  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  8,  1,  29. 

▼  OL.  I.  4 


74 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


conquest  of  Egypt1;  and  Pescennius  Niger3  reproached  hit 
soldiers  with  wanting  wine  when  they  had  the  water  of  the  Nile. 
A  natural  filtration  appeal's  to  be  carried  on  through  its  sandy 
banks  in  the  lower  part  of  its  course,  so  that  water  may  be  obtained 
by  sinking,  but  it  is  brackish3.  The  inundation  not  only  prepared 
the  fields  for  harvest,  but  filled  the  streams  and  canals  with  fish, 
and  revived  the  various  kinds  of  aquatic  plants  which  require  com- 
paratively still  waters  for  their  growth. 

Both  the  general  aspect  of  Egypt  and  the  nature  of  its  produc- 
tions have  been  determined  by  its  relation  to  the  Nile.  There  can 
be  no  variety  of  surface  in  a  country  which  has  risen  out  of  the 
water,  and  is  annually  overspread  by  it.  The  Delta,  whether  it  be 
in  the  condition  of  a  sandy  plain,  a  lake  of  fresh  water,  or  a  carpet 
of  verdure  and  liowers4,  has  a  monotonous  character  which  soon 
becomes  wearisome  to  the  traveller.  In  Middle  and  Upper  Egypt 
the  view  is  bounded  by  the  double  line  of  hills ;  the  eastern  side 
has  something  of  grandeur  from  its  height  and  abruptness;  the 
west  is  lower  and  covered  with  sand,  and  both  are  alike  destitute 
of  foliage  and  verdure.  The  trees  which  grew  in  Egypt  were  not 
numerous;  two  species  of  palm,  besides  their  fruit,  furnisked 
materials  from  different  parts  of  the  tree  for  every  kind  of  work 
for  which  solid  timber  or  tough  fibre  can  be  employed6.  The 
sycamore  and  various  species  of  acacia  also  abounded,  but  no  other 
trees  of  a  large  size  wrere  indigenous  to  the  country.  The  products 
of  the  fields  of  Egypt  were  almost  all  the  results  of  cultivation. 

1  A  then.  2,  67. 

8  "]STilum  habetis  et  vinum  qusDritis."  lliat  Aug.  1,  663,  with  Casnu- 
bon'e  notes.    Clarke's  Travels,  5,  183 

•  Herod.  2,  108. 

4  Volney,  Voyage  en  Egypte  et  Syrie,  vol.  1,  p.  7. 

•  "The  inhabitants  of  Egypt  and  Arabia  feed  camels  on  the  date-stone, 
and  from  the  leaves  make  couches,  baskets,  bags,  mats  and  brushes ;  from 
the  branches,  cages  for  poultry  and  fences  for  their  gardens;  from  th« 
fibres  of  the  boughs,  thread,  ropes  and  rigging."    (Clarke's  Travels,  5,  409. 


BOTANY. 


75 


Grain,  herbs,  and  leguminous  vegetables  were  produced  in  an 
abundance  which  no  other  country  could  rival ;  but  its  native 
botany  was  scanty,  the  yearly  renewal  of  the  soil  preventing  the 
seeds  which  had  fallen  on  the  surface  from  vegetating,  and  culture 
exterminating  all  plants  which  cannot  be  made  serviceable  to  man. 
The  fragrance  of  flowers  was  wanting  in  its  landscapes,  for  those 
of  Egypt  had  very  little  odor1.  The  sandy  desert  which  lies 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  inundation  has  a  scanty  vegetation  of  its 
own — stunted  shrubs  and  herbs,  which  have  generally  an  aromatic 
nmell. 

The  most  characteristic  part  of  the  botany  of  Egypt  are  the 
aquatic  plants.  These  are  not  generally  found  near  the  borders 
of  the  river  itself2,  which  in  its  upper  course  is  too  impetuous  to 
allow  of  their  tranquil  growth,  and  perpetually  undermines  and 
carries  away  its  own  banks ;  but  in  the  numerous  canals  which 
distribute  the  water  to  distant  parts,  in  the  ancient  channels  of  the 
river,  now  nearly  dry,  or  on  the  edges  of  the  lakes  and  marshes. 
Of  these  the  papyrus  and  tue  lotus  are  identified  with  the  history 
of  Egyptian  literature,  art  and  religion.  The  papyrus  was  found 
chiefly  in  the  shallow  waters  of  Lower  Egypt,  and  hence  became 
in  l^eroglyphics  the  emblem  of  that  district  and  of  the  northern 
nations  who  bordered  upon  it.  The  lotus,  abounding  more  in 
Upper  Egypt,  was  employed  to  denote  that  kingdom  as  well  as 
Nubia  and  the  South  generally.  The  papyrus  had  various  econo- 
mic uses ;  the  root  and  lower  part  of  the  stem  were  eaten  raw  or 
roasted  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  marshes  to  supply  the  deficiency 
of  gTain9.  Its  coarser  species  furnished  mats,  wrappers  and  bas- 
kets, and  the  stems  bound  together  made  a  rude  float  on  which 
the  river  might  be  crossed..  But  that  which  has  preserved  the 
name  of  the  papyrus  in  the  history  of  civilization  is  its  use  as  a 

1  Pliny,  Nat  Hist  21, 1. 

»  Irby  and  Mangles,  Travels,  p.  161.    PJia  N.  EL  13,  22. 
s  Herod.  2,  92. 


76  ANCIENT  EG7PT. 

writing  material  in  Egypt  and  throughout  the  ancient  w^rld  when 
Egypt  became  known  to  them.  The  pith  being  taken  out  and 
divided  by  a  pointed  instrument  into  the  thin  pellicles  of  which  it 
is  composed,  was  flattened  by  pressure  and  the  strips  glued  to- 
gether1, other  strips  being  placed  at  right  angles  to  them,  so  that 
a  roll  of  any  length  might  be  manufactured.  The  bulb  of  the  lo- 
tus afforded  a  sweet  and  wholesome  food  ;  the  seeds  taken  from 
the  capsule  or  ciborium?  were  pounded  and  baked ;  its  blue  and 
white  flowers3  enlivened  all  the  le?ser  streams  and  pools,  and  fur- 
nished a  graceful  ornament  to  architectural  sculpture. 

The  same  causes  which  made  the  vegetable  productions  of  Egypt 
few,  limited  also  the  number  of  the  birds  and  beasts  which  inha- 
bited it.  Its  birds  are  chiefly  those  which,  like  the  ibis  and  various 
species  of  anas,  haunt  the  water  or  lodge  in  sandy  banks  ;  those 
which  live  in  trees  and  thickets  found  no  shelter  in  its  naked  plains 
and  hills.  All  large  land  animals  but  those  which  man  had  sub- 
dued to  his  own  use,  must  early  have  disappeared  from  a  region 
so  populous  and  so  level.  The  crocodile  and  the  hippopotamus 
were  protected  by  their  amphibious  habits4 ;  the  wolf,  the  hyaena 
and  the  jackal  found  a  refuge  in  the  Desert  or  the  mountains,  but 
the  larger  carnivorous  animals,  though  abounding  in  Libya,  were 
rarely  seen  upon  the  soil  of  Egypt*.  The  Nile,  on  the  contrary, 
teemed  with  fish  of  various  sorts  adapted  for  the  sustenance  of 
man,  and  the  inundation  diffused  an  annual  supply  of  them 

1  Plin.  Nat.  Hist.  13,  23  ;  whose  account  of  the  manufacture,  however,  is 
erroneous,  especially  in  attributing  to  the  Nile  water  the  quality  of  paste. 
a  Diod.  1,  34. 

*  The  Nympha>a  Lotus  and  N.  Coerulea  still  grow  in  Egypt ;  the  N.  Ne- 
lumbo,  the  sacred  lotus,  has  not  been  found  there.  See  the  Botanical  plates 
to  the  Description  de  l'Egypte,  pL  61.  "Wilkinson  (M.  and  C.  4,  411)  says 
the  N.  Lotus  is  the  sacred  emblem. 

*  At  prosent  the  crocodile  is  not  seen  in  Lower  Egypt ;  the  hippopota 
id  us  ouly  in  Southern  Nubia.'   (Russegger,  Reisen,  2,  287.) 

'  Herod.  2,  65.     AeyvTrroj,  iowa  Sftovpos  rJJ  Ai/?wj,  ov  /id,\a  OnpujirK  ieri. 


ZOOLOGY. 


77 


through  every  part  of  tr.ie  country1.  The  children  of  Israel  longed 
in  the  Desert  for  the  fish  of  Egypt,  not  less  than  its  cucumbers 
and  melons,  its  onions  and  garlic3.  The  occupation  of  catching 
and  curing  fish  employed  a  large  number  of  the  people,  and  forms 
a  prominent  subject  in  those  curious  pictures  of  Egyptian  life  and 
manners  which  adorn  the  walls  of  the  sepulchres. 

The  species  of  reptiles  and  insects  of  Egypt  are  not  many,  but 
their  numbers  were  immense.  Gnats  and  flies  swarmed  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  river3  and  the  canals.  Frogs  appeared  in 
such  multitudes,  when  the  dry  pools  were  visited  by  the  inunda- 
tion, that  they  were  ignorantly  believed  to  be  generated  from  the 
mud1 ;  and  vermin  could  only  be  prevented  by  the  most  scrupu- 
lous cleanliness  from  infesting  the  person.  Egypt  is  not  exerrpt 
from  the  devastations  of  the  locust,  but  they  are  much  less  frequent 
here  than  in  Arabia,  Ethiopia  or  Western  Africa5.  Scarabaai 
abound ;  one  species  (Ateuchus  sacer)  was  commonly  employed  as 
a  symbol  of  the  sun  or  the  world. 

The  climate  of  Egypt  is  very  little  subject  to  the  variations  of 
more  northern  regions,  or  even  of  those  adjacent  to  it  in  position, 
but  less  uniform  in  surface,  as  Syria.  The  mean  annual  tempera- 
ture is  rather  higher  than  in  neighboring  countries  under  the  same 
latitude,  being  at  Cairo  72°-32  Fahrenheit"  (22°  above  that  of 
London) ;  mean  temperature  of  winter  580,46,  of  summer  85°*10. 
Egypt  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  a  winter ;  it  is  covered  with 
verdure  when  countries  of  our  latitude  are  buried  in  snow  ;  the 
trees  begin  to  be  clothed  with  new  leaves  in  February,  almost  as 
soon  as  they  are  stripped  of  the  old.  The  sensation  of  cold,  how- 
ever, is  often  severe  from  the  great  difference  of  the  diurnal  and 

1  Herod.  2,  93.  "  Numbers,  xL  5.    Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  8,  p.  63. 

•  Herod.  2,  95.  4  Diod.  1,  10.    Horapollo,  I,  25. 

•  Hasselq.  Travels  in  Levant,  446. 

6  Humboldt  in  Murray's  Encyclopaedia  of  Geography,  1,  164;  Ruasegger, 
Reiuen,  1,  p.  209. 


78 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


nocturnal  temperature.  The  inundation  of  the  Nile  divides  the 
year  into  three  natural  portions  of  four  months  each,  discriminated 
in  their  hieroglyphical  characters  as  the  season  of  Vegetation,  the 
season  of  Ingathering,  and  the  season  of  the  Waters.  Wheat  is 
now  sown  in  November  and  reaped  in  April ;  barley,  sown  about 
the  same  time,  is  ripe  a  month  earlier.  Herodotus  remarks  the 
great  healthiness  of  Egypt,  and  attributes  it  to  the  absence  of 
those  changes  of  the  seasons1  which  are  elsewhere  so  injurious  to 
health.  He  referred  probably  to  the  diseases*  which  in  our  climates 
prevail  during  the  transition  from  winter  to  summer  and  from 
summer  to  winter.  Spring  and  autumn  are  not  marked  in  Egypt 
by  such  contrasts  to  the  other  seasons  as  in  northern  latitudes. 
The  inundation  leaves  no  malaria  behind  it ;  the  north  winds, 
which  prevail  during  three-fourths  of  the  year,  at  once  cool  and 
dry  the  air,  and  the  east  and  west  winds,  blowing  from  Arabia  or 
Libya,  arrive  in  Egypt  deprived  of  moisture  and  contribute  to  its 
desiccation.  The  Khamsin  in  the  spring  brings  whirlwinds  of 
sand  which  are  injurious  to  the  eyes,  and,  like  the  Scirocco  of  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  produces  languor  and  a  difficulty  of 
respiration ;  but  its  effects  are  transient.  When  the  inhabitants 
were  described  as  so  healthy,  it  is  impossible  that  Egypt  should 
have  been  subject  to  those  visitations  of  the  plague,  which  now  are 
almost  regular.  The  plague  of  Athens  had  not  originated  in 
Egypt,  but  in  Ethiopia2 ;  nor  does  it  appear  that  in  the  age  of  the 
Ptolemies  it  was  more  subject  to  it  than  other  countries  of  the 
East.  Indeed  at  the  present  day  it  is  not  indigenous  in  Egypt, 
but  is  brought  thither  from  Syria,  Barbary,  and  above  all  Constan- 
tinople, where  filth  and  fatalism  perpetuate  the  seeds  of  the  dis- 
ease3.    Diseases  of  the  eye,  in  all  stages  from  inflammation  to 

1  Her.  2,  77.    Compare  Isocrates,  Busiris,  2,  p.  164,  edit  Battie. 
1  Thua  2,  48.    The  Emperor  Severus  visited  Egypt*  but  was  prevented 
entering  Ethiopia  by  the  plague  (Dion.  Cass.  7  3,  21). 
5  Volney,  Voyage,  1,  150. 


CLIMATE. 


79 


blindness,  are  now  very  common  in  Egypt ;  and  the  glare  of  its 
dusty  plains  and  its  driving  sands  must  at  all  times  have  had  h 
tendency  to  produce  them.  Eruptive  diseases,  and  especially  that 
dreadful  kind  of  leprosy,  elephantiasis,  were  very  prevalent  in  the 
Roman  times1. 

Although  we  have  spoken  of  Egypt  as  one  country,  in  reference 
to  its  climate  and  productions,  yet  in  the  seven  degrees  of  latitude 
which  intervene  between  Syene  and  the  sea,  great  variety  must 
manifest  itself,  giving  to  the  southern  and  northern  parts  the  as- 
pect of  two  different  countries.  Lower  Egypt  is  a  boundless  plain. 
Upper  Egypt  a  narrow  valley.  Lower  Egypt,  though  it  has  its 
peculiar  character,  in  the  main  resembles  the  other  countries  which 
border  the  Mediterranean  on  the  south.  Upper  Egypt  seems  to 
belong  to  Nubia :  its  temperature  ranges  seven  degrees  higher 
than  that  of  Lower  Egypt2.  Rain  is  an  exceptional  phenomenon 
in  the  Thebaid,  though  the  arrangements  for  carrying  off  water 
from  the  temple  roofs,  and  the  deep  ravines  into  wdiich  the  hills 
are  worn,  indicate  that  even  within  historical  times  it  must  have 
been  different  in  this  respect3.  The  traveller  who  ascends  the  Nile., 
perceives  that  he  is  entering  a  different  world  when  he  oassef: 
E'  Siout  and  the  27th  degree  of  N.  latitude.  The  Theban  o- 
Doum  palm,  with  its  divided  branches,  begins  to  prevail  alone 
with  the  date-palm,  and  the  sycamore  becomes  rare.  The  croco- 
dile is  seen  in  the  waters,  though  of  small  size  compared  with  the 
inhabitant  of  the  Nubian  rivers,  and  scarcely  formidable  to  man. 

1  iEgypti  peculiare  hoc  malum,  Plin.  N.  H.  26»5,  who  has  an  idle  tale, 
that  if  kings  were  attacked  with  it  they  washed  themselves  in  human  blood 
as  a  cure.    Lucr.  6, 1112. 

a  Ruweggcr,  Reisen,  2,  1,  265.    Comp.  p.  92. 

1  Ov  vlrat  ra  avu  ttjs  Alyvnrov  to  napairav  (Her.  8,  10).     u  Showers  fall  an 

nually,  perhaps  on  an  average  four  or  five  in  the  year,  and  every  eight  or 
ten  years  heavy  rain,  which  fills  the  torrent-beds  of  the  mountains.  The 
lions  on  the  cornices  have  tubes  in  their  mouths  to  let  the  rain  run  off.* 
(Wilkinson,  Thebes,  p  75.) 


80 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


The  sphere  of  vegetation  is  more  limited,  but  its  power  more 
vigorous  and  intense.  The  flora  of  the  Thebaid  approaches  that  of 
Nubia  and  the  Desert.  The  jackal  and  the  hyena  abound,  being 
protected  from  the  pursuit  of  man  by  the  recesses  of  the  kills, 
which  rise  close  on  either  side  of  the  stream.  Even  the  mollusks 
which  are  found  in  the  Nile  and  its  canals,  correspond  with  those 
of  Nubia  and  the  Blue  and  White  Rivers1.  Had  not  the  barrier 
of  the  Cataracts  intervened,  Ethiopia  would  have  been  reckoned 
to  extend  to  Thebes;  and  now  the  Arabic  language,  with  its 
hoarse  gutturals,  gives  place  to  the  smoother  Barabra,  aLwe  tne 
pass  of  Gebel-Silsileh. 

4  Russegger,  Reisen,  %  1,  871. 


CHAPTER  V. 


POPULATION  AND  LANGUAGE. 

We  possess  means  for  ascertaining  the  form,  physiognomy  and 
color  of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  such  as  no  other  people  has  be- 
queathed to  us.  We  find  in  Greek,  Roman  or  British  sepulchres 
only  the  ashes,  or  at  most  the  skeleton  of  the  occupant ;  but  the 
Egyptian  reappears  from  his  grotto  after  the  lapse  of  3000  years 
with  every  circumstance  of  life  except  life  itself.  Even  had  no 
mummies  been  preserved,  the  remains  of  art,  especially  the  paint- 
ings with  which  the  walls  are  so  profusely  covered,  would  have 
enabled  us  to  represent  to  ourselves  very  exactly  the  ancient  inha- 
bitants of  the  valley  of  the  Nile.  They  are  also  described  to  us 
by  the  Greek  and  Latin  writers,  but  these  seldom  go  beyond  the 
color  of  the  face  and  hair  in  their  ethnographical  sketches.  The 
name  of  Ham,  given  by  the  Hebrews  to  the  progenitor  of  the 
Egyptian  people,  as  it  signifies  adust,  shows  that  their  complexion 
struck  their  Asiatic  neighbors  as  darker  than  their  own.  Hero- 
dotus, speaking  of  the  Colchians1,  indirectly  informs  us  that  the 
Egyptians  had  curling  hair  and  black  complexions.  The  inference 
which  has  been  drawn  from  this,  that  they  were  negroes,  has  been 
founded  on  a  mistranslation  of  the  word  which  I  have  rendered 
curling,  as  if  it  meant  woolly,  and  a  strained  sense  of  black.  The 
ancient  Egyptians  had  none  of  the  osteological  characters  of  the 
true  negro  of  the  west  coast  and  the  interior  of  Africa,  who  often 

1  Airis  cixaira  rjJJs  (that  the  Colchians  were  an  Egyptian  colony)  kuI  on 
ptkbyxpois  ««<"  "at  oi>\6rpi^ef  (2,  104).  Aramiamia  Marcell'nua  says,  "Homines 
^gyptu  plemmque  mbfusculi  sunt  et  atratL"    (22,  16,  28.) 

4* 


82 


ANCIENT  EGYPT 


appeai-s  in  the  same  paintings  with  the  Egyptians  themselves,  with 

traits  wholly  dissimilar.  The  only  approach  to  the  negro  physio 
gnomy  is  in  a  fulness  of  the  lips1,  which  may  be  remarked  in  the 
Sphinx  of  the  Pyramids,  the  heads  of  some  of  the  Egyptian  sove- 
reigns, and  many  representations  of  individuals2.  The  elongation 
of  the  eye  is  said  to  be  a  Nubian  peculiarity3.  No  doubt,  inter 
marriages  took  place  between  the  Egyptians  and  the  Ethiopians 
that  is,  the  Nubians.  Of  the  two  wives  of  Amenophis  I.,  one  whe 
is  always  represented  black4  was  probably  an  Ethiopian  princess ; 
and  if  the  royal  family  did  not  keep  their  blood  pure,  the  com- 
mon people  would  be  less  likely  to  do  so,  especially  during  the 
occupation  of  Egypt  by  the  Ethiopians5.  The  figure  of  the  Egyp- 
tians was  generally  slight,  and  their  average  stature,  judging  from 
the  mummies,  did  not  exceed  five  feet  and  a  half5.  The  hair  of 
the  mummies  is  sometimes  crisp  and  sometimes  flowing  ;  the 
former  seems  to  have  been  considered  more  beautiful  and  to  have 
been  imitated  by  art,  as  it  is  now  among  the  Barabras.  The 
original  color  of  the  skin  of  the  mummies  is  not  easily  distinguish- 
ed)1 1,  owing  to  the  effect  of  embalmment;  but  on  the  exterior  cases, 
as  in  the  paintings,  men  are  represented  of  a  red-brown,  and 
women  of  a  green-yellow  complexion.  Both  these  colors  must 
have  been  in.  some  degree  conventional.  Had  the  ancient  Egyp- 
tian complexion  exactly  corresponded  to  the  colors  of  the  paint- 
ings, there  must  have  been  a  difference  between  the  two  sexes 

1  Lueian,  8,  15,  ed.  Bipont,  speaking  of  an  Egyptian  youth,  says  rrpds  toj 
y.tkay%povs  elvat  ical  ir  po  %e  i  \  6  g  can  khi  X  e  t  r  d  5  ayav  toXv  oKt\oTv.  This  is  the 
nearest  approach  to  the  neg; :  peculiarities  that  we  find  in  any  description. 

3  See  the  heads  of  Rameses  the  Great  and  some  others  in  the  British 
Museum  (Gallery  of  Antiquities,  P.  2,  pL  3tJ,  42). 

3  Madden,  in  Fettigrew  on  Mummies,  p.  159. 

4  Gallery  of  Antiquities,  P.  2,  pL  30. 

•  Herod.  2,  100. 

•  Pettigrew  on  Mummies,  u.  «. 


THE  COFTIC  LANGUAGE. 


83 


such  as  we  nowhere  else  meet  with ;  and  the  men  must  have  re- 
sembled the  copper-colored  Indians,  and  could  never  have  been 
described  as  black  or  dusky.  Their  real  color  was  probably  that 
of  the  Copt  and  the  Barabra  at  the  present  day — brown  writh  a 
tinge  of  red — a  hue  sufficiently  dark  to  be  called  black  bv  the 
natives  of  the  northern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  ;  darker  also 
than  that  of  the  people  of  Arabia  and  Palestine1.  The  Egyptians 
may  therefore  be  said  to  be  intermediate  between  the  Syro- Arabian 
and  the  Ethiopic  type,  but  a  long  gradation  separates  them  from 
the  negro.  The  evidence  derived  from  the  examination  of  the 
skulls  of  the  mummies  approximates  the  Egyptians  rather  to  the 
Asiatic  than  the  African  type3.  It  has  been  thought  that  traces 
could  be  discovered  of  two  stocks,  one  fairer  and  more  nearly  allied 
to  the  Caucasian,  to  which  the  ruling  castes  belonged,  the  other 
darker  and  more  Ethiopic.  But  whatever  elements  may  have 
mingled  in  Egyptian  blood  in  ante-historic  times,  had  been  blended 
in  a  homogeneous  population  before  the  age  of  the  monuments,  in 
which  we  discover  no  marks  of  a  distinction  of  race,  except  in  the 
case  of  foreigners,  or  of  the  children  of  Egyptians  by  Ethiopian 
women3. 

The  distinction  between  the  Egyptians  and  their  Syro -Arabian 
neighbors  is  more  strongly  marked  in  language  than  in  complexion 
and  form.  Since  the  researches  of  M.  Quatremere  de  Quincy4,  it 
has  been  universally  admitted  that  the  Coptic,  the  language  of  the 
native  Christian  population  of  Egypt,  is  in  the  main  the  same  as 

1  Prichard,  Researches,  2,  chap.  11.    At  this  day  an  Egyptian  is  at  once 
recognized  in  Syria  "  a  sa  peau  noiratre  "  (Voluey,  Voyage,  1,  c.  11,  p.  114). 
a  Morton,  Crania  ^Egyptiaca. 

•  Dr.  Morton  (Transactions  of  American  Ethnological  Society,  vol.  2) 
mentions  skulls  of  a  negroid  type  in  the  catacombs,  belonging  to  the  off- 
spring of  mixed  marriages. 

*  Recherches  Critiques  et  Historiques  sur  la  Langue  et  la  Litte mature  de 
rEgypte.    Paris,  1808, 


84 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


the  old  Egyptian  spoken  under  the  Romans,  the  Ptolemies,  the 
Persians  and  the  Pharaohs.  As  a  medium  of  ordinary  communi- 
cation, this  language  ceased  to  be  used  in  the  twelfth  century ;  and 
the  last  person  who  could  speak  it  is  said  to  have  died  a.d.  1633' ; 
but  considerable  remains  of  it  still  exist  in  translations  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, liturgies,  hymns,  lives  of  saints  and  other  religious  works. 
The  versions  are  no  doubt  considerably  older  than  the  Mahometan 
•conquest  of  Egypt  in  the  seventh  century.  The  alphabet  is  bor- 
rowed from  the  Greek,  with  the  exception  of  five  letters  expressing 
sounds  unknown  to  the  Greeks,  and  which  were  furnished  by  the 
hieratic  character ;  the  oldest  known  rpecimen  of  it  is  an  inscription 
of  the  age  of  Severus*.  It  has  two  dialects,  corresponding  to  the 
two  great  natural  and  political  divisions  of  Egypt,  the  Memphitic 
and  the  Sahidic  or  Theban,  from  the  Arabic  name  for  Upper 
Egypt.  The  Bashmuric  is  a  variation  of  the  Sahidic.  Many 
Greek,  and  not  a  few  Arabic  and  Persian  words  are  intermixed 
with  the  language ;  the  Greek  are  especially  abundant  in  those 
works  which  were  written  in  the  Memphitic  dialect2 ;  but  when 
these  are  thrown  aside  (and  their  foreign  aspect  readily  betrays 
them),  there  remains  a  language  having  all  the  marks  of  original- 
ity. Very  few  of  the  principal  objects  of  nature  and  art  are  the 
same  as  in  the  Syro- Arabian  languages,  and  the  structure  is  cha- 
racteristically different.  Its  roots  appear  to  have  been  generally 
monosyllabic,  and  the  derivatives  have  been  formed  by  a  very 
simple  system  of  prefixing,  inserting  and  affixing  certain  letters, 
which  have  usually  uudergone  but  little  change,  not  having  been 
incorporated  with  the  root,  nor  melted  down  by  crasis,  nor  softened 
by  any  euphonic  rules.  The  language  has  the  appearance  of 
having  undergone  very  little  cultivation;  the  derivative  and  figura- 
tive meanings  are  few,  as  if  it  has  been  fashioned  by  the  use  of  a 

1  Adelung,  Mithridates,  8,  78. 

■  Niebuhr,  Appendix  to  Gau  Monuments  of  Nubia. 

•  Peyron,  Lex.  Copt  Prsef.  p.  xxx.    Prichard,  2,  205. 


THE  COPTIC  LANGUAGE. 


85 


people  wliose  genius  was  precise  and  formal,  and  never  luxuriated 
in  poetic  and  imaginative  literature.  The  conclusion  of  an  author 
who  has  elaborately  compared  the  system  of  inflexions  in  the 
Egyptian  and  the  Syro-Arabian  languages,  is  that  both  must  have 
separated  themselves  from  some  parent  tongue,  long  before  this 
system  was  established1.  A  connexion  so  remote  belongs  not  to 
history. 

That  this  is  in  the  main  the  original  language  of  the  native 
population  of  Egypt  cannot  be  doubted.  There  is  a  vitality  in 
national  language  which  preserves  it  from  extinction,  except  by  the 
absorption  of  the  race  that  speak  it.  Neither  the  Romans  nor  the 
Ptolemies  nor  the  Persians  attempted  the  destruction  of  Egyptian 
nationality ;  the  religious  persecutions  under  the  Byzantine  domi- 
nion diminished  the  numbers  of  those  by  whom  the  ancient 
ianguage  was  spoken  and  confined  them  to  the  limits  of  the 
Thebaid,  but  had  no  tendency  to  produce  any  intermixture  by 
which  the  language  could  have  been  changed.  The  Persians  were 
at  first  intolerant,  and  the  impatience  of  the  Egyptians  under  their 
yoke  led  them  into  revolts,  in  which  many  perished ;  but  no  in- 
corporation of  the  conquered  and  conquerors  took  place.  The 
presumption  which  hence  arises,  that  the  remains  of  the  Coptic 
literature  contain  a  language  essentially  the  same  as  that  spoken 
in  Egypt  since  it  became  known  to  the  Greeks,  is  confirmed  by 
direct  evidence.  Herodotus  relates',  that  when  Hecataeus  was  in 
Egypt  he  deduced  his  own  descent  from  a  god  in  the  sixteenth 
degree,  and  that  the  priests  of  Thebes,  to  whom  he  made  this 
boast,  took  him  into  the  inner  house  of  the  temple  and  showed 
him  the  wooden  statues  of  340  high  priests  in  succession,  among 

1  Benfey  Ueber  das  Verh'altniss  der  aegyptischen  Sprache  zum  eemitisch^n 
Sprachstamm.  Bunsen,  who  hns  examined  the  subject  of  the  Egyptian 
language  with  great  care  (^Egypten's  Stelle,  <fec  V.  !,  B.  1,  seek  4),  thin** 
(eee  Preface)  that  it  affords  proof  of  a  connexion  between  the  olftost  pop'U* 
lion  of  Egypt  and  the  Caucasian  stock. 


80 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


whom  none  had  been  either  god  or  hero,  but  every  one  a  piromt 
the  son  of  a  piromi1.  Their  argument  evidently  required  that 
piromi  should  signify  man,  and  rome,  with  the  article  perome,  ia 
Coptic  for  man.  Herodotus  (2,  69)  says  the  crocodile  was  called 
^afx-^a ;  in  hieroglyphics  it  is  hamso,  in  Coptic  amsah.  On  the 
cubit  measure,  half  is  marked  by  the  hieroglyphic  M,  the  initial 
of  Met,  Coptic  for  half ;  fractions  by  K,  the  initial  of  Re,  Coptic 
iov  part.  Instruction  was  called  by  the  Egyptians  Sbo2  ;  which  is 
the  Coptic  word  for  learning.  The  water-plants  of  the  Nile  were 
called  by  the  Egyptians,  according  to  St.  Jerome3,  acid  ;  a  name 
preserved  in  the  Alexandrian  version  of  Gen.  xli.  2,  18,  and  Isaiah 
xix.  7 ;  and  this  word  is  Coptic.  Erpis  was  an  Egyptian  word  for 
wine4 ;  removing  the  Greek  termination,  it  is  the  Coptic  erpb.  An 
Egyptian  priest  informed  Aristides,  that  the  name  Canopus  was 
not  derived,  as  the  Greeks  supposed,  from  the  pilot  of  Menelaus, 
but  signified  in  the  Egyptian  language  "  goldeu  soil6."  Kahi  in 
Coptic  is  earth,  and  nub  gold.  Chemia,  the  native  name  of  Egypt, 
signified,  according  to  Plutarch7,  "  black,"  and  Amenthes  the 
Egyptian  Hades8 ;  both  these  words  are  found  in  Coptic  in  this 
sense.  That  many  false  explanations  should  have  been  assigned 
by  Greek  and  Roman  writers  to  Egyptian  words  will  not  surprise 
any  one  who  has  observed  how  careless  they  were  in  regard  to 
foreign  languages.    The  recent  discoveries  in  hieroglyphics  have 

1  Her.  2,  143.    He  was  not  himself  aware  of  the  truth  which  he  has  pre- 
served, and  renders  Tlipujju  by  *aAos  Kdyndos. 
'  Horapollo,  1,  38. 

*  St.  Jerome  ad  Esaiam  (19,  7).  Quum  ab  eruditis  qua;rerem  quid  hie 
sernto  (a^«t  to  x^w96v)  significant,  audivi  ab  Egyptiis  hoc  nomine  lingua 
eorum  omne  quod  in  palude  virens  nascitur  appellari. 

4  Eustath.  ad  Od.  L  p.  1633,  5.  *  Peyron,  Lex.  Copt.  *.  voc. 

8  Op.  ed.  Jebb.  2,  3-0.  7  Plut.  Is.  et  Osir.  c.  33.    Peyron,  p.  270. 

3  Plut.  Is.  et  Osir.  .  2?.  But  he  is  wrong  in  his  etymology  when  he 
explains  it  by  jdv  kajiQavcra  Kit  SiSovra.  It  means  the  West^  the  land  ol 
darkness  (Peyron,  p.  36). 


CONNEXION  OP  EGYPT  AND  ETHIOPIA. 


87 


extended  this  proof  of  the  identity  of  the  Coptic  with  the  ancient 
Egyptian  to  the  Pharaonifc  times.  A  great  multitude  of  groups 
of  characters,  including  the  grammatical  flexions  of  the  language, 
have  been  read  by  the  phonetic  alphabet  into  Coptic  words,  and  in 
many  cases  all  doubt  is  precluded  by  the  addition  of  the  object 
itself.  It  is  true  that  no  single  hieroglyphical  inscription  has  yet 
been  read  completely  into  Coptic ;  but  this  is  not  wonderful,  since 
the  remains  of  Coptic  literature  are  imperfect  and  limited.  Even 
in  Egypt,  too,  unchangeable  as  it  was,  language  could  not  remain 
unaltered  for  more  than  2000  years.  In  the  time  of  the  Ptole- 
mies some  words  had  become  obsolete,  and  a  distinction  existed 
between  the  common  and  the  sacred  dialect1. 

As  we  know  nothing  of  the  language  spoken  along  the  banks 
of  the  Nile  in  Nubia  in  primitive  times,  we  cannot  from  this 
source  obtain  any  materials  for  deciding  on  the  origin  of  the 
Egyptian  people  or  their  affinities  with  their  Ethiopian  neighbors. 
The  Pharaohs  made  so  many  settlements  in  Nubia,  that  a  consi- 
derable Egyptian  population  must  have  been  introduced  among  the 
native  Ethiopian  tribes  as  far  south  as  Argo  or  even  Gebel-el-Bir- 
kel.  It  is  not  certain  whether  any  tribe  now  existing  can  be  con- 
sidered as  descendants  of  these  Ethiopians,  the  population  having 
undergone  many  changes.  Diocletian,  finding  the  country  above 
Syene  nearly  depopulated,  transferred  hither  the  Nobatae  from  the 
"  city  of  Oasis"  or  El-Khargeh.  The  Barabras,  who  under  various 
names  inhabit  the  Nubian  valley,  and  to  the  southern  limit  of 
Dongola  cultivate  such  parts  of  it  as  are  susceptible  of  cultivation, 
would  appear  to  be  the  descendants  of  the  ancient  Ethiopians,  if 
we  could  rely  on  the  judgment  of  travellers  respecting  their  phy- 
siognomy. Their  language,  however,  has  no  affinity  either  to 
Coptic  or  Arabic,  and  tue  resemblances  which  have  been  pointed 
out  to  the  language  of  the  hill-district  of  Kordofan3,  are  too  slight 

1  Joseph,  c.  Ap.  1,  14,  quoting  Manetha 
•  Prickard,  Researches,  2,  178. 


88 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


to  found  an  argument  of  identity  of  race,  especially  as  the  people 
of  Kordofan  are  negroes,  which  the  Baraforas  are  not.  The  marked 
distinction  which  the  ancients  always  make,  between  the  Egyptians 
who  lived  below  and  the  Ethiopians  who  lived  above  the  Cataracts 
of  Syene,  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  in  all  historical  times  Egypt 
has  been  inhabited  by  a  distinct  race,  and  that  what  is  said  of  its 
being  peopled  from  Meroe  is  only  an  hypothesis,  grounded  on  the 
probability  that  population  would  follow  the  course  of  the  de- 
scending river  and  the  extension  of  the  land.  Herodotus  adopted 
this  view  as  regards  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt1,  but  does  not  carry 
it  above  the  First  Cataract.  Diodorus,  who  is  the  principal  au- 
thority for  the  opinion  that  Egypt  derived  everything  from  Meroe, 
had  seen  in  Egypt  the  ambassadors  of  Ethiopia,  and  appears 
readily  to  have  adopted  the  statements  by  which  they  endeavored 
to  establish  the  higher  antiquity  of  the  population,  religion  and 
arts  of  their  own  country3.  The  monuments  of  Meroe  have  been 
sufficiently  examined  by  Lepsius  and  his  associates  to  prove  that 
they  are  all  of  younger  date  than  those  of  Egypt,  not  ascending 
beyond  the  times  of  the  Ptolemies  and  the  Romans.  This  indeed 
is  not  decisive  of  the  question  of  priority  in  population  or  religion  ; 
but  no  historical  fact  confirms  the  opinion  that  Egypt  was  indebted 
to  Ethiopia  for  its  settlement  or  civilization ;  whereas  we  know 
that  the  Pharaohs  possessed  the  valley  of  the^Nile,  GOO  miles 
above  Syene,  at  least  fifteen  centuries  before  Christ. 

The  high  antiquity  of  civilization  in  India,  and  some  remarkable 
coincidences  in  doctrine  and  usages  between  this  country  and 
Egypt,  have  led  to  the  supposition  of  an  early  connexion,  by  which 
cne  of  them  has  communicated,  if  not  its  population,  at  least  its 
institutions  and  opinions  to  the  other.  Of  such  a  connexion  there 
is  no  historic  trace.    The  ancient  Egyptians  never  surmised  an 

1  Her.  2,  15.  Aok£oj  irpoiovtrtis  Tils  ^wpn?,  toAAuvj  \it»  rot>$  rrtoktmpiv^H  t4rtk 
ytvloBau,  raWofy  Si  rovf  v^oKara^Mvovrtn. 

•  Diod.  8,  11. 


CONNEXION  OF  EGYPT  AND  INDIA. 


89 


Indian  origin  of  their  nation ;  they  believed  themselves  to  be  in 
the  strictest  sense  autochthones,  not  only  figuratively  but  literally, 
natives  of  the  soil1 ;  nor  have  the  Indians  any  tradition  of  having 
received  or  sent  forth  an  Egyptian  colony.  The  passages  in  their 
sawed  books,  in  which  Ethiopia  and  Egypt  were  supposed  to  have 
been  mentioned,  are  now  known  to  be  forgeries  by  which  the  Bra- 
mins  imposed  on  a  too  eager  and  credulous  European2.  After 
the  conquests  of  Alexander,  India  became  well  known  to  the  West; 
and  the  resemblance  of  the  Indians  of  the  South  to  the  Ethiopians 
and  those  of  the  North  to  the  Egyptians  was  noticed3.  During 
the  reigns  of  the  Ptolemies  an  active  commerce  was  carried  on 
between  Egypt  and  India;  yet  in  no  author  of  these  times  do  we 
find  even  a  tradition  of  the  colonization  of  one  of  these  countries 
from  the  other.  The  Sophist  Philostratus  in  the  beginning  of  the 
third  century4  speaks  of  the  Ethiopians  as  having  once  dwelt  in 
India5.  The  Christian  chronologers  described  the  Ethiopians  as 
quitting  the  Indus  and  establishing  themselves  on  the  frontiers  of 
Egypt,  and  assigned  the  supposed  migration  to  the  reign  of  Ameno- 
phis6.  The  application  of  the  name  Ethiopian  from  early  times  to 
the  dark  nations  of  the  East,  as  well  as  those  of  the  valley  of  the 
Nile,  would  naturally  give  rise  to  such  an  hypothesis,  especially  as 

1  Diodorus  Sic.  1,  10. 

*  Asiatic  Researches,  vol.  3,  p.  46.  • 

3  Arrian,  Indica,  6,  6. 

4  Vit.  ApoLI.  3,  20.  ^Hc  to'ivvv  ypCvoi  ore  Aidioxa  jjiev  ukcvv  ivrcidii  yii>0{  '!»- 
itK6vt  6,  8.  airoiKOi  'IixJwf  KlQi6ira.  KiBioma  <5'  ootcj  rjv,  dXX'  inip  Mtp5»ji/  re  koi 
YLaraSotirovs  upicro  AtyvJiroj. 

B  Van  Bohlen's  Indien,  v.  1,  p.  119.  The  author  is  known  to  have 
abandoned  his  opinion  of  the  original  connexion  between  Egypt  and 
India. 

e  Chron.  Gr.  ed.  Seal.  p.  26.  Amenophis  was  supposed  to  be  Memnon, 
and  Memnon  son  of  Aurora  a  prince  coming  from  the  East,  and  thus  th€ 
date  of  the  migration  was  arbiti  drily  fixed. 


90 


ANCIENT  EGVPT. 


the  Nile  was  supposed  by  some  to  have  its  source  in  India1,  and 

the  name  India  was  used  for  Ethiopia3. 

The  physiognomy  of  the  two  nations,  if  we  compare  their  mo- 
numents, appears  to  be  very  different ;  the  Indian  is  even  less  Ethi- 
opic  than  the  Egyptian,  and  in  stature  and  features  approaches 
much  nearer  to  the  Caucasian  standard.  Blumenbach,  it  is  true, 
pronounced  that  in  all  his  collection  of  skv.lls  no  two  more  resem- 
bled each  other  than  those  of  a  native  of  Bengal  and  a  mummy. 
Independently,  however,  of  their  vagueness,  osteological  resemblan- 
ces, even  if  more  clearly  established  than  by  an  insulated  fact  of 
this  kind,  do  not  deserve  that  authority  in  historical  inquiries 
which  is  often  attributed  to  them.  The  unity  of  race,  which  is  all 
that  they  can  prove,  wrhen  most  perfect,  is  no  proof  of  historical 
unity  ;  that  is  determined  by  causes  which  leave  no  trace  upon  the 
bony  structure.  Unity  of  speech,  on  the  contrary,  is  essential  to 
historical  unity  in  the  first  coalescence  of  a  nation,  and  the  strong- 
est presumption  of  identity  or  affinity  between  different  nations. 
Judged  by  this  criterion,  no  two  nations  of  the  ancient  world  ap- 
pear to  have  less  relation  to  each  other  than  the  Indians  and  the 
Egyptians.'  The  Sanscrit,  now  the  sacred  idiom,  but  once  no 
doubt  the  vernacular  tongue  of  India,  is  the  most  polished  and 
copious  language  ever  spoken  by  man  ;  the  Coptic  the  most  rude 
of  all  which  were  used  by  the  civilized  nations  of  antiquity.  The 
resemblances  between  their  roots  are  few  and  slight;  their  whole 
genius  and  almost  their  whole  stock  of  words  are  entirely  different. 

In  the  institutions  and  religious  systems  of  Egypt  and  India 
there  is,  on  the  contrary,  a  close  and  most  remarkable  resemblance. 
The  principle  of  hereditary  caste  prevailed  with  great  original 
strictness  in  both,  and  the  divisions  of  society  arising  from  it  were 

1  See  Joseph.  Antiq.  1,  1,  referring  to  Gen.  it  13  —  "the  river  that 
boundeth  the  whole  land  of  Cush" — Vri^v  (Gihon)  Sv  NxrXov'EXA^wt  wpoaay— 

*  Vlrg.  Georg.  4,  293,  quoted  p  67  note. 


CONNEXION  OF  EGYPT  AND  INDIA.  91 

nearly  the  same.  Their  systems  of  theology  appear  to  have  ori- 
ginated in  the  same  soiree — the  personification  of  the  powers  of 
nature  under  male  and  female  forms,  whose  images  were  multi- 
plied and  varied  by  sculpture  and  painting.  The  assignment  of 
animals  to  each  of  the  gods  and  their  consequent  worship,  the 
minuteness  of  tie  temple  ritual,  the  doctrine  of  the  transmigration 
of  souls,  the  phallic  orgies  of  Osiris  and  Seeva — are  all  circum- 
stances which  seem  strongly  to  identify  the  religions  of  Egypt 
and  India.  Yet  before  we  infer  that  one  country  was  colonized 
from  the  other,  we  must  not  overlook  their  differences.  The 
Egyptian  and  Hindu  Pantheons  have  each  a  perfectly  native  cha- 
racter. The  ram-headed  Kneph  or  Anuin,  the  hawk-headed  Osiris, 
the  ibis-headed  Thoth,  the  jackal-headed  Anubis,  the  scarabaeus, 
the  ostrich  feather,  the  hippopotamus,  belong  as  exclusively  to 
Egypt,  as  the  elephant,  the  peacock  and  the  eagle  to  the  gods  of 
India,  The  bull,  the  cow,  the  lion,  the  serpent,  the  lotus,  belong 
alike  to  the  two  countries  and  the  two  mythologies.  The  hiero- 
glyphic system  of  Egypt  is  clearly  indigenous  in  the  valley  of  the 
Nile,  and  no  such  mode  of  writing  ever  prevailed  in  India.  The 
Egyptians  had  practised  circumcision  from  time  immemorial  in 
common  with  the  Ethiopic  tribes,  but  this  rite  was  unknown  in 
India  before  the  Mahometan  conquest.  On  the  other  hand,  we 
have  reason  to  conclude  that  the  system  of  castes  is  a  form  natu- 
rally assumed  by  society  in  an  early  state1,  and  therefore  affording 
no  proof  of  the  identity  of  the  nations  by  whom  it  was  admitted  : 
the  doctrine  of  metempsychosis  prevails  in  a  ruder  shape  among 
the  negroes,  who  have  certainly  not  learnt  it  either  from  the 
Bramins  or  the  Egyptians.  In  the  fine  arts  India  remained  far 
below  Egypt,  and  it  is  only  in  the  most  barbarous  specimens  of 
Egyptian  sculpture  that  any  resemblance  to  the  Indian  can  be 

1  Meinere  de  Causis  Castarnm.  Reg.  Soc  Getting.  10,  p.  184.  Kenrick'a 
Eaoay  on  Prinueval  History,  p.  130. 


92 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


traced1.  The  same  practice  of  excavating  temples  in  the  native 
rock  prevailed  in  both  countries ;  but  Abc$>simbel  and  other  grotto 
temples  of  Nubia  existed  fourteen  centuries  before  the  Christian 
aera.  Those  of  India,  Eilora,  Kennery,  Ceylon,  are  not  mentioned 
before  the  reign  of  Heliogabalus2.  They  were  indeed  then  old. 
because  they  were  described  as  a  work  of  nature ;  but  were  they 
even  of  equal  antiquity  with  those  of  Nubia,  there  would  be  no 
ground  for  concluding  that  one  was  copied  from  the  other,  since 
their  style  and  decoration  are  entirely  different.  Taking  coinciden- 
ces as  well  as  differences  into  the  account,  it  appears  that  there 
has  been  some  connexion  between  the  civilization  of  Egypt  and 
Tndia,  while  the  nations  themselves  have  as  much  claim  to  be  con- 
sidered distinct  as  any  others  of  antiquity.  We  should  be  quitting 
altogether  the  domain  of  history  were  we  to  endeavour  to  devise 
an  explanation  of  this  connexion.  Both  of  them  are  in  a  remark- 
able degree  insulated  by  their  geographical  position ;  both  were 
averse  from  intercourse  with  foreigners  and  from  navigation, 
chained  to  their  native  soil  by  religious  prejudices  and  political 
institutions.  Even  the  traditions  of  Egyptian  conquest,  which  is 
now  known  to  have  spread  far  into  Asia,  do  not  extend  to  India ; 
and  the  intervening  countries  were  inhabited  by  nations  differing 
from  both  in  their  language  and  institutions8.    We  must  be  content 

1  Rosellini,  Monumenti  del  Culto,  77. 

a  See  the  account  of  the  Embassy  of  Bardesanes  in  Ritter's  Indien,  4, 
489,  Tart  1. 

3  Dr.  Prichard  (Researches,  2,  p.  214)  has  pointed  out  some  curious  ana- 
logies between  the  Coptic  language  and  those  of  South  Africa,  especially 
the  Kafir.  KoUwn  (Zoega  de  Orig.  et  Us.  Obeliscorum,  p.  450)  found  the 
worship  of  tho  Soarabaeus  among  the  barbarous  nations  in  South  Africa. 

It  may  deserve  reirjark,  that  in  Gen.  x.  8,  Nimrod,  the  sovereign  of 
Babylon  and  founder  of  Nineveh,  is  said  to  be  a  son  of  Cush,  the  son  of 
Ham  and  consequently  a  brother  of  Mizraim.  The  nation  which  occupied 
the  plain  of  Shinar,  and  built  there  the  city  of  Babylon  and  tower  of  Babel, 
is  said  (xL  2)  to  come  from  the  East ;  and  these  conquerom  and  coioniits  ar« 


CONNEXION  OF  EGYPT  AND  INDIA. 


93 


to  leave  their  similarity  unexplained,  among  many  other  historical 
phaenomena,  the  origin  of  which  belongs  to  ages  of  which  no 
record  has  been  preserved. 

clearly  distinguished  from  the  children  of  Shem, — Elam,  Assar  and  Aram. 
So  the  original  occupation  of  Southern  Arabia  is  attributed  to  the  sons  of 
Cush  (x.  7),  though  Seba  and  Havilah,  which  were  in  this  region,  are  said 
to  have  been  occupied  by  the  descendants  of  Shem  (x.  26).  Thus  Africa, 
Egypt  and  Southern  Asia,  according  to  the  conceptions  of  this  age,  were 
occupied  by  Cushite  nations,  and  to  them  the  first  movements  of  conquest 
and  migration  are  attributed.  India  was  not  known  to  the  Jews  till  the 
Captivity  (Esther,  L  1),  but  no  doubt  its  dark  inhabitants  would  have  been 
classed  by  them  with  Cushites,  as  by  the  Greeks  with  Ethiopians.  In  this 
early  and  wide  diffusion  of  a  people  allied  at  least  in  colour  to  the  Egyp- 
tians (which  is  all  that  the  name  proves),  we  have  a  glirnpse  of  the  means 
by  which  Egypt  may  have  been  brought  into  relations  with  India, 


CHAPTER  VL 


MEMPHIS.  THE  PYRAMIDS. 

Memphis  appears  to  have  been  the  earliest  capital  of  the  united 
Egyptian  monarchy,  although  the  first  king  of  the  whole  country 
was  a  native  of  Upper  Egypt.  Driven  into  the  Thebaic!  by  the 
Shepherd  invaders,  the  Pharaohs,  after  their  expulsion,  retained 
Thebes  as  their  capital,  and  made  more  extensive  conquests  in 
Ethiopia.  As  the  Ethiopians  grew  formidable,  after  the  decline  of 
the  power  of  the  Rameses,  and  became  invaders  in  their  turn,  the 
Pharaohs  fixed  themselves  again  in  Lower  Egypt  It  is  the  natu- 
ral site  for  the  capital  of  a  kingdom  connected  with  Syria  and 
Palestine,  Asia  Minor  and  Greece,  and  here  accordingly  it  has 
remained  with  little  change  of  place,  under  the  Macedonians,  the 
Romans,  the  Saracens  and  the  Turks. 

Memphis  was  situated,  according  to  Strabo1,  three  schoenes, 
Detween  eleven  and  twelve  miles,  from  the  apex  of  the  Delta.  At 
the  distance  of  about  ten  miles,  to  the  south  of  the  modern  capital 
of  Cairo,  but  on  the  opposite  or  western  bank,  stands  the  village 
of  Mitrahenny  or  Mitranieh,  in  a  plain  covered  with  palm-trees, 
where  are  found  the  only  remains  which  Identify  the  site  of  the 
ancient  Memphis.  The  name  of  Memf.  which  the  district  bears  tra- 
ditionally among  the  Copts,  confirms  the  evidence  of  the  ruins  and 
the  correspondence  of  the  measures.  A  circuit  of  150  stadia,  at 
least  fifteen  miles,  is  attributed  to  the  former  capital',  but  its  out- 

1  Lib.  17,  p.  807. 

"  Diod.  1,  50.  The  mounds  which  mark  the  ancient  site  extend,  accord- 
ing to  the  Frenoh  Commission,  three  leagues  in  circumference,   It  probahlj 


MZMP11IS. 


95 


liiie  cannot  now  be  traced.  Its  position  accords  very  well  with  the 
account  of  Herodotus1,  that  Memphis  was  in  the  narrow  part  of 
Egypt ;  for  it  is  just  below  the  great  expansion  of  the  valley  of  the 
Nile  to  Fyoum,  and  above  the  still  wider  opening  of  the  Delta. 
Thus  commanding  the  connexion  between  the  Upper  and  Lower 
countries,  it  was  pointed  out  as  a  suitable  site  for  the  metropolis 
of  the  kingdom  of  Meness. 

The  founder  of  this  kingdom  obtained  the  ground  on  which  he 
built  his  capital,  according  to  Herodotus,  by  diverting  the  course 
of  the  Nile,  which  had  previously  flowed  past  the  foot  of  the 
Libyan  hills,  and  compelling  it  to  take  a  channel  which  divided 
the  valley  more  equally3.  But  as  it  is  not  likely  that  he  would 
turn  the  whole  body  of  water  in  a  river  of  such  depth  and  width 
to  found  a  city  on  its  former  bed,  we  must  suppose  that  in  ancient 
times  the  first  bifurcation  of  the  Nile  took  place  higher  up  than 
Cercasorus,  where  the  apex  of  the  Delta  stood  when  the  Greeks 
became  acquainted  with  Egypt,  and  to  the  south  of  Memphis. 
Appearances  now  give  some  color  to  this  supposition.  At  Kasr- 
el-Syat,  about  fourteen  miles  above  Mitrahenny,  the  Nile  makes  a 
bend  to  the  N.  W.,  and  in  the  low  ground  between  this  and  the 
Libyan  hills  an  ancient  bed  may  be  traced.  The  canal,  a  continu- 
ation of  the  Bahr  Jusuf,  flows  here  through  a  natural  depression, 

occupied  the  whole  space  between  the  river  and  the  hills,  here  about  three 
miles.  * 
1  Herod.  2,  8,  99. 

a  Diod.  1,  50.  T>vv£(3ti  ttjv  jtoAu',  eixaipcos  KtijiEVfiv  eri  tuv  K~Xei9pojv}  uvai  Kvpttv* 
ovoav  t£sv  tii  ttjv  avu)  -^juoav  dvaxXtovTOiv. 

3  Tov  Mrjva,  tov  nowrov  paoiXevaavTa  AiyvnTOV,  ol  iptU  i\eyov  anoyt^vptiaai  -n\v 
M-Zpftv'  tov  yap  iroTafidv  -avra  piciv  rraoa  rd  opos  to  xpaupwov  irpos  Aj/?u/j$*  tov  Si 
Mrjva  avcjQeVj  8aov  ts  snardr  OTaiiovs  axo  Mf/i^toj  tov  rrpdf  [leo-a^piris  dyKuva 
irpoq^aavra  rd  fitv  dp^aiov  p'ctdpov  aTro^pdva^  t6v  Je  rorap.6v  6^tTtiaai}  rd  jjl£co» 

Tt5v  ovpcwv  piciv.  (Her.  2,  99.)  This  passage  has  been  misunderstood,  as  if  it 
described  the  Nile  as  originally  flowing  through  the  Libyan  Desert  and  by 
the  channel  of  the  Bahr-be-la-Ma.    See  p.  59. 


96 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


while  to  the  south  it  is  an  excavation1.  This  bend  is  the  elbow,  of 
which  Herodotus  speaks,  where  Menes  built  the  dam  by  which  he 
diverted  the  rivor  from  its  western  course.  If  this  arm  were 
already  nearly  dried  up  in  the  age  of  Mencs,  and  the  great  body 
of  the  water  were  carried  down  by  the  Eastern  arm,  the  project  of 
excluding  the  river  altogether,  and  employing  the  ground  thus 
gained  for  the  site  of  a  city,  will  not  appear  extravagant.  It  was 
necessary  however  to  guard  this  point  with  great  care ;  the  bed  of 
the  river  would  rise,  but  the  land  from  which  it  was  excluded 
would  not  rise,  and  hence  Memphis  would  be  exposed  to  the  same 
danger,  if  the  embankment  gave  way,  by  which  New-Orleans  is 
threatened  from  the  Mississippi.  Even  during  the  Persian  occu- 
pation of  Egypt  this  dam  was  annually  repaired2.  At  present  the 
rise  of  the  soil  has  obliterated  its  traces.  The  ancient  arm  of  the 
Nile,  thus  excluded,  served  to  feed  a  lake  which  protected  Mem- 
phis on  the  north  and  west,  as  the  main  stream  did  on  the  east*. 
Some  traces  of  it  are  said  to  be  still  visible. 

The  motive  which  led  the  founder  of  Memphis  to  place  his 
capital  on  the  .western  bank  of  the  Nile  may  easily  be  divined. 
Egypt  has  never  been  exposed  to  invasion  from  the  west.  The 
scattered  tribes  of  the  Desert  could  not  be  formidable  to  it  in  any 
stage  of  its  power.  But  on  the  east  it  had  very  dangerous  neigh- 
bors in  the  Arabs,  the  Syrian,  Mesopotamian  and  Persian  nations ; 
it  was  not  even  beyond  the  widf -sweeping  excursions  of  the  Scy- 
thians*. It  was  therefore  of  the  utmost  importance  to  oppose  & 
strong  barrier  to  an  invader  on  that  side,  and  such  a  barrier  the 
Nile  supplied.  When  the  Saracens  established  themselves  in 
Egypt,  the  eastern  bank  was  pointed  out  to  them  as  the  proper 

1  Perring  in  Howard  Vyse  on  the  Pyramids,  vol.  3,  p.  2. 

*  Herod.  2,  99. 

■  ITerod.  ibid.    Strabo,  p.  807.    Browne's  Travels,  p.  178. 

*  Herod.  1,  105.  Psammitichus  prevailed  on  them  to  retire  by  gifts  and 
entreaties. 


MEMPHIS. 


97 


site  of  their  capital,  by  the  necessity  of  maintaining  their  con- 
nexion with  the  country  which  had  been  the  cradle  of  the  Maho- 
metan religion  ;  and  here  Old  and  New  Cairo  successively  arose, 
commanding  more  completely  than  Memphis  the  connexion  be- 
tween the  Delta  and  the  Upper  Country. 

The  actual  remains  of  Memphis  at  Mitrahenny  are  not  great, 
though  sufficient  to  identify  it ;  but  as  late  as  the  beginning  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  when  Abulfeda  wrote,  they  were  very  con- 
siderable1. In  the  description  of  Abdollatiph,  a  century  earlier,  we 
can  distinguish  a  monolithal  shrine,  nine  cubits  in  height,  seven  in 
depth  and  eight  in  breadth,  with  the  remains  of  a  temple  in  which 
it  stood  ;  a  gateway  whose  lofty  jambs  were*>f  a  single  piece :  a 
statue  thirty  cubits  high  of  red  granite  and  of  perfect  symmetry, 
and  two  colossal  lions  couched  over  against  each  other8.  The 
actual  remains  begin  about  a  mile  from  the  river,  on  the  bank  of 
which  the  village  of  Bedreshein  now  stands.  Between  it  and 
Mitrahenny  are  two  long  parallel  hills,  the  remains  of  the  immense 
enclosure  of  crude  brick,  which  according  to  the  analogy  of 
-hebes  and  Sais  appears  to  have  surrounded  the  principal  edifices 
of  Memphis.  Within  this  enclosure  lies  a  colossal  statue  of  Barne- 
ses II.  of  crystalline  limestone,  mutilated  at  the  upper  and  lower 
extremities,  but  which  when  perfect  must  have  been  nearly  forty- 
three  feet  in  height*.  Its  features  exactly  resemble  those  of  known 
statues  of  this  king,  and  all  doubt  has  been  removed  by  the  dis- 
covery of  his  name  and  title,  on  his  girdle  and  on  a  scroll  which 
he  holds  in  his  hand.  We  know  from  Herodotus,  that  Sesostris, 
who  corresponds  most  nearly  with  the  Rameses  II.  and  III.  of 
the  monuments,  erected  in  front  of  the  temple  of  Pthah,  the  chief 
divinty  of  Memphis,  two  colossal  statues  thirty  cubits  (forty-five 
feet)  high ;  and  as  we  find  from  the  remains  of  Thebes,  that  sucl 

1  Rennell's  Geography  of  Herodotus,  2,  119. 

*  L  bdollatiph,  by  White,  p.  121,  Appendix. 

9  Bonomi*  in  Trans,  of  Royal  Soc.  of  Literature,  2,  298,  JOB 

vol  I.  3 


98  ANCIENT  EGYPT. 

statues  did  not  stand  isolated,  the  temple  may  be  concluded  to 
have  been  placed  near  the  spot  where  the  colossus  now  lies.  Some 
other  fragments  are  scattered  in  the  neighborhood,  two  of  red 
granite,  probably  of  the  same  king,  whose  banner  and  name  a™ 
still  visible  on  one  of  them ;  and  a  fragment  of  a  block  of  lime- 
stone, on  which  the  god  Nilus  is  sculptured.  The  excavations  of 
Caviglia  and  Champollion  have  also  ascertained  the  existence,  to 
the  north  of  the  colossus,  of  a  temple  dedicated  to  Pthah  and 
Athor,  i.  e.  Vulcan  and  Venus,  the  two  chief  divinities  of  Mem- 
phis. Of  the  temple  of  Apis,  and  the  enclosure  in  which  he  was 
exhibited,  which  stood  near  the  temple  of  Pthah,  no  traces  have 
been  discovered,  kittle  indeed  has  been  done  towards  elucidating 
the  vestiges  of  this  ancient  capital,  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the 
accumulation  of  the  soil  will  diminish  the  likelihood  of  the  neces- 
sary researches  being  undertaken. 

Were  these  vestiges,  however,  even  less  distinct  than  they  aiey 
the  vicinity  of  a  great  capital  would  be  sufficiently  marked,  by  the 
pyramids1  which  at  intervals  cover  the  crests  of  the  Libyan  h:Ii3, 
and  by  the  mummy  plain  of  Saccara  which  lies  at  their  feet,  nearly 
in  the  line  of  the  ruins  of  Mitrahenny.  The  pyramids  are  best 
seen  in  their  whole  extent  and  succession  from  the  Hill  of  Tourah, 
above  Cairo.  Looking  across  the  Nile,  but  a  little  to  the  south, 
are  first  seen  the  pyramids  of  Gizeh,  to  which  from  their  superior 
size  the  name  has  been  often  exclusively  given ;  then  about  seven 
miles  to  the  south  those  of  Abouseir,  followed  at  shorter  interval: 
by  those  of  Saccara  and  Dashour.  These  last  are  the  most  remof* 
that  we  can  with  any  probability  suppose  to  have  served  as  ceine 
teries  to  Memphis ;  but  the  line  is  continued  into  the  Fyoum  by 
the  pyramids  of  Lisht,  Meidoun  and  Illahoun.  The  pyramid  of 
Abouroash,  about  five  miles  below  Gizeh,  is  the  furthest,  remainb^ 
to  the  north. 

1  Memphis  is  designated  in  hieroglyphios  M  the  land  of  the  pyramid,* 
Wilkinson,  M,  and  C.  8,  278.    Lepsins,  Einleitung,  p.  17S. 


THE  PYRAMIDS  OF  GTZEII. 


99 


The  pyramids  of  Gizeh  are  about  five  miles  distant  from  the 
ank  of  the  Nile.  As  the  traveller  approaches  them  first  across 
he  plain  and  then  the  sandy  valley  to  which  the  inundation  does 
not  extend,  he  is  usually  disappointed  by  their  appearance,  which 
falls  short  of  the  conception  which  their  fame  had  raised.  Their 
height  and  breadth  are  lessened  by  the  hills  of  sand  and  heaps  of 
rubbish  which  have  accumulated  around  them.  The  simplicity 
and  geometrical  regularity  of  their  outline  is  unfavorable  to  their 
apparent  magnitude ;  there  is  nothing  near  them  by  which  they 
can  be  measured  ;  and  it  is  not  till,  standing  at  their  base,  he  looks 
up  to  their  summit,  and  compares  their  proportions  with  his  own 
or  those  of  the  human  figures  around  them,  that  this  first  error  of 
the  judgment  is  corrected.  And  when  he  begins  to  inquire  into 
their  history,  and  finds  that  2300  years  ago,  their  first  describer 
was  even  more  ignorant  than  ourselves  of  the  time  and  purpose  of 
their  erection,  he  feels  how  remote  must  be  their  origin,  which 
even  then  was  an  insoluble  problem.  They  stand  upon  a  rocky 
platform  of  unequal  height,  but  where  highest,  elevated  about  100 
feet  above  the  plain,  and  forming  a  kind  of  promontory  in  the 
Libyan  chain,  whose  greatest  projection  is  towards  the  north-east. 
Such  a  range  of  low  rock,  the  first  step  in  the  ascent  of  the  Libyan 
hills,  borders  the  valley  of  the  Nile  to  the  entrance  of  the  Fyoum, 
and  on  it  all  the  pyramids  which  occur  in  this  district  are  placed, 
This  range  of  hills  rises  northward  also  from  the  entrance  to  the 
Fyoum,  so  that  the  pyramid  of  Meidoun,  which  is  the  furthest  to 
the  south,  is  the  least  elevated  above  the  plain.  The  First  or  Great 
Pyramid  is  the  nearest  to  the  river,  and  furthest  to  the  north,  the 
Second  being  placed  about  as  much  more  to  the  west,  as  the 
breadth  of  the  First,  and  the  Third  in  like  manner  retiring  to  the 
west,  by  somewhat  more  than  the  breadth  of  the  Second.  The 
pyramids  have  been  recently  explored,  more  completely  than  be- 
fore, by  Colonel  Howard  Vyse,  and  we  are  indebted  to  his  liberal- 


100 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


ity  and  the  intelligence  of  his  engineer,  Mr.  Perring,  for  establish* 
ing  some  most  important  points  in  Egyptian  history. 

The  Great  Pyramid,  or  that  of  Cheops,  had  originally  a  square 
base  of  764  feet1  (now  reduced  to  746),  and  consequently  an  area 
of  thirteen  acres,  and  a  perpendicular  height  of  480  feet,  now  re- 
duced by  the  dilapidation  of  the  summit  to  450  feet.  The  rock 
around  was  carefully  levelled  to  furnish  a  horizontal  base  for  the 
structure,  yet  not  throughout  the  whole  area,  for  a  nucleus  of  the 
native  rock  has  been  discovered  in  the  interior,  rising,  according 
to  the  latest  account,  to  the  height  of  22  feet.  The  sides  now  pre- 
sent the  appearance  of  a  series  of  steps,  each  course  projecting 
beyond  that  above  it ;  and  by  these  projections  it  is  easy  to  reach 
the  top,  where  is  a  platform  of  about  30  feet  square.  Dut  in  its 
original  state  the  pyramid  probably  presented  a  perfectly  smooth 
surface,  the  spaces  between  the  courses  being  filled  up  by  the  in- 
sertion of  casing-stones,  wrought  with  the  most  perfect  finish,  after 
they  were  fixed  in  their  places",  so  that  from  top  to  bottom  there 
was  no  projection.  It  appears  that  not  a  very  long  time  elapsed 
before  a  forcible  entrance  was  made  or  attempted.  A  very  incon- 
siderable depth  of  the  Desert  sand  lies  beneath  the  stones  at  the 
base  of  the  northern  front ;  and  as  these  must  have  been  stripped 
off  in  the  first  attempt  to  find  an  entrance,  it  is  evident  that  it  was 
made  at  so  short  an  interval,  that  there  had  not  been  time  for  any 
great  accumulation.  Though  Herodotus  does  not  expressly  say 
that  the  pyramid  was  open  in  his  time,  it  is  evident  that  it  was  or 

1  Perring  says  767*424.  He  observes  that  "the  proportion  that  seems 
to  have  regulated  the  exact  form  of  the  Great  Pyramid  and  several  others 
was  a  ratio  of  height  to  size  of  base  of  5  to  8 ;  and  this  gives  on  a  direct 
section — as  half  the  base  :  perpendicular  height :  the  apoth  fme  or  slant 
height :  the  whole  base."   See  Bunsen's  JSgypten's  Stelle,  <tc  B.  2,  p.  365, 

*  This  was  begun  at  the  top^    'K^rwoitidii  i'  £**  rd  dvutrara  avTHi  nptira  (Her. 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID. 


101 


had  recently  been,  since  be  speaks,  not  very  accurately  it  is  true, 
of  tbe  interior.  Strabo1  describes  the  entrance  as  at  a  moderate 
elevation,  and  as  made  by  means  of  a  moveable  stone.  It  should 
seem  therefore  not  to  have  been  permanently  open ;  and  when  the 
Caliphs  established  themselves  in  Egypt,  they  entered  it  by  a 
forced  passage3. 

The  original  opening  (see  PI.  I.)  is,  like  that  of  all  the  other 
pyramids,  in  the  northern  face,  but  a  little  on  one  side  of  the 
centre,  about  45  feet  from  the  ground,  and  in  the  fifteenth  course 
of  stones.  A  block  of  unusual  size  is  immediately  over  it,  on 
which  rest  four  others,  meeting  so  as  to  form  a  kind  of  pointed 
arch  or  pediment — an  arrangement  by  which  the  pressure  from 
above  was  lessened  and  the  opening  preserved  from  being  crushed 
in.  This  peculiarity  must  always  have  pointed  out  the  entrance 
when  the  casing  was  removed.  From  this  entrance  the  passage 
descends  at  an  angle  of  26°  41',  as  in  the  other  pyramids  ;  it  is  of 
the  height  and  width  of  3  feet  5  inches,  and  is  roofed  with  stones 
finely  wrought  and  fitted  together.  After  a  descent  of  63  feet  it 
divides,  one  passage  continuing  in  the  same  straight  line  and  with 
the  same  dimensions,  the  other  ascending  towards  the  centre  of 
the  pyramid.  The  entrance  to  this  upper  passage  was  closed  by  a 
block  of  granite,  the  position  of  which  was  hidden  by  the  roof  of 
the  lower  passage.  To  pass  round  it  an  entrance  has  been  forced 
through  the  masonry  of  the  pyramid.  The  upper  passage  thus 
entered  is  continued  by  an  ascent,  at  an  angle  of  26°  18',  for  125 
feet,  when  it  again  divides ;  one  branch  runs  horizontally,  with 
only  the  descent  of  a  single  step,  for  110  feet,  and  terminates  in 
the  Queen's  Chamber,  as  it  is  called,  an  apartment  about  17  feet 
long,  16  feet  wide,  and  20  feet  high.  It  is  roofed  with  blocks 
meeting  in  a  point,  which  to  give  them  strength  have  been  carried 
a  long  way  into  the  masonry  and  cut  so  as  to  have  a  perpendicular 


1  lib.  17,  fK  808. 


•  Howard  Vyse,  2,  841  not*. 


102 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


bearing.  This  chamber  stands  immediately  under  the  apex  of  the 
pyramid,  and  from  the  careful  finish  of  the  slabs  with  which  it  ia 
lined,  appears  to  have  been  intended  for  the  reception  of  an  em- 
balmed body.  Nothing  however  has  been  found  in  it ;  if  a  sarco- 
phagus should  be  concealed  anywhere,  it  must  be  in  the  floor. 
Returning  to  the  junction  of  the  passages,  a  well  is  to  be  noticed, 
just  at  the  point  of  divergence,  which  descends  partly  through  the 
masonry  of  the  pyramid  and  partly  through  the  natural  rock,  till 
it  meets  the  prolongation  of  the  descending  passage  by  which  the 
pyramid  was  entered.  It  is  191  feet  in  depth,  perpendicular  in 
the  first  26  feet,  afterwards  more  or  less  inclined  ;  its  dimensions  are 
2  feet  4  inches  square,  and  it  can  be  ascended  or  descended  by 
means  of  projections  which  have  been  left  in  it.  Though  called  a 
well,  its  purpose  appears  to  have  been  to  afford  a  means  of  com- 
munication and  ventilation,  after  the  passage  into  the  upper  part 
of  the  pyramid  had  been  closed  by  the  mass  of  granite  before  de- 
scribed ;  and  as  it  has  been  cut  through  the  masonry,  it  is  evident 
that  it  was  an  afterthought. 

The  great  gallery,  leading  to  the  King's  Chamber,  begins  where 
the  horizontal  passage  to  the  Queen's  Chamber'  goes  off.  It  con- 
tinues to  ascend  at  the  same  angle  as  before;  it  is  150  feet  long, 
28  feet  high,  and  6£  feet  wide;  but  this  width  is  lessened  by  a 
projecting  stone  seat  or  ramp,  which  runs  along  each  side,  19  inches 
wide  and  2  feet  high.  Holes  are  cut  in  it  at  intervals,  which  are 
supposed  to  have  served  for  the  insertion  of  the  machinery  by 
which  the  sarcophagus  was  raised.  The  side  walls  are  formed  of 
eight  assizes  of  stone,  which  projecting  inward  oyer  each  other, 
give  the  passage  the  appearance  of  being  arched.  A  landing-place 
at  the  upper  end  leads  into  a  vestibule,  designed  to  be  closed  by 
four  portcullises  of  granite1.    Three  had  been  lowered,  the  fourth 

1  In  the  sepulchral  mounds  of  the  North  of  Europe,  it  was  customary 
to  place  a  shutter,  of  wood  or  stone,  let  down  in  a  groove,  between  the  cen- 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID. 


103 


remained  in  its  original  position,  the  lower  part  of  tha  groove 
never  having  been  cut  away  to  allow  of  its  descent.  Beyond  thesa 
lies  the  principal  apartment  of  the  pyramid,  the  King's  Chamber. 
It  is  34  feet  long  and  17  feet  wide;  its  height  is  19  feet;  its  posi- 
tion is  not  exactly  in  the  centre  of  the  pyramid,  but  a  little  south- 
ward and  eastward  of  the  vertical  line.  The  roof  is  flat,  formed 
of  single  slabs  of  granite,  and  the  side  walls  on  which  they  rest 
are  of  the  same  material.  The  sarcophagus,  also  of  red  granite, 
but  without  hieroglyphics  or  even  ornamental  carving,  stands  north 
and  south ;  its  exterior  length  is  7  feet  6  inches,  and  its  breadth 
3  feet  3  inches.  No  body  or  any  indication  of  its  former  presence 
remains,  and  the  sarcophagus  is  without  a  lid. 

It  was  known,  from  the  researches  of  Mr.  Davidson,  who  was 
Consul  at  Algiers  in  1764,  that  ten  feet  above  the  King's  Cham- 
ber, there  was  a  vacant  space,  thirty -eight  feet  long  and  seventeen 
wide,  varying  in  height  from  two  feet  and  a  half  to  three  feet  and 
a  half.  Col.  Howard  Vyse  has  discovered  that  there  are  four  more 
spaces,  in  the  same  perpendicular  line,  of  similar  dimensions.  Th8 
four  lowest  have  flat  roofs  ;  the  highest  has  its  roof  formed  of. 
blocks,  meeting  at  an  angle,  and  is  eight  feet  and  a  half  in  height 
in  the  centre.  These  spaces  have  been  left  vacant,  evidently  with 
the  design  of  lessening  the  pressure  upon  the  King's  Chamber, 
and  preventing  its  flat  roof  from  being  crushed  in.  For  its  venti- 
lation, two  small  passages  were  left  open,  one  on  the  north,  the 
other  on  the  south  side,  which  terminate  in  the  exterior  faces  of 
the  pyramid.  It  was  on  the  stones  of  these  chambers  that  the  hie- 
roglyphics were  discovered  drawn  in  red  ochre,  presenting,  besides 
the  quarry-marks  of  the  workmen,  the  shield  of  the  king,  and  thus 
establishing  the  fact  of  their  being  used  at  the  time  of  the  erection 
of  the  pyramid,  notwithstanding  their  absence  from  every  othei 
part  of  the  structure. 

tral  chamber  and  the  passage  which  led  to  it  (Guide  to  Northern  ArdweoW 
gy,  pilO!> 


;C4 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


If,  returning  to  the  point  where  the  upper  passage  branches  oft 
we  continue  in  the  line  of  the  passage  of  entrance,  we  find  it  pro- 
longed for  320  feet  from  the  opening  in  the  side  of  the  pyramid, 
and  with  such  exactness  that  the  sky  is  visible  from  the  further 
end1.  It  then  runs  for  27  feet  further  in  a  horizontal  direction, 
and  terminates  in  a  subterranean  chamber,  immediately  under  the 
Queen's  Chamber,  and  90  feet  below  the  base  of  the  pyramid.  It 
is  46  feet  in  length  and  27  in  breadth  ;  no  sepulchral  remains  of 
any  kind  have  been  found  in  it.  There  is  a  passage,  2  feet  7  inches 
high,  issuing  from  it  on  the  southern  side,  which  continues  for  a 
little  more  than  50  feet,  but  ends  in  nothing.  Col.  Vyse  sunk 
through  the  floor  of  this  chamber  to  the  depth  of  36  feet,  without 
any  result.  As  Herodotus2  speaks  of  a  communication  with  the 
Nile,  by  means  of  which  its  water  was  introduced,  so  as  to  insulate 
the  sepulchral  chambers  which  Cheops  constructed  for  himself,  and 
the  excavation  of  which  preceded  the  erection  of  the  pyramid,  it 
•was  natural  that  it  should  be  sought  for,  in  connection  with  this, 
the  lowest  apartment  hitherto  discovered.  It  is,  however,  consi- 
derably above  the  level,  even  of  the  Iligh  Nile  of  the  present  day, 
and  must  have  been  still  more  beyond  the  reach  of  water  drawn 
directly  from  the  river  in  ancient  times,  when  its  own  bed  was  so 
much  lower.  From  the  account  of  the  same  author3,  it  was  con- 
cluded that  the  exterior  of  the  Great  Pyramid  was  once  covered 
with  a  smooth  coating  from  the  bottom  to  the  top,  such  as  still 
remains  on  some  part  of  the  Second.  But  until  recently  no  trace 
of  this  coating  could  be  discovered.  Col.  Vyse,  however,  found 
under  the  rubbish  accumulated  at  the  base,  two  of  the  casing- 
stones  in  their  original  position.  They  are  of  the  limestone  of  the 
Mokattam  quarries,  which,  being  almost  free  from  fossils,  is  much 
^tter  for  fine  work  than  the  stone  of  the  Libyan  hills.  In  perpen- 
dicular height  they  are  4  feet  1 1  inches,  and  8  feet  3  inches  long, 


1  Richardson'*  Travels,  1,  ISOl  '  2,  1*4  *  %  125. 


MODE  OF  BUILDING  THE  PYRAMIDS. 


IDS 


the  outer  face  sloping  with  an  angle  of  51°  50'.  Being  inserted 
in  the  spaces  left  between  the  successive  courses  of  the  pyramid, 
they  were  shaped  to  the  required  angle,  and  then  polished  down 
Jo  an  uniform  surface.  The  operation  began  at  the  top,  as  Hero- 
dotus asserts,  and  was  carried  downwards1.  The  joints  are  scarcely 
perceptible,  and  not  wider  than  the  thickness  of  silver  paper,  and 
the  cement  so  tenacious,  that  fragments  of  the  casing-stones  still 
remain  in  their  original  position,  notwithstanding  the  lapse  of  so 
many  centuries,  and  the  violence  by  which  they  were  detached. 
All  the  fine  work  of  the  interior  passages,  where  granite  is  no; 
expressly  mentioned,  is  of  the  same  stone,  and  finished  with  the 
same  beautiful  exactness.  The  great  mass  of  the  pyramid,  how- 
ever, is  not  constructed  with  equal  care ;  the  mortar  is  formed  of 
crushed  red  brick,  gravel  and  earth  of  the  Nile  mixed  with  lime, 
and  sometimes  a  liquid  grout  of  lime  mortar,  Desert  sand  and 
gravel,  has  been  used.  A  pavement,  with  two  steps,  worked  with 
the  greatest  exactness,  so  as  to  obtain  a  perfect  level  for  the  found- 
ation, extended  under,  and  33  feet  in  its  widest  part  around  the 
base.  i 

The  loss  of  the  casing-stones,  which  appear  to  have  been  str'pt 
off  by  the  Caliphs,  discloses  the  exterior  arrangement.  The  first 
assize  is  laid  into  the  rock  ;  above  this  are  202  others,  varying 
from  2  feet  2  inches  to  4  feet  10  inches  in  depth,  and  projecting 
about  a  foot,  furnishing  the  means  of  an  easy  ascent  to  the  top. 
Herodotus  asserts  that  none  of  the  stones  was  less  than  30  feet 
long,  but  this  is  by  no  means  true  either  of  the  casing  or  the  in- 
terior ;  from  5  feet  to  12  is  the  common  range ;  the  longest  are 
the  slabs  of  granite  in  the  King's  Chamber,  which  approach  to  20 
feet.  Two  assizes  at  least  have  been  torn  away  from  the  top, 
which  now  presents  a  platform  of  about  25  feet  square. 

The  manner  in  which  the  pyramids  were  built  is  not  clearly 
ascertained  either  from  the  descriptions  of  the  ancients  or  by  re* 
1  Se«  p.  100  not*. 


•oc 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


searches  into  their  structure.  The  stones  bear  marks  of  having 
been  raised  by  machinery,  fixed  into  holes  in  them  which  are  yet 
visible,  but  the  width  of  the  projection  of  each  course  seems  not  to 
suffice  for  planting  on  it  machines  of  the  necessary  strength  for 
lifting  such  masses1.  The  third  pyramid  (see  PI.  I.)  has  been 
built  in  steps  or  stages  diminishing  towards  the  top,  the  angular 
spaces  being  afterwards  filled  up,  so  as  to  complete  the  pyramidal 
slope,  and  perhaps  this  may  have  been  the  mode  in  which  the 
other  pyramids  were  raised2.  These  successive  projections  would 
be  "  the  steps  like  those  of  an  altar"  on  which  Herodotus8  repre- 
sents the  machinery  to  have  been  planted. 

The  stones  used  in  the  construction  appear  to  have  been  finally 
prepared  on  the  rock  to  the  north  of  the  pyramid,  where  are  rows 
of  holes,  which  may  have  served  for  inserting  the  machinery  by 
which  they  were  raised  and  turned.  Diodorus4  asserts  that  no 
chippings  of  the  stone  were  to  be  found,  but  this  is  not  true. 
They  were  thrown  over  the  face  of  the  rock,  and  remain  there  in 
large  heaps. 

*  Neither  the  inscription  mentioned  by  Herodotus5,  commemorat- 

ing the  sum  expended  on  vegetables  for  the  workmen  during  the 
erection  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  nor  those  of  which  Abdollatiph6 
speaks,  now  appear  upon  the  surface.  Though  the  casing-stones 
can  be  traced  in  the  buildings  of  Fostat  and  Cairo,  they  bear  no 
marks  of  ever  having  been  inscribed.    It  is  probable,  however, 

1  Vyse,  2,  105. 

»  Bonorni  in  Gliddon's  Otia  iEgyptiaca,  p.  33,  42. 
8  Vyse,  2,  45,  73. 

*  1,  63.  OvSlv  ixvos  °"r£  T0*  x<*>li0LTOS  (the  inclined  mound  up  which  he 
supposed  the  stones  to  have  been  moved)  owe  tjis  twv  \iQo>v  Ztorovpyius  dro- 

^einerai. 

4  2,  125. 

6  Vyse,  2,  342.  "The  inscriptions  are  so  numerous,  that  copies  of  those 
alone  which  are  to  be  seen  on  the  two  pyramids  would  fill  ten  thousand 
pages."    Several  other  Arabian  writers  speak  of  these  inscriptions. 


THE  SECOND  PYRAMID.  107 

that  the  traced  hieroglyphics  were  then  to  be  seen  in  greater  num- 
bers than  now. 

Among  many  exaggerations  of  which  the  pyramids  have  been 
the  subject,  one,  repeated  by  several  ancient  writers1,  represents  the 
shadow  as  never  falling  beyond  the  base.  It  is  true  that  during  a 
part  of  the  year  the  shadow  at  noon  does  fall  within  the  base,  but 
throughout  the  whole  year,  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time,  before 
or  after  midday,  it  falls  on  the  surrounding  earth.  This  careless- 
ness in  reporting  a  fact  so  notorious  may  make  us  distrust  their 
statements  respecting  Syene,  on  which  such  large  inferences  have 
been  built  respecting  the  antiquity  of  astronomical  observation  in 
Egypt. 

Three  small  pyramids  stand  near  the  south-eastern  angle  cf  the 
Great  Pyramid,  and  are  mentioned  by  Herodotus,  who  tells  a  mar- 
vellous tale  of  the  means  by  which  one  of  them,  the  centre  ox  the 
three,  was  erected  by  the  daughter  of  Cheops2.  The  base,  accord- 
ing to  him,  was  150  feet,  which  corresponds  pretty  well  with  the 
measurement  of  Col.  Vyse,  who  makes  it  172  feet.  They  have  all 
inclined  passages,  beginning  either  at  the  base,  or  a  little  above 
it>  and  leading  into  a  subterranean  chamber,  but  nothirg  has  been 
found  in  any  of  them  by  which  the  original  occupant  covld  be 
identified.  A  few  casing-stones  remain  at  the  base  of  the  central 
one,  and  by  their  resemblance  to  those  which  covered  the  Great 
Pyramid,  may  be  thought  to  afford  some  countenance  to  the  tra- 
dition that  it  was  the  tomb  of  the  daughter  of  Cheops8.  They  are 
all  much  degraded,  but  appear  originally  to  have  been  about  100 
feet  in  height. 

The  Second  Pyramid  stands  about  500  feet  from  the  Great 
Pyramid ;  its  orientation  is  precisely  the  same.    As  the  rock  risea 

1  Descr.  de  l'Eg.  9,  451. 

"  2,  126.  It  is  marked  D  in  Wilkinson's  plan  of  the  Pyramids,  M.  and  G 
8,  898. 

1  Vy«e,  2.  70. 


108 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


to  the  westward,  it  was  necessary  to  level  it  for  ti  e  base,  through- 
out the  greater  part  of  its  area,  but  it  remains  at  the  south-western 
and  north-western  angles,  and  is  stepped  up  in  horizontal  layers  to 
correspond  with  the  courses  of  the  masonry.  Its  dimensions  are 
little  inferior  to  those  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  the  original  height 
being  454  feet,  and  the  length  of  the  sides  7 07 ;  and  from  stand- 
ing on  more  elevated  ground,  in  some  positions  it  even  appears 
higher.  It  has  had  two  entrances,  one  at  about  the  same  relative 
height  as  that  in  the  Great  Pyramid,  and  descending  at  the  same 
angle ;  the  other  from  the  pavement  at  the  base1.  The  latter  be- 
comes first  horizontal,  and  then  inclining  upwards,  again  meets  the 
former  and  proceeds  in  a  horizontal  line  to  the  sepulchral  cham- 
ber, called,  from  its  rediscoverer,  Belzoni's,  46  feet  in  length,  10 
in  breadth,  and  22  in  height.  It  contained  a  sarcophagus  of  red 
granite,  imbedded  in  the  floor,  rather  larger  than  that  in  the 
King's  Chamber  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  being  8  feet  7  inches  in 
length  on  the  outside,  and  7  feet  within,  without  sculpture  or  hie- 
roglyphics, contained,  when  rediscovered,  no  mummy,  but 
soreo  bones  which  on  sxamination  proved  to  be  those  of  an  ox*. 
It  appealed,  however,  from  an  inscription  that  the  pyramid  had 
been  opened  by  the  Caliphs,  so  that  no  argument  can  be  drawn, 
as  to  its  d:stination,  from  the  state  in  which  Belzoni  found  it. 
Both  passages  were  criginally  closed  up  with  a  portcullis,  at  the 
point  whera  thsy  take  a  horizontal  direction  ;  and  beneath  the 
lower  one,  Deyond  this  point  is  a  chamber,  excavated  in  the  rock, 
resembling  the  Queen's  Chamber  in  the  Great  Pyramid,  34  feet  in 
length,  10  in  breadth,  and  8  in  height,  under  the  centre  of  its 
angular  ceiling.  -Its  destination  is  supposed  to  have  been  sepul- 
chral, but  it  contained  only  some  loose  stones. 

1  Herodotus  does  not  mention  this  subterranean  entrance  of  the  Second 
Pyramid,  but  notices  its  existence  in  that  near  the  Labyrinth.    'Oit<  f  if 

avriiv  vir6  yi\v  irtnoltiTai  (2,  149). 

Belzoni,  1,  426. 


THE  THIRD  PYRAMID. 


1 


According  to  Herodotus,  the  first  course  of  this  pyramid  on  the 
outside  was  variegated  Ethiopic  stone1,  i.  e.  granite  of  the  Cataracts  ; 
and  this  still  remains  in  loose  blocks  at  the  base.  From  hence  to 
the  summit  it  appears  to  have  been  cased  with  the  same  fine  lime- 
stone from  Mokattam  as  the  Great  Pyramid.  The  casing  still 
remains,  for  about  130  to  150  feet  from  the  summit.  Its  smooth- 
ness and  projection  over  the  part  which  has  been  stripped  render 
the  ascent  to  the  summit  difficult,  but  it  may  be  accomplished  by 
means  of  holes  which  have  been  cut  or  worn  in  the  stones.  The 
masonry  of  the  interior,  with  the  exception  of  the  passages,  is  less 
perfect  than  that  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  and  it  even  appears  that 
only  certain  parts  are  solid,  the  intermediate  spaces  being  filled  up 
with  rubble.  There  are  remains  of-  a  building,  probably  a  temple, 
at  a  short  distance  from  the  eastern  face,  and  a  row  of  excavated 
tombs  in  the  rock  on  the  western  side.  On  the  rock,  on  the 
northern  side  is  a  row  of  hieroglyphics  of  the  age  of  Rameses  III. 

The  Third  Pyramid,  called  by  Herodotus  that  of  Mycerinus,  is 
of  much  smaller  dimensions  than  the  others,  the  base  being  354 
feet,  and  the  perpendicular  height  origin  ally  218:  its  area  was 
about  three  acres;  but  it  was  the  most  elaborately  finr'shed.  *The 
site  has  been  made  level,  not  by  lowering  the  rock,  but  by  a  sub- 
struction of  ten  feet  in  height  on  the  eastern  side,  composed  of  two 
tiers  of  immense  blocks.  No  tradition  existed  of  its  having  been 
opened,  nor  any  vestige  of  an  entrance,  till  the  operations  begun 
by  Caviglia  and  concluded  by  Col.  Vyse  in  1S37.  It  then  ap- 
peared that  it  had  been  entered  like  the  rest  in  the  time  of  the 
Caliphs2.  The  entrance  (PI.  I.)  was  found  on  the  north  side,  and 
13  feet  above  the  base  :  the  passage  descends  at  an  angle  of  26°  2' 
for  104  feet,  28  of  which  are  lined  with  grarite,  when  it  reaches 

1  2,  127.  'Yiro5eifias  rov  irpiorov  SSjiov  \iOov  Ai'fliw  tvou  tcikiAow.  The  granite 
of  the  Cataracts  is  called  pyropoecilus  by  Pliny,  N".  H.  86,  13. 

*  The  irregular  lines  in  the  Plate  mark  the  forced  entrance,  an  I  the  inte- 
rior pyramid,  the  supposed  original  extent 


110 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


an  ante-room,  the  walls  of  which  are  panneled  with  sculptured 
partitions.  Beyond  this  are  the  usual  portcullises  of  granite,  and 
a  horizontal  passage  terminating  in  a  large  apartment,  46  feet  long 
and  12  broad,  lying  nearly  under  the  centre  of  the  pyramid.  At 
one  end  of  it  is  a  depression  in  the  floor,  designed  for  the  reception 
of  a  sarcophagus,  but  nothing  was  found  in  it.  Fragments  of  red 
granite,  however,  were  strewed  about  in  the  chamber1,  which  have 
been  taken  for  the  remains  of  a  sarcophagus,  broken  to  pieces  by 
some  early  violators  of  the  pyramid ;  but  appear  to  have  been 
rather  chippings  of  the  granite  portcullis.  Two  passages  led  from 
this  room  :  one,  near  the  top  of  the  side-wall,  returns  towards  the 
exterior,  and  probably  reached  it,  but  has  been  closed  again  by  the 
builders  themselves.  The  pyramid  having  been  enlarged  from  its 
original  dimensions,  by  additions  in  lateral  extension  as  well  as 
height,  the  mouth  of  this  passage  was  closed  up  by  the  added 
s-one-work,  and  the  lower  passage  was  cut  from  within  outwards'1. 
The  other  passage,  the  entrance  of  which  appears  to  have  been  ori- 
gir^  lly  concealed  in  the  floor,  descends  for  about  30  feet,  and  ends 
in  a  sepulchral  chamber,  21  feet  in  length,  8  in  breadth  and  11  in 
height,  lined  with  granite,  in  which  a  sarcophagus  of  basalt  was 
found.  T.t  was  without  inscriptions  or  hieroglyphics  of  any  kind, 
but  wac  nculptuier1  in  slender  and  graceful  compartments,  and  had 
the  deep  cornice  which  is  characteristic  of  the  Egyptian  style3 : 
wi  h  its  lid  It  was  a  very  little  smaller  than  the  passages  through 
which  it  had  k&cn  introduced.  The  lid  was  broken,  and  found 
near  the  er trance  of  the  inclined  passage.  The  mummy  had  been 
removsd  by  x-mt,  previous  visitor  of  the  tomb4 ;  but  in  clearing  the 

1  Vyse,  2,  81.    Perring's  note.  '  Perring,  2,  79. 

'  Vyse,  2,  84.  'This  chamber  is  not  represented  in  the  Plate. 

*  Edrisi  (a.h.  623)  says  that  "  the  Red  Pyramid  had  been  opened  a  few 
years  before,  and  that  in  the  sarcophagus  the  decayed  body  of  a  man  had 
been  found,  with  golden  tablets  beside  him,  inscribed  with  character  which 
no  one  could  read."    (See  Vyse,  2,  71.) 


THE  RED  PYRAMID. 


Ill 


rubbish  from  the  larger  apartment  mentioned  before,  a  portion  of  a 
wooden  case  was  found,  inscribed  with  a  shield  which  has  been 
read  Menkera,  and  near  it  some  woollen  mummy  cloth,  remains  of 
a  skeleton,  and  the  resinous  gum  in  which  it  had  been  embalmed. 
The  sarcophagus,  which  weighed  nearly  three  tons,  was  with  great 
difficulty  got  out,  and  sent  to  England  ;  but  the  vessel  in  which  it 
was  embarked  was  lost  off  Carthagena  in  1838.  There  is  yet  an- 
other sepulchral  chamber,  into  which  seven  steps  descend  from  the 
bottom  of  the  last-mentioned  inclined  passage.  It  is  17  feet  in 
length,  6  in  breadth  and  height :  there  are  four  niches  in  the  wall 
on  one  side,  and  two  on  the  other,  designed  perhaps  for  the  recep- 
tion of  mummies,  which  were  placed  upright  in  them. 

The  name  of  the  Red  Pyramid,  used  by  the  Arabian  writers 
for  the  Third,  is  derived  from  the  courses  of  red  granite  with  which 
the  base  was  covered,  Herodotus  says  to  half  its  height1.  Diodorus 
describes  the  first  fifteen  courses,  and  Strabo  half  the  height,  as 
covered  with  black  stone2,  both  probably  from  misunderstanding 
the  vague  expression  of  Herodotus,  who  merely  says  Ethiopic 
■  stone.  The  casing  has  been  removed  from  the  part  above  the  first 
twelve  courses,  and  thus  the  construction  of  the  mass  has  been 
more  distinctly  aaown.  It  was  built  in  steps  or  stages,  gradually 
diminishing,  the  angular  spaces  being  afterwards  filled  up,  so  as  to 
complete  the  pyramidical  form.  The  third  Pyramid  had,  like  the 
Second,  a  temple,  at  a  short  distance  from  its  eastern  face. 

A  small  pyramid  which  stands  to  the  south  of  the  Third  exhibits 
the  same  construction,  and  apparently  has  never  been  reduced  to 
a  regular  slope,  by  the  filling  up  of  the  vacant  spaces.  This  has 
also  been  explored  by  Col.  Vyse,  and  in  the  sepulchral  chamber  a 

1  2,  184. 

1  Diod.  1,  64.    Strabo,  17,  808.     If  really  black  and  Ethiopic,  it  must 
have  been  of  basalt,  which,  however,  is  not  found  among  the  fragments. 
•-  Grobert  (Denon,  voL  1,  82,  4)  speaks  of  remains  of  black  marble,  of  which 
■ubsequcnt  travellers  make  no  rr.sntion. 


112 


ANCIKNT  EGYPT. 


sarcophagus  was  found,  of  small  size,  with  fragments  of  bones, 
apparently  those  of  a  female ;  so  that  this  has  probably  been  the 
tomb  of  a  queen1.  Two  other  small  pyramids  stand  in  the  same 
line  to  the  south  of  the  Third :  one  of  them  has  been  unfinished ; 
the  other  contained  a  granite  sarcophagus  (six  feet  two  inches  long) 
imbedded  in  the  ground,  like  that  in  the  Second  Pyramid,  but 
without  hieroglyphics  or  sculpture ;  and  a  shield,  with  the  same 
characters  as  the  mummy -board  of  the  Third  Pyramid,  was  paint- 
ed on  one  of  the  slabs  of  the  roof.  The  smaller  pyramids  of 
which  Diodorus  speaks,  and  which  he  says  were  erected  for  the 
queens  of  the  three  kings  by  whom  the  great  pyramids  were  built, 
are  probably  those  which  have  been  already  described,  near  the 
First  Pyramid.  He  says  their  base  was  200  feet ;  and  though  this 
does  not  exactly  correspond  with  their  present  state,  it  suits  better 
with  them  than  with  the  dimensions  of  those  near  the  Third, 
whose  base  scarcely  exceeds  100  feet.  Thus  the  whole  number  of 
pyramids  on  the  hill  of  Gizeh  amounts  to  nine.  The  construction 
of  the  smaller  ones  closely  resembles  that  of  the  larger;  the 
sepulchral  chamber  is  in  the  rock,  and  it  is  reached  by  a  passage, 
of  which  the  entrance  is  near  the  surface.  The  late  researches  of 
the  Prussian  Commission,  of  which  Lepsius  was  the  chief,  have 
ascertained  the  existence  of  numerous  pyramids  in  the  same  region 
of  Egypt,  the  traces  of  which  had  escaped  all  preceding  travellers. 
No  detailed  account  of  their  discoveries  has  yet  been  published, 
but  it  is  understood  that  the  number  amounts  to  thirty.  Thirty- 
nine  had  been  p/eviously  known.  Supposing  the  pyramids  to 
fc.ave  been  all  roy*l  sepulchres,  it  will  still  be  difficult  to  estimate 
the  number  of  the  kings  of  Egypt,  from  Uenephes3,  who  is  first 
mentioned  ac  a  V.iilder  of  pyramids,  the  third  from  Menes,  to  the 
end  of  the  eighth,  the  last  Memphite  dynasty. 

The  Sphinx  is,  next  to  the  Pyramids,  the  most  remarkable 


Vy*%  2,  45, 


*  Manetho,  Dynaat.  1,  No.  4» 


TEE  SPHINX. 


11" 


object  which  the  hill  of  Gizeh  exhibits1.  It  is  near  the  eastern 
edge  of  the  platform  on  which  they  stand,  and  its  head  is  tu.n^d 
towards  the  river.  It  is  nearly  in  a  line  with  the  southern  side  of 
the  Second  Pyramid,  but  on  somewhat  lower  ground,  and  La3 
been  excavated  out  of  one  of  the  faces  of  the  Libyan  chain.  I.s 
elevation  of  forty  feet  above  the  present  level  of  the  soil  serves  as 
a  measure  of  the  exten*.of  ^ock  which  has  been  cut  away  to  build 
the  Pyramids.  Neither  Herodotus,  nor  Diodorus,  nor  any  ancient 
author  before  the  Roman  age,  mentions  it ;  and  as  it  is  now  known 
from  its  inscription  to  be  at  least  as  old  as  tlie  uign  of  Thothmos 
IV.  we  learn  the  hazard  of  relying  on  negative  arguments  merely, 
in  proof  of  the  non-existence  of  monuments  of  antiquity.  In  its 
present  state,  with  only  the  head  and  shoulders  visible  above  the 
sand,  which  is  accumulated  by  the  western  winds  in  the  hollow 
space  around  it,  the  original  form  and  dimensions  of  the  Sphinx 
cannot  be  recognized.  But  a  few  years  ago,  by  the  exertions  of 
Caviglia,  the  sand  was  cleared  away,  and  some  important  discove- 
ries made.  Approaching  from  the  Nile  when  all  was  uncovered, 
a  sloping  descent  cut  in  the  rock  for  135  feet  ended  in  a  flight  of 
thirteen  steps  and  a  level  platform,  from  which  another  flight  of 
thirty  steps  descended  to  the  space  between  the  Sphinx's  feet.  This 
gradual  approach,  during  which  the  figure  of  the  Sphinx  was  kept 
constantly  in  the  spectator's  view,  rising  above  him  as  he  descended, 
was  well  adapted  to  heighten  the  impression  made  by  its  colossal 
size,  its  posture  of  repose,  and  calm  majestic  expression  of  counte- 
nance. The  height  from  the  platform  between  the  protruded  paws 
and  the  top  of  the  head  is  62  feet2 ;  the  paws  extend  50  feet  and 
the  body  is  140  feet  long,  being  excavated  from  the  rock,  except- 
ing a  portion  of  the  back  and  the  fore-paws  which  have  been  cased 
with  hewn  stone.    The  countenance  is  now  so  much  mutilated 

s  Howard  Vyse,  Pyramids  cf  Gizeh,  voL  3,  Appendix,  p.  109-119. 
1  Perring  (Pkitea,  P.  L  p,  5)  says  the  Sphinx  is  abont  70  feet  high* 


114 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


that  the  outline  of  the  features  can  with  difficulty  be  traced  ;  but 
there  is  no  reason  to  balieve  that  they  exhibited  more  of  the  negro 
conformation  than  belongs  to  the  Egyptian  physiognomy  generally, 
The  head  has  been  covered  with  a  cap,  the  lover  part  of  which  remains, 
and  which  probably  terminated  when  entire  in  an  erect  urceus\ 
such  as  is  seen  in  the  figure  of  the  Sphinz  on  the  tablet  which 
represents  the  offerings  of  Thothrcos  and  Jameses2.  It  had  origi- 
nally a  beard,  fragments  of  which  were  found  below.  The  space 
between  the  protruded  paws  appears  to  have  served  as  a  temple, 
in  which,  at  least  in  later  times,  sacrifices  were  performed  to  the 
mysterious  deity.  Immediately  under  the  breast  stood  a  granite 
tablet,  and  another  of  limestone  on  either  side  resting  against  the 
paws.  The  first  contains  a  representation  of  Thothmes  IV.  or  V., . 
offering  incense  and  making  a  libation  to  the  Sphinx,  with  a  long 
inscription  in  hieroglyphics  containing  the  usual  pompous  ascrip- 
tion of  titles  to  the  king3 ;  but  nothing,  as  far  as  it  has  been  inter- 
preted, which  throws  any  light  upon  the  origin  of  the  Sphinx 
itself.  A  shield  occurs,  however,  in  the  fractured  part  of  the  tablet, 
v'lich  appears  to  be  the  same  as  that  of  the  founder  of  the  Second 
Pyramid,  with  which  by  its  position  the  Sphinx  is  more  imme- 
diately connected.  The  side  tablets  represented  a  similar  act  of 
adoration  on  the  part  of  Rameses  III.  No  inference  however  can 
be  drawn  from  these  inscriptions  as  to  the  age  of  the  Sphinx 
which  has  no  hieroglyphics  in  any  part  of  it,  and  from  its  state  of 
decay,  is  probably  coaeval  with  the  pyramids  themselves.  On  the 
paws  are  many  inscriptions  of  the  Roman  times,  expressive  jof  acts 
of  adoration  to  the  Sphinx,  or  to  Egyptian  deities.    The  wall  of 

1  Vyse,  3,  109. 

2  Pliny,  N.  H.  86,  12,  77,  speaks  of  Armais  as  being  interred  in  the 
Sphinx.  The  name  of  Rameses  has  undergone  a  similar  change  into 
Armffius,  or  Armais,  in  the  account  which  Manetho  gave  of  the  expulsion 
of  ^Egyptus  and  Danaus.  Diodorus,  1,  64,  makes  Armseus  to  be  the  buildef 
of  the  Great  Pyramid  »  Birch  in  Yyse,  8,  118. 


TOMBS  NEAR  THE  PYRAMIDS. 


115 


crude  brick  which  surrounded  the  whole  and  checked  the  accumu- 
lation of  sand  was  repaired  under  Antoninus  and  Verus,  and  a 
Brnall  building  on  the  steps  is  inscribed  to  the  honor  of  the  Emperor 
Severus  and  his  sons1.  No  opening  has  been  found  anywhere  to 
the  interior  of  the  Sphinx,  which  is  probably  of  solid  rock  ;  nor 
anything  which  indicates  that  it  was  itself  a  place  of  sepulture,  or 
had  any  communication  with  the  Pyramids.  Remains  of  red 
color  it  is  said  may  be  traced  on  the  features2  as  well  as  on  the 
lions  which  were  found  in  the  temple  between  the  paws  ;  but  it  is 
doubtful  whether  these  belong  to  the  same  age  as  the  Sphir^ 
itself. 

The  design  of  carving  a  rock  which  broke  the  vi  ,w  of  +,he  Pyra- 
mids into  a  gigantic  Sphinx  was  worthy  of  the  grandem  of  Egyp- 
tian conceptions  in  architecture  and  sculpture.  It  was  probably 
the  work  of  the  same  age  as  the  Pyramids  themselves.  A.  Sphinx 
is  the  representative  of  the  monarch  whose  name  it  bears  ;  and 
as  the  name  of  Chafre  (Chephren)  is  found  upon  the  tablet  before 
mentioned3,  it  is  most  natural  to  suppose  that  it  was  fashioned  in 
his  honor.  The  Greek  mythology  has  accustomed  us  to  speak 
of  the  Sphinx  as  a  female,  and  the  artists  who  carved  in  the 
Roman  times  th^se  figures  of  Sphinxes  from  which  antiquaries 
derived  their  first  ideas  of  Egyptian  antiquities  sometimes  repre- 
sented them  as  female.  But  in  the  genuine  works  of  the  Pha- 
raonic  times,  it  is  most  rare  to  meet  with  a  female  Sphinx  ;  and  in 
these  exceptional  cases,  a  female  sovereign  is  represented,  as  in  the 
Sphinx  of  the  Museum  at  Turin,  published  by  Champollion  in  his 
Letter  to  the  Due  de  Blacas4.    The  junction  of  the  human  head 

1  Severus  visited  Egypt  a.  d.  202  (Dion,  15,  13).     The  name  of  Geta  is 
effaced  from  the  inscription. 
'  Ruhrica  facies  raonstri  colitur  (Plin.  N.  E.  oS,  12,  11). 
1  Birch  in  Vyse,  3,  115. 

*  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  2,  177.  No  stress  however  can  be  laid  on  the  uaa 
of  the  word  uVfytf^yyt?  by  Herodotus,  in  which  the  first  part  (as  in  avipo* 


JIG 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


with  the  body  of  a  lion  denotes  the  combination  of  sagacity  with 
-strength  required  in  the  administration  cf  a  king1.  The  pyra- 
midion  of  the  obelisks  usually  exhibits  tie  king  by  whom  they 
wrere  erected  in  the  form  of  a  Sphinx,  doing  homage  to  the  god  to 
whom  they  were  dedicated. 

Besides  the  monuments  already  described,  the  hill  of  Gizeh  ia 
full  of  tcmbs  of  various  ages.  A  few  of  them  only  had  been 
examined^  as  that  called  Campbell's  and  the  Tomb  of  Trades, 
before  the  Prussian  Expedition  under  Lepsius,  by  whom  more  than 
100  have  been  opened.  Their  walls  are  covered  with  paintings 
and  hieroglyphical  inscriptions,  which  give  us  as  clear  an  insight 
into  the  manners  and  opinions  of  the  Egyptians  under  the  Fourth 
dynasty  as  those  of  Thebes  under  the  Eighteenth  and  Nineteenth. 
Hitherto  no  drawings  or  detailed  descriptions  of  them  have  been 
published,  and  we  only  know  in  general  that  they  prove  the  high 
civilization  to  which  Egypt  had  attained  in  this  early  age. 

Herodotus3  describes  the  preliminary  labor  of  the  people  of  Egypt, 
in  preparing  for  the  erection  of  the  pyramids,  as  not  less  than  that 
of  building  them.  To  bring  the  stones  from  ths  Mountain  of 
Mokattam,  whence  all  the  finer  parts  were  derived,  it  w?s  n3C^s- 
sary  that  a  causey  should  be  constructed  across  the  valley  aii  tha 
plain,  rising  with  the  gradual  slope  to  the  height  of  the  hill  on 
which  the  pyramids  stand.  Ten  years  were  occupied  in  its  ccti 
struction  ;  it  was  five  stadia  in  length  (3000  feet),  CO  feet  in  width, 
and  in  its  loftiest  part  48  feet  in  height ;  built  of  polished  stones 
with  figures  carved  upon  them.  There  must  be  some  mistake  as 
to  its  greatest  height,  since  it  crossed  the  valley  at  the  foot  of  the 
hills,  which  is  from  80  to  100  feet  lower  than  the  site  of  the  pyra- 

p6vost  avSp6KfiTiTOi  and  others)  denotes  human  not  masculine,  being  distin- 
guished from  Kpi6o<piy£. 

1  Clem.  Alex.  Strom.  6,  p.  671  (Potter^    'AA*iJ{  jura  mvictu*  aipfioXot  % 

*  ii,  124. 


CAUSEY  TO  THE  PYRAMIDS. 


in 


mid.  A  causey  remains  which  begins  near  the  Great  Pyramid 
and  stretches  for  a  considerable  distance  across  the  plain  in  the 
direction  of  the  Nile.  It  can  still  be  traced  for  1400  to  1500 
feet,  being  then  lost  in  the  alluvial  soil  which  the  waters  of  the 
inundation  have  deposited.  The  polished  stones  covered  with 
carved  figures  are  no  longer  to  be  seen ;  and  hence  it  has  been 
supposed,  that  it  is  not  the  causey  which  Herodotus  describes,  but 
one  constructed  by  the  Caliphs,  when  they  stripped  the  pyramids, 
to  convey  the  stones  to  Cairo.  The  size  of  the  blocks  of  which 
it  is  composed,  however,  suits  with  ancient  Egyptian  rather  than 
with  Saracen  workmanship,  and  the  removal  of  the  casing  and  its 
figures  would  be  effected  when  the  pyramids  underwent  a  similar 
operation.  It  has  been  erroneously  supposed  that  Diodorus 
describes  the  causey  as  having  disappeared  in  his  time  :  but  he  is 
t  peaking  of  the  mounds  which  he  supposed  to  have  been  erected 
on  the  hill  itself,  as  vast  inclined  planes  to  raise  the  stones  to  th« 
upper  courses  of  the  pyramids1.  That  the  present  causey  points 
towards  Cairo,  and  not  towards  the  quarries  whence  the  stone  was 
brought,  is  no  proof  that  it  is  the  work  of  the  Caliphs.  To  have 
carried  it  obliquely  across  the  plain  in  the  direction  of  the  quarries 
would  have  increased  its  length  ;  a  line  direct  from  the  Great 
Pyramid  to  the  Nile  would  be  nearly  in  the  direction  of  Cairo, 
and  the  stones  might  be  easily  conveyed  by  water  to  the  com- 
mencement of  the  road.  There  are  no  remains  of  a  causey  oppo- 
site to  the  Second  Pyramid  ;  but  that  which  exists  opposite  to  the 
Third  is  pronounced  by  Sir  G.  Wilkinson  to  be  certainly  of  Egyp- 
tian, and  not  Arab  workmanship.  It  is  shorter  than  the  North 
causey,  but  runs  in  a  parallel  direction3. 

On  the  Eastern  bank  of  the  Nile,  and  about  nine  miles  S. 
of  Cairo,  the  traces  of  another  causey  may  be  perceived,  which 
appears  to  have  served  for  conveying  to  the  Nile  the  stones  which 


1  Diod.  1,  68. 


■  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebea,  1,  859. 


118 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


had  been  quarried  out  of  the  limestone  hills  of  Tourah  and  Ma>a- 
rah.  Tourah  is  supposed  to  represent  the  Troicus  pagus  of  th« 
ancients — a  name  which  they  referred  to  the  captives  whom  Mene- 
laus  brought  with  him  into  Egypt1.  Tourah  lies  to  the  north  anc 
Masarah  to  the  south.  The  face  of  the  hill  is  not  cut  away 
according  to  the  more  common  mode  of  quarrying,  but  excavated 
in  spacious  chambers,  whose  openings  resemble  those  o."  a  line  of 
sepulchral  grottos.  Besides  the  quarry-marks  of  the  workmen, 
there  are  inscriptions  recording  the  sovereigns  under  whom  the 
quarries  were  wrought,  and  the  buildings  erected  or  repaired  by 
them.  The  earliest  is  that  of  Amasis  of  the  17th  or  18th 
dynasty,  but  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  same  quarries  were 
wrought  for  the  erection  of  the  pyramids,  though  no  shield  corres- 
ponding with  the  names  there  inscribed  has  yet  been  found.  The 
ancient  cemetery  of  the  workmen  employed  in  the  quarries  has 
also  been  discovered.  It  is  a  sandy  hill,  between  the  cultivated 
land  and  the  desert,  extending  about  two  miles  from  Masarah  to 
beyond  Tourah".  Above  150  sarcophagi  of  limestone  were  found 
here,  and  fragments  of  wooden  coffins,  in  which  the  bodies  had 
been  enclosed.  They  appear  not  to  have  been  embalmed,  but  pro- 
tected against  rapid  decay,  by  being  steeped  in  common  salt,  and 
the  wrappers  in  which  they  were  enveloped  were  not  of  linen,  but 
of  woollen.  Other  bodies  were  found  in  tombs  constructed  of 
slabs  of  stone,  and  these  were  wrapped  in  linen.' 

The  northernmost  of  the  pyramids  is  that  of  Abouroash, 
about  five  miles  north-west  of  Gizeh  :  it  is  very  much  degraded 
and  contains  nothing  of  importance.  It  lies  too  far  from  the  ruin? 
of  Memphis  to  have  been  a  part  of  its  necropolis,  nor  is  it  clear 
to  what  ancient  city  it  belonged ;  but  the  site  of  a  considerable 
town  may  be  traced  in  a  sandy  plain  between  it  and  the  Nile. 

1  Strabo,  p.  809.  Etjour  in  Coptic  meant  a  strong  place  (see  Peyron, 
Lex.  893),  connected  in  root  with  T\yt  rvptns,  turris,  Tor. 

■  Perring  in  Howard  Vyse,  3,  90.  *  Perring  in  Vyse,  8,  93. 


PYRAMIDS  OF  ABOUSEIR. 


119 


The  Pyramid  of  Reegah,  a  little  to  the  south  of  Gizeh,  is  also  very 
much  ruined.  A  block  has  been  found  in  it,  inscribed  with  the 
name  of  a  king,  which  has  been  read  Ousrenre  or  Raseser,  and 
which  has  been  found  at  Abouseir  and  at  Wadi-Magara  near 
Mount  Sinai1.  But  it  affords  no  clue  to  the  age  of  the  pyramid, 
both  because  the  place  of  this  king  is  unknown  in  the  chronological 
series',  and  because  the  block  itself  appears  to  be  a  fragment  of 
some  older  building.  The  name  of  Abouseir,  now  borne  by  a 
village  seven  miles  south-east  of  Gizeh,  probably  represents  that 
of  the  ancient  Busiris,  the  inhabitants  of  which,  according  to 
Pliny9,  used  to  climb  the  Gizeh  pyramids  for  the  amusement  of 
visitors.  But  this  circumstance  proves  that  Busiris  must  have 
stood  nearer  to  them  than  Abouseir.  The  pyramids  of  Abouseir 
are  four  in  number,  besides  a  fifth  unfinished,  and  stand  on  an 
elevation  of  about  eighty  feet  above  the  plain,  into  which  two 
causeys  descend.  The  largest  pyramid  has  been  originally  274  feet 
long  and  171  feet  high4.  Their  casing-stones  have  been  stripped 
off,  and  they  are  consequently  much  decayed ;  and  their  general 
structure  is  loose  ;  but  the  sepulchral  chambers  at  the  base  have 
been  constructed  with  great  care,  and  the  roofing  blocks  are  even 
larger  than  any  at  Gizeh.  In  one  of  tnem  ,hev  were  thirty -five 
feet  long  and  twelve  feet  tl.xk ;  in  another  forty-five,  and  in 
another  forty- eight;  yet  these  enormous  masses  had  been  unable 
to  resist  the  means  of  destruction  employed  by  those  who  had 
forced  an  entrance  into  the  pyramids  in  search  of  treasure,  and 
broken  or  carried  off  the  sarcophagi  and  mummies  which  they 
once  contained.  In  the  most  northern  of  the  pyramids  of  Abou- 
seir a  royal  name  has  been  found,  which  has  been  read  Amchura 

1  Birch  in  Vjse,  3;  12.    Bunsen.  ^Egyptens  Stelle,  B.  2,  p.  69,  Germ. 
a  Lepsius  and  Bunsen  suppose  him  to  belong  to  the  third  dynasty  of  Ma 
•cstho,  ana  to  answer  to  the  Rauosia  of  Eratosthenes. 
"  N.  Hist  86,  12,  75.  *  Perring  in  Vys<?  8,  12. 

VOL.  2.  6 


120 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


by  Bunsen  and  Shoure  by  Birch1.  The  same  name  is  found  in 
the  sixth  place  of  the  upper  line  of  the  tablet  at  Karnak. 

At  Saccara,  two  miles  further  to  the  south,  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  the  remains  of  Memphis,  a  space  of  about  four 
miles  in  length  is  covered  with  sepulchral  monuments  of  the  most 
various  kinds.  In  the  northern  part  are  many  excavated  tombs 
and  pits,  some  of  the  depth  of  seventy  feet,  which  have  served  for 
the  deposit  of  mummies.  In  others  are  found  those  of  oxen, 
sheep,  ibises,  and  dogs ;  and  jars  which  have  been  filled  with 
eggs,  beetles  and  serpents.  They  have  been  all  ransacked  to  gra- 
tify curiosity  or  avarice,  and  the  plain  is  strewed  with  the  relics  of 
the  dead,  and  the  fragments  of  the  wood  and  linen  in  which  they 
have  been  enclosed.  The  same  plain  contains  also  eleven  stone 
pyramids,  from  their  size  the  next  in  importance  to  those  of  Gizeh. 
That  which  is  called  the  Great  Pyramid  of  Saccara  is  not  built 
with  a  regular  slope  from  the  base  to  the  summit,  but  consists  of 
six  stages  or  degrees,  each  retiring  within  the  othei,  ar.d  diminish- 
ing in  height  as  well  as  breadth,  the  lowest  baing  thirty-seven  feet 
high,  the  uppermost  twenty-nine.  The  face  of  each  story  maliw 
an  angle  of  72*  36'  with  the  horizon.  The  present  height  above 
the  base  is  196  feet;  much  of  the  lower  part  has  been  carried 
away,  but  it  seems  orig^rs'iiy  tc  have  covered  an  area  of  i<\ore  tnan 
15,000  square  yards.  It  is  not  bui'it  in  horizontal  courses,  but  h 
pyramidical  nucleus  of  rubble  is  enclosed  by  a  series  of  inclined 
walls,  about  nine  feet  thick,  eleven  in  number  on  each  side  of  the 
central  mass,  with  an  additional  one  on  the  north  and  south  sides. 
These  walls  are  composed  of  rudely  squared  stones,  set  to  the  angle 
of  the  face.  Instead  of  corresponding  exactly  w'th  the  cardinal 
points,  like  all  the  other  pyramids  of  Egypt,  it  deviates  4°  35'  to 
the  east  of  north  :  it  has  four  entrances,  and  contains  hierogly- 

1  Birch  in  Vyse,  8,  p.  22.  Bunsen,  t*.  8.  p.  78.  He  aupposea  rim  to  >* 
the  same  as  the  Biurea  of  EratostV  \m. 


GREAT  PYRAMID  OF  BACCARA. 


121 


phics  in  some  of  its  chambers.  Its  principal  internal  peculiarity  is, 
that  immediately  under  the  centre  of  the  pyramid  there  is  an  ex- 
cavation seventy-seven  feet  in  depth,  twenty-four  by  twenty-three 
in  width,  entirely  in  the  rock.  Its  upper  end  was  originally 
covered  in  by  a  ceiling  of  wood, — a  material,  the  use  of  which  is 
peculiar  to  this  pyramid  :  this  has  perished,  and  its  roof  is  now  the 
rubble-work  of  the  nucleus,  which  hangs  together  by  the  tenacity 
of  the  mortar.  The  bottom  of  this  excavation  is  floored  with 
blocks  of  granite,  and  beneath  is  an  apartment  ten  feet  long  and 
five  feet  high,  the  opening  into  which  had  been  carefully  closed 
with  a  stopper  of  granite  of  four  tons  weight.  The  purpose  of  its 
construction  does  not  appear  from  its  contents.  Its  position  renders 
it  wholly  unfit  for  an  oracle,  the  conjecture  of  Minutoli,  who  first 
in  modern  times  opened  this  pyramid1 ;  nor  is  it  much  more  pro- 
bable that  it  was  intended  as  a  treasury.  As  everything  else  con- 
nected with  these  structures  has  a  reference  to  interment,  this 
chamber  was  probably  designed  for  the  deposit  of  a  mummy, 
though  no  trace  of  one  has  been  found.  Passages  leading  to 
apartments  open  at  different  ^cincs  from  the  deep  excavation,  the 
arrangement  of  which  could  not  be  intelligibly  described.  The 
doorway  of  one  of  them  is  bordered  with  hieroglyphics  in  relief, 
among  which  we  find  the  standard,  but  not  the  name,  of  a  king, 
unknown  from  any  other  source3.  The  sides  of  these  apartment* 
had  been  ornamented  with  rows  of  convex  oieces  of  bluish  <rreen 
porcelain  inscribed  on  the  back  with  hieroglyphics.  Other  passa- 
ges, leading  from  these  apartments,  were  found  nearly  filled  with 
broken  vases  of  marble  and  alabaster,  fragments  of  sarcophagi, 
and  stars,  which  had  probably  been  the  ornaments  of  ceilings.  .  In 
a  gallery  connected  with  another  entrance,  and  which  appeared 
not  to  have  been  ransacked,  like  the  rest  of  the  pyramid,  thirty 
mummies  of  an  inferior  description  were  found,  not  enclosed  either 
in  coffins  or  sarcophagi,  but  in  wrappers  of  coarse  linen  with  pitcb 

1  Reisen,  232,  403.    Taf.  26-23  1  Perring  in  Vjae,  3,  41 

VOL.  I. 


J  22 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


and  bitumen,  and  only  three  or  four  having  any  painted  decora- 
tions. Even  when  Minutoli  entered  the  pyramid  in  1821,  the 
only  relique  which  he  could  find  of  mummies  of  an  elaborate 
kind,  was  a  skull  strongly  gilded  and  two  gilded  soles  of  the  foot. 
It  is  probably  of  much  later  construction  than  the  pyramids  of 
Gizeh,  and  if  destined  for  a  royal  sepulchre  has  been  used  for  very 
miscellaneous  interments1.  Some  of  the  adjacent  tombs  contain 
the  shields  of  kings  of  the  third  dynasty,  the  Tetkera  of  Lepsius 
and  Bunsen,  and  the  Baseser  whose  name  has  been  found  at 
Abouseir.  Another  pyramid  at  Saccara,  called  by  the  Arabs  the 
Throne  of  Pharaoh,  is  composed  of  very  large  stones,  but  is  only 
two  stones  high  and  has  obtained  its  name  from  its  broad  top  and 
small  elevation.  It  was  not  opened  before  the  Prussian  Expedi- 
tion. This  and  three  other  of  the  pyramids  of  Saccara  stand  in  a 
transverse  valley  which  leads  through  the  Libyan  chain  into  the 
Fyoum.  The  pyramids  of  Dashour1,  the  next  in  order  to  the 
south,  and  about  three  miles  f^om  Saccara,  are  not  further  from 
the  probable  limits  of  ancient  Memphis  in  one  direction  than  Gizeh 
in  the  other,  and  may  therefore  have  belonged  to  it.  They  may 
also  have  been  the  necropolis  of  the  town  of  Acanthus,  the  ruins 
of  which  are  about  three  miles  distant.  The  Acacia  (Mimosa 
Nilotica),  frcm  which  it  derived  its  Greek  name,  still  grows  abun- 
dantly in  tnis  district.  The  pyramids  aie  four  in  numbe-,  too  of 
stone  and  twc  of  brie)  —  *  material  not  elsewhere  employed  or 
this  purpose,  except  at  Illahoun  and  Howara  in  the  Fyoum  To 
the  northernmost  of  the  brick  pyramids  a  temple  and  portico  n  ive 
been  prefixed,  as  to  those  of  Meroe,  inscribed  with  hieroglyphics  of 
wnich  fragments  are  found,  though  the  buildings  themselves  can 
only  be  traced  in  their  foundations.  The  bricks,  which  are  c?ude, 
aro  al  out  sixteen  inches  long,  eight  wide,  and  four  and  a  1:  alf  to 
five  and  a  half  thick,  some  with  and  some  without  straw,  jid 
the  whole  mass  has  heen  laid  with  such  skill,  tnat  in  the  30\_rsa  of 
1  Perriug,  3,  38.    Bunsen,  2,  851.  9  Perring,  in  />st,  R,  66. 


PTRAMIDS  OF  DA8HOUR. 


123 


ages  not  a  single  brick  has  slipped  from  its  place.  This  is  the 
more  remarkable,  as  the  pyramid  is  literally  built  on  the  sand. 
The  sand  of  the  Desert  has  been  collected,  laid  perfectly  level  and 
confined  by  walls,  and  on  this  foundation  the  building  has  been 
raised.  The  exterior  has  been  cased  with  blocks  of  the  Mokattam 
stone,  not  inferior  in  size  or  finish  to  those  employed  in  the  Great 
Pyramid.  On  some  of  the  blocks  sculptures  have  been  found 
representing  funereal  offerings,  and  from  the  style  it  is  inferred 
that  this  pyramid  belongs  to  a  considerably  later  age  than  those 
of  Gizeh ;  and  the  same  inference  may  be  more  decisively  drawn 
from  the  occurrence  among  the  fragments  of  hieratic  characters, 
which  were  not  used  for  inscriptions  till  a  comparatively  late 
period.  From  the  excellence  of  the  brickwork  it  has  been  conjec- 
tured that  this  is  the  pyramid  which  Herodotus  mentions  (2,  136) 
as  being  built  by  Asychis,  a  successor  of  Mycerinus,  with  a  boast- 
ful inscription,  challenging  for  his  work  a  comparison  with  the 
pyramids  of  stone.  No  name  has  been  found  in  any  of  the  inscrip- 
tions by  which  the  builder  or  his  age  can  be  fixed,  -  .or  is  it  known 
whether  any  chambers  exist  in  the  interior.  Taa  northern  stone 
pyramid  of  Dash  our  had  a  base  of  720  feet.  ■  vly  forty  less  than 
the  Great  Pyramid,  but  its  height  was  only  342  It  had  three  sub- 
terranean chambers,  one  beyond  another,  exLi  «iting  a  peculiarity 
of  construction.  The  stones  which  line  the  sides  project  before 
each  other  as  they  rise  towards  the  ceiling,  so  that  one  of  the 
chambers  which  at  the  floor  is  twenty-seven  feet  vy  twelve,  is  nar- 
rowed at  the  roof  to  one  foot  and  two  inches.  Tne  southern  stone 
pyramid  is  remarkable  for  being  built  in  two  inclinations,  conse- 
quently with  an  obtuse  angle  at  about  half  the  height,  giving  it 
the  appearance  of  a  truncated  pyramid  supporting  a  pointed  one. 
A  subterranean  chamber  eighty  feet  in  height  is  contracted  in  t^e 
manner  just  described  from  twenty  feet  by  sixteen  at  the  bottom, 
to  about  a  foot  at  top.  Some  hieroglyphics  have  been  found  traced 
on  the  side  of  the  northern  entrance,  but  their  meaning  is. 


124 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


doubtful,  and  they  throw  no  light  on  the  original  construe 
tion. 

The  pyramids  of  Lisht,  about  nine  miles  south  of  Dashour,  with 
their  tombs  and  mummy  pits,  represent  probably  the  necropolis  of 
the  town  of  Peme,  which  stood  in  this  part  of  Egypt,  and  of 
which  the  name  is  preserved  in  Bemha.  They  are  in  a  state  of 
ruin,  so  as  scarcely  to  have  kept  the  pyramidal  form.  At  Mey- 
doom1,  twelve  miles  south  of  Lisht,  is  a  pyramid  resembling  in 
External  form  the  Great  Pyramid  of  Saccara,  but  consisting  only 
of  three  stages.  Its  internal  structure  is  unknown.  From  hence 
the  range  of  the  Libyan  hills  trends  away  to  the  entrance  of  the 
Fyoum.  The  pyramid  of  Illahoun  stands  just  where  the  narrow 
valley  begins  by  which  the  Bahr  Jusuf  passes  into  the  Fyoum, 
and  on  the  northern  side  of  it.  In  its  present  state  it  is  130  feet 
in  height,  about  40  feet  being  a  nucleus  of  native  rock.  The 
interior,  which  is  of  brick,  is  strengthened  by  diagonal  walls  of 
stone,  and  it  has  been  cased  on  the  outside  with  stone.  Nothing 
has  been  ^Var.  in  it,  by  which  any  light  can  be  thrown  on  the  cir- 
cumstances of  i*"  rection.  The  pyramids  of  Howara  and  Biahmu 
nave  been  ramiio  :  \  in  the  account  of  the  Fyoum. 

No  reason,  tie  v.?ubt  can  any  longer  exist  respecting  the  destina- 
tion of  tuese  g'our  a  of  pyramids.  Not  only  is  it  evident  that  they 
have  been  ph.ces  o.  interment,  the  only  rational  purpose  that  was 
ever  assigned,  to  tliam,  but  where  any  inscriptions  have  been  found, 
they  concur  with  tradition  in  showing  them  to  have  been  the 
sepulchres  of  k"ngs.  Further,  these  inscriptions  belong  to  the  ear- 
liest dynasties  rf  Egypt,  to  the  kings  whom  Manetho  places  before 
the  invasion  c-f  the  Shepherds,  and  of  whom,  besides  the  founders 
of  i.Iemphis,  five  dynasties  are  expressly  called  Memphite.  Around 
the  larger  structures  which  received  the  bodies  of  the  kings  are 
grouped  smaller  pyramids  in  which  queens  were  deposited,  and  the 
chief  officers  of  state  and  religion  were  buried  in  excavations,  near 
1  Purring,  8,  78,  81. 


DESTINATION   OF  THE  PYRAMIDS. 


125 


the  remains  of  their  masters.  The  animals  whom  the  Egyptians 
most  reverenced  had  also  a  place  assigned  them  near  the  highest 
personages  of  the  land,  as  we  find  that  at  the  Labyrinth  the 
bodies  of  the  kings  and  the  sacred  crocodiles  rested  together  in 
the  subterraneous  chambers1. 

This  mode  of  interment  was  confined,  with  trifling  exceptions, 
to  the  vicinity  of  Memphis  and  the  Fyoum.  There  is  a  pyramid 
of  stone  at  El  Koofa,  between  Esneh  and  Edfu  in  Upper  Egypt, 
and  some  of  brick  among  the  sepulchres  in  the  western  hills  at 
Thebes ;  they  were  also  the  ordinary  mode  of  interment  in  Meroe, 
but  none  of  the  monuments  of  that  country  belong  to  the  Pha- 
raonic  times. 

1  Herod.  %,  148. 


CHAPTER  Vn. 


THEBES. 

The  Nile,  which  just  before  has  flowed  in  an  unbroken  stream 
more  majestic1  than  in  any  other  part  of  Egypt,  divides  itself  as 
it  passes  Thebes  into  several  channels  separated  by  islands.  They 
contain  no  ancient  buildings,  nor  does  the  Nile  leave  on  them  any 
fertilizing  deposit ;  but  they  probably  existed  in  the  times  of  the 
splendor  of  the  city  and  facilitated  communication  between  the 
opposite  banks.  Both  the  Libyan  chain,  which  is  here  the  more 
abrupt,  and  the  Arabian  recede ;  the  plain  of  Thebes  lies  between 
them,  above  five  miles  in  length  and  three  in  breadth,  the  widest 
expansion  of  fertile  land  in  Upper  Egypt  and  the  fittest  site  for  a 
great  capital3.  The  Libyan  hills  return  towards  the  river  at  the 
northern  end,  and  at  Qoorneh  are  almost  close  to  it.  The  inunda- 
tion spreads  far  over  the  plain  on  both  sides,  but  especially  on  the 
west,  and  for  many  weeks  insulates  the  colossal  statues  of  Ameno- 
phis.  Its  depositions  have  permanently  raised  the  soil,  so  that  the 
base  of  every  monument  within  its  reach  is  buried  in  an  alluvial 
deposit. 

1  Deser.  de  1'Egypte  Antiq.  2,  2 

9  The  name  Thebes  is  said  to  be  derived  from  the  Coptic  Tape.  Lepsiua, 
Lettre  a  Rosellini,  p.  33.  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  136.  The 
resemblance  to  the  Boeotian  city  is  probably  accidental,  G>j#>j  being  a 
purely  Greek  word  signifying  a  hill,  an  etymology  well  suited  to  the 
locality  of  the  original  Thebes,  the  Cadmea.  Varro  R.  Rust.  8,  1.  44  Lin- 
gua prisca  et  in  Gratia  ^Eoles  Boeotii  sine  afflatu  vocant  Teba\  et  in  Sabl 
nis,  quo  e  Grsecia  venerunt  Pelasgi,  etiam  nunc  ita  diciiut" 


THECE3. 


127 


An  excavation  made  at  the  foot  of  one  of  the  eolossal  sphinxes, 
at  Karnak,  where  there  was  no  building,  and  consequently  no 
accumulation  of  fallen  materials,  shows  a  deposit  from  the  Nile  of 
eighteen  feet1 ;  at  this  depth  is  found  the  layer  of  rubbish  which 
serves  universally  as  a  foundation  for  the  ancient  buildings  in 
Thebes,  and  elsewhere  near  the  banks  of  the  river3.  Beneath  this 
again  lies  an  alluvial  deposit  of  unknown  depth.  The  rate  of 
deposition  varies,  diminishing  as  the  stream  descends  from  the 
cataracts  to  the  sea;  at  Thebes  it  can  be  fixed  with  tolerable 
approximation.  There  is  an  inscription  of  the  age  of  the 
emperor  Antoninus8,  on  the  pedestal  of  the  statue  of  the  vocal 
Memnon,  and  the  soil  has  risen  seven  feet4  since  it  was  written, 
i.  e.,  in  about  1700  years.  Assuming  the  secular  increase  of  five 
inches  to  be  uniform,  and  there  is  no  known  reason  for  its  being 
otherwise,  we  should  be  carried  back  to  about  2250  years  before 
Christ  for  the  time  when  the  substructions  were  laid,  which  must 
have  been  the  first  step  towards  the  building  of  Thebes.  The 
time  of  the  erection  o*f  the  obelisk  of  Luxor  was  fixed  by  the  cal- 
culations of  the  French  Commission,  on  the  same  grounds,  to  the 
beginning  of  the  14th  century  b.  c,  a  date  which  corresponds 
very  well  with  the  age  of  Rameses  II.  whose  name  the  central  line 
bears.  How  long  the  valley  of  the  Nile  hsd  been  peopled 
before  the  foundation  of  the  earliest  buildings  of  Thebes  is 
entirely  uncertain,  and  even  the  inferences  which  have  been 
drawn  from  the  accumulation  of  the  soil  cannot  be  received 
with  confidence,  without  more  accurate  and  continued  investiga- 
tions. 

The  existing  monuments  of  Thebes  are  partly  on  the  eastern, 
partly  on  the  western  side  of  the  river ;  as  no  continuous  wall  can 

1  Eitter,  Africa,  p.  843,  quoting  Girard. 
Descr.  2,  p.  171,  note  2. 
«  Descr.  de  l'Eg.  Ant  2,  213,  U. 
4  "Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  1,  9 

6* 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


1-0  traced  on  either  side,  its  extent  cannot  be  exact))-  ascertained, 
The  French  Commission  estimated  its  circuit  at  about  eight  miles', 
including  the  breadth  of  the  river.  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson  makes 
the  length  five  miles  and  a  quarter,  the  breadth  three2.  Memphis 
was  nearly  of  the  same  size  as  Thebes  according  to  Diodorus8.  Tli6 
principal  traces  of  habitations  are  on  the  eastern  bank,  which  was 
peculiarly  the  city  of  the  ram-headed  god  Amnion  or  Kneph, 
whom  the  Greeks  called  Jupiter.  Hence  the  names  of  No  Ammon 
given  to  it  by  the  Hebrews,  and  Diospolis  by  the  Greeks.  The 
western  bank  was  probably  less  populous,  though  the  remains  of 
temples  and  palaces  show  that  it  was  not  merely  the  cemetery  of 
the  metropolis.  In  the  Ptolemaic  times  it  bore  the  name  of  Mem- 
noneia,  and  then  appears  to  have  been  less  esteemed  as  a  residence 
than  Diospolis4,  and  occupied  by  those  whose  trades  were  offensive 
to  the  rest  of  the  community. 

Beginning  our  survey  on  the  western  side,  where  the  hills 
approach  the  Nile  at  Qoorneh,  the  northern  limit  of  the  plain,  we 
find,  at  the  distance  of  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile  from  the  river, 
raised  on  an  artificial  elevation,  the  remains  of  an  edifice  built  by 
Setei-Menephthah5  and  Rameses  II.,  to  which  Champollion  has 
given  t?29  name  of  Menephtheion*.  It  was  approached  by  a  dromos 
of  128  feet  in  length  and  two  pylons,  and  appears  to  have  com- 
prised both  a  temple  and  a  palace.  The  pillars  belonged  to  the 
oldest  style  of  Egyptian  architecture,  with  the  exception  of  the 

1  More  than  14,000  and  less  than  15,000  metres.    Descr.  3,  234. 

*  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  166,  note. 

*  1,  46.    The  circumference  of  Memphis  exceeded  by  ten  stadia  that  of 

TLefcee  fb.  52). 

'  Teyron,  Papyri  Grseci,  2,  41. 

'  Champollion,  Lettres,  380.  Wilkinson,  Modern  Egypt  and  Thebes,  2, 
lSe.    Descr.  de  l'Eg.  2,  354. 

e  Wilkinson  says,  begun  by  Osirel  This  difference  is  owing  to  Cham- 
pollion's  considering  the  epithet  "Men-Pthah,"  "established  by  Pthab,"  as 
the  name,  and  a  different  reading  of  the  first  character. 


1HE  RAME8EI0N. 


12G 


protodoric  of  Benihassan.  Its  dimensions  are  small  compared  with 
other  Theban  edifices,  but  the  basreliefs,  both  of  Setei-Menephthah 
who  founded,  and  Rameses  wlio  completed  it,  are  remarkable  for 
their  fineness. 

Following  the  edge  of  the  cultivated  land,  in  which  many  frag- 
ments are  buried  by  the  deposit  of  the  inundation,  we  reach,  at  the 
distance  of  about  a  mile,  another  palace,  the  most  remarkable  of  all 
on  the  western  bank,  the  Memnonium  of  Strabo,  the  tomb  of  Osy- 
mandyas  of  Diodorus,  named  by  Champollion  the  Rameseion,  from' 
the  evidence  which  its  own  sculptures  furnish.  It  is  one  of  the  most 
extensive  as  well  as  the  most  beautiful  of  the  Theban  monuments, 
and  its  remains  are  still  so  considerable,  that  we  can  ascertain  the 
general  distribution  of  its  parts.  It  stands  on  the  first  rise  of  the 
hills  from  the  plain,  and  flights  of  steps  from  one  court  to  another 
are  adapted  to  the  different  levels  of  the  ground.  Two  pyramidal 
towers  form  the  entrance,  beyond  which  is  an  hypsethral  court  of 
the  breadth  of  eighteen  and  length  of  140  feet,  surrounded  by  a 
double  colonnade.  On  the  left  of  the  steps  leading  to  the  second 
court  is  still  seen  the  pedestal  of  the  enormous  granite  statue  of 
.Rameses,  the  largest  according  to  Diodorus  of  all  that  existed  in 
igypt.  The  court  around  is  filled  with  its  fragments  ;  the  foot,  of 
which  parts  still  remain,  must  have  been  eleven  feet  long  and  four 
feet  ten  inches  broad  ;  the  breadth  across  the  shoulders  twenty-two 
feet  four  inches ;  the  height  has  been  calculated  at  fifty-four  feet, 
and  the  weight  at  887|  tons1.  The'  labor  and  skill  necessary  for 
extracting  such  a  mass  from  the  quarry,  polishing  it  to  the  most 
perfect  sr;cDthness,  and  transporting  it  from  Syene,  fill  us  with 
astonishment  \  we  might  have  supposed  that  refined  mechanical 
science  was  res.'ired  for  its  erection,  had  not  its  overthrow,  which 

1  Wilk.  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  144.  Descr.  de  l*Eg.  %  248.  It  is 
described  by  Dioaorus,  1,  47.  The  decisive  correction  of  Salmasius  (see 
Wessling),  rf^vofiivovi  for  Mipvovos,  has  been  overlooked  by  succeeding  wri- 
ters, who  still  speak  of  "  Memnon  of  Syene"  as  the  artist. 


13'J 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


was  ceiiiV  "r  *he  wor"-  of  rarbarians,  been  a  task  of  nearly  equal 
difficulty.  Th6  intere_  Tace  of  the  wall  cf  the  pylon  represents  the 
wars  of  Rarr  eses  31. ;  other  sculptures  of  the  same  events  are 
found  on  the  walls  of  the  second  court,  which  is  of  rather  smaller 
dimensions  than  the  first.  In  one  of  them  he  is  seen,  making  war 
against  a  city  surrounded  by  a  river ;  and  this  circumstance,  men- 
tioned by  Diodorus1,  serves  to  identify  these  remains  with  his 
monument  of  Osymandyas.  The  Osiride  pillars  of  the  second  court 
are  no  doubt  the  "  monolithal  figures,  sixteen  cubits  in  height,  sup- 
plying the  place  of  columns,''  of  which  the  same  author  speaks2. 
At  the  foot  of  the  steps  which  led  from  this  court  to  the  hall 
beyond  it  were  two  sitting  statues  of  the  king.  The  head  of  on*e 
of  these,  of  red  granite,  known  by  the  name  of  the  young  Meinnon, 
was  removed  with  great  labor  and  ingenuity  by  Belzoni3,  and  is 
now  a  principal  ornament  of  the  British  Museum4,  and  one  of  the 
most  perfect  specimens  of  genuine  Egyptian  art.  The  height  of 
the  whole  statue,  which  was  entire  in  Norden's  time,  was  rather 
more  than  twenty-two  feet6.  Beyond  this  are  the  remains  of  a  hall 
133  feet  broad  by  100  long,  supported  by  forty-eight  columns, 
twelve  of  which  are  thirty-two  feet  and  a  half  in  height  and  twenty- 
one  feet  three  inches  in  circumference.  The  dedication  of  this  hall, 
according  to  Champollion,  declares  that  it  was  used  for  public 
assemblies,  or  panegyries.  On  different  parts  of  the  columns  and 
the  walls  are  represented  acts  of  homage  by  the  king  to  the  prin- 
cipal deities  of  the  Theban  Pantheon,  and  the  gracious  promises 
which  they  make  him  in  return.  In  another  sculpture,  the  two 
chief  divinities  of  Egypt  invest  him  with  the  emblems  of  military 

1  1,  48.  This  identification  has  been  questioned  by  the  ia^e  eminent 
French  philologer  and  antiquary  Letronne ;  but  as  it  appears  to  me,  oi 
insufficient  grounds. 

a  1,  47.  "  Belzoni,  Researches,  &c  1,  68,  58,  5,05. 

4  Gallery  of  Antiquities,  by  Birch  and  Bonomi,  p.  104. 

»  Descr.  de  l'Eg.  Antiq.  2,  253. 


TflE  RAMESEION. 


131 


and  civil  dominion,  the  scimitar,  the  scourge  and  the  pedum. 
Beneath,  the  twenty-three  sons  of  Rameses  appear  in  procession, 
bearing  the  emblems  of  their  respective  high  offices  in  the  state, 
their  names  being  inscribed  above  them.  Nine  smaller  apartments, 
two  of  them  still  preserved  and  supported  by  columns,  lay  behind 
the  hall.  On  the  jambs  of  the  first  of  the  smaller  rooms  are 
sculptured  Thoth,  the  inventor  of  letters,  and  the  goddess  Saf,  his 
companion1,  with  the  title  of  "  Lady  of  Letters"  and  "  President  of 
the  Hall  of  Books2,"  accompanied,  the  former  with  an  emblem  of 
the  sense  of  sight,  the  latter  of  hearing.  There  can  be  little  doubt 
that  this  was  the  Sacred  Library  of  which  Diodorus  speaks, 
inscribed  "Dispensary  of  the  Mind3."  It  had  an  astronomical 
ceiling,  in  which  the  twelve  Egyptian  months  are  represented,  with 
an  inscription  from  which  important  inferences  have  been  drawn 
respecting  the  chronology  of  Rameses  III.'s  reign.  On  the  walls  is 
a  procession  of  priests,  carrying  the  sacred  arks ;  and  in  the  next 
apartment,  the  last  that  now  remains,  the  king  makes  offerings  to 
various  divinities.  The  circle  of  365  cubits,  each  answering  to  a 
day  of  the  year,  with  the  rising  and  setting  of  the  stars  and  the 
indications  which  they  afforded,  had  leen  carried  off  by  the  Per- 
sians, and  could  only  be  described  f  om  rumor  by  Diodorus,  or 
Hecata3us  of  Abdera  whom  he  followed.  He  can  hardly  have 
found  a  place  within  the  present  building,  in  which  there  is  no 
trace  of  the  name  of  Osymandyas,  and  it  may  possibly  be  an 
exaggerated  description  of  an  astronomical  ceiling.  The  Prussians 
have  discovered  not  one,  but  a  multitude  of  sepulchres,  excavated 
in  the  rock  under  that  part  of  the  edifice  which  is  nearest  to  the 
hills,  and  a  great  number  of  brick  vaults,  of  the  age  of  the  Rame- 
ses, also  destined  to  sepulchral  uses4.  If  this  were  the  residence  of 
the  king,  he  must  have  contented  himself  with  apartments  of  very 

1  Wilk.  M.  and  C.  5,  51.  »  Champollion,  Lettreq  p.  286,  9. 

*  Diod.  1,  49.     yfvxfc  larpciov. 

*  Letter  of  Lepsius  to  Letronne,  Rev.  Arch.  Jan.  1845. 


132 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


moderate  number  and  dimension  for  his  private  use,  those  of  greater 
size  and  splendor  being  evidently  designed  for  public  solemnities, 
The  whole  area  was  enclosed  by  a  brick  wall,  composed  of  double 
arches,  within  which,  besides  fragments  of  other  temples,  there 
•are  ranges  of  low  vaults.  To  the  northwest  of  these  remains, 
at  El-Assaseef,  almost  enclosed  among  the  Libyan  hills,  stands  a 
very  ancient  temple,  founded  by  a  sovereign,  whose  singular  inscrip- 
tions, exhibiting  a  mixture  of  masculine  and  feminine  forms,  leave 
it  doubtful  whether  they  proceeded  from  a  queen  exercising  kingly 
prerogatives,  or  a  king  consort  speaking  in  the  name  of  his  wife. 
They  are  preceded  by  a  dromos  of  not  less  than  1600  feet  in 
length,  and  in  which  more  than  200  sphinxes  formerly  stood.  Not 
much  remains,  but  some  polygonal  columns  are  still  seen,  according 
in  their  archaic  form  with  the  high  antiquity  of  the  inscriptions, 
which  belong  to  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty3.  The 
"hole  neighborhood  is  filled  with  tombs,  some  excavated,  some  of 
brick,  and  the  north-western  extremity  of  the  building  approaches 
bo  nearly  to  the  V  ']  gy  of  the  Royal  Sepulchres,  that  some  subter- 
raneous communication  has  been  surmised  to  exist  between  them. 

Returning  to  the  edge  of  Uie  plain,  we  find,  at  about  the  distance 
of  one-third  of  a  *nile  ,o  *jh.  south,  the  ruins  of  a  palace  or  tem- 
ple which  has  bee~i  caikd  the  Amenophion,  as  having  been  built 
by  Amunoph  III.,  the  Msmnon  of  the  Greeks.  It  was  dedicated 
to  Sokaris-Osiris'  -^hose  name  appears  on  the  fragments  still 
existing,  along  with  tl ,  t  of  Amun-re.  The  ground  on  which  it 
stood  is  called  the  Kom-el-IIettan^  or  Mountain  of  Sandstone, 

1  Descr.  de  l'Eg.  Ant  2,  268. 

■  Champ.  Lettres,  p.  292  folL  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  1 95. 
Descr.  de  l'Eg.  Ant  2,  841. 

■  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  IIL  1,  222.  Pliny,  N.H.  36,  11,  represents  the  vo 
cal  Meinnon  as  placed  in  the  Temple  of  Serapia.  He  was  not  one  of  the 
old  Egyptian  gods,  but  he  corresponded  nearly  in  his  attributes  with 
Sokaria. 


THE  AMENOFHION. 


138 


from  the  accumulation  of  rubbish  which  its  fall  has  produced.  In 
the  direction  of  the  river  and  separated  from  the  ruins  by  a  space 
of  1200  feet,  are  the  two  colossal  statues,  called  by  the  natives 
l  ama  and  Chama\  of  which  the  most  northern  is  the  vocal  Mem- 
non.  They  tower  above  the  plain,  apparently  unconnected  with 
any  building.  But  such  a  state  of  insulation  would  not  agree 
with  the  practice  of  the  Egyptians,  and  it  appears  from  inspection 
that  they  are  exactly  in  the  line  of  the  front  of  the  Amenophion  ; 
the  fragments  of  two  statues  of  gritstone  and  another  colossus  of 
crystalline  limestone  are  found  in  the  intermediate  space2.  Hence 
it  is  probable  that  the  vocal  Memnon  and  its  companion  formed 
the  commencement  of  a  dromos,  extending  to  the  palace  of  the 
king  whose  name  they  bear. 

These  statues,  including  the  pedestal,  are  sixty  feet  in  height ; 
the  pedestal  is  thirteen  feet,  but  more  than  half  of  it  is  buried  in 
the  alluvial  soil.  The  material  is  a  coarse  hard  breccia,  in  which 
agotized  pebbles  or  chalcedonies  are  intermixed,  found  above  the 
limestone  in  the  Mokattam  hills  at  Gebel-Ahmar3.  The  southern 
is  formed  of  one  entire  block  ;  but  the  northern  had  been  already 
broken  in  the  time  of  Strabo4,  either  by  an  earthquake  in  the  year 
27  u. c.  or  by  the  Persians6,  and  in  this  state  it  remained  till  after 
the  age  of  Domitian,  when  Juvenal  refers  to  its  mutilated  state8. 
It  was  subsequently  repaired,  probably  in  the  age  of  Severus,  by 

1  They  are  also  called  by  the  Arabs ' Selamat,  "the  greeting,"  as  if  in 
allusion  to  the  tale  of  ^emnon's  saluting  Aurora. 

2  Wilkinson,  iL  Eg.  and  Thebaa,  2,  p.  163.  See  also  his  great  Map  of 
Thebes. 

*  Russeggtr,  Reisen  2,  1,  p.  140.    Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit  4to.  2,  456. 
4  Lib.  17,  p.  816. 

•'  I'ausuo.  Atu  1,  p.  .31.  An  inscription  on  the  left  leg  asserts  the  muti. 
lution  by  O&jabyses. 

Dimidio  magic®  resonant  ubi  Memnone  chordae, 
Atqne  vetua  Th  ?be  centum  jacet  obmta  portia. 

Sat  15,  5 


134 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


five  separate  pieces  of  sandstone;  but  there  is  no  inscription  to 
record  by  whom  the  reparation  was  made.  The  lower  part  of  the 
body,  the  arms  which  are  resting  on  the  knees,  and  the  legs  and 
feet,  are  of  the  original  material.  A  line  of  hieroglyphics  at  the 
bftck  contains  the  name  of  the  king  Amunoph ;  on  the  right 
side,  attached  to  the  throne  on  which  he  sits,  stands  his  mother, 
Mautemva ;  on  the  left,  his  wife,  Taia  ;  and  the  traces  of  a 
smaller  figure  of  the  queen  are  also  seen  between  his  feet.  The 
thrones  are  ornamented  with  figures  of  the  god  Nilus,  who  is 
binding  up  the  stalks  of  water-plants.  Though  the  material,  from 
its  irregular  structure,  was  even  more  difficult  to  work  than 
granite,  it  is  evident  from  the  remains  that  it  had  a  most  perfect 
polish. 

That  the  northern  statue  was  the  vocal  Memnon  is  attested  by  a 
multitude  of  inscriptions  on  the  legs,  some  in  the  Greek,  some  in  the 
Latin  language.  They  are  chiefly  Of  the  time  of  Adrian,  who  with 
his  empress  Sabina  visited  the  statue ;  some  few  of  that  of  Nero, 
Vespasian  and  Domitian  ;  one  on  the  pedestal,  of  the  thirteenth 
consulship  of  Antoninus1.  The  sound  was  commonly  heard  at  the 
first  hour  of  the  day,  sometimes  a  little  later  ;  a  few,  among  whom 
were  Vibius  Maximus  and  two  other  prsefects  of  Egypt,  \*ere 
honored  with  its  repetition9 ;  while  others  came  three  times  before 
their  curiosity  was  gratified.  The  Sophist  Callistratus  add3  a  cir- 
cumstance, no  doubt  of  hi  c:vj  indention,  that  at  sunset  the 
statue  uttered  a  mournful  sound,  as  a  farewe'l  to  the  light3.  How 
the  effect  was  produced  we  can  only  conjecture.  It  :2sembled, 
according  to  Pausanias,  the  breaking  of  an  overs  fetched  musics 
string  ;  according  to  Strabo,  the  noise  produced  by  a  slight  blo^  ; 

1  The  fullest  collection  of  the  inscriptions  has  03  m  made  by  Lrtronn^ 
La  Statue  vocale  de  Memnon.  Paris,  1 !  83. 
■  Desc.  de  l'Eg.  2,  215,  218,  221,  227. 

•  Status;  ap.  Philostr.  Ed.  Lips.  1709,  p.  891. 

•  ^(tyof  &)f  iv  ir\r)yrjs  oi  pey&Xns  diroTe\tTTai,     Strata,  U.  i. 


VILLAGE  OF  UEDINET  ABOO. 


135 


a-  ."nacription  quoted  by  Sir  G.  Wilkinson  assimilates  it  to  the 
sound  of  brass.  This  was  confirmed  by  a  curious  experiment1. 
Ho  ascended  tlie  statue  and  struck  with  a  small  hammer  a  sono- 
block  which  lies  in  its  lap,  and  inquiring  of  the  Arabs  who 
^izod  below  what  they  heard,  they  replied,  "  You  are  striking 
brass."  The  French  commission,  having  observed  that  about  the 
]  our  of  sunrise  sounds  issued  from  the  ruins  of  Thebes,  conjec- 
tured that  they  might  be  produced  by  the  sudden  change  of  tem- 
perature in  the  stone ;  but  the  fact  must  be  better  ascertained 
before  an  explanation  can  be  built  upon  it.  If  fraud  were  prac- 
tised, it  belonged  to  the  times  when  the  Egyptian  character  had 
been  debased  by  conquest  and  oppression,  and  the  diffusion  of  its 
corrupt  superstition  through  the  Roman  empire  had  degraded  its 
ministers  into  jugglers.  There  is  no  proof  that  the  statue  was 
supposed  to  utter  any  sounds,  even  in  the  PtcJemaic  times2.  The 
name  of  Memnon  might  be  affixed  to  it  from  its  dark  colour — 
from  the  tradition  of  Ethiopian  conquest — an  historical  fact 
attested  by  the  names  of  Sabaco  and  Tirhakah  inscribed  at 
Thebes — or  from  the  title  Meiamoun,  borne  by  several  sovereigns 
of  the  same  dynasty. 

Still  keeping  to  the  south-west,  at  the  distance  of  about  one- 
third  of  a  mile  from  Kom-el-IIettan,  the  traveller  reaches  the  high 
mound  of  ruins  on  which  stands  the  villag.  of  Medinet  Aboo,  the 
site  of  the  largest  of  the  western  temples  of  Thjbes.  There  re- 
main two  distinct  masses  of  building.    That  which  is  furthest  from 

1  Trans.  Roy.  Soc  Lit  4to.  2,  446. 

8  Eusebius  (Kpov.  Ady.  up.  p.  16.  ed.  Seal.)  says,  44  Amenophis,  who  is 
thought  to  be  Memnon  and  the  speaking  stone."  But  it  is  evident  that  he 
or  Airicanus  mixes  his  own  remarks  with  what  he  found  in  Manetho, 
inserting  the  ministry  of  Joseph,  the  Exodus,  and  the  capture  of  Jerusalem 
by  the  Assyrians.  Syncellus,  on  the  authority  of  Polyamus,  say3  that  Cam- 
byses  broke  "it,  thiuking  there  was  magic  (yovTtiS)  in  it,  which  seems  to 
Imply  that  even  then  the  statue  was  vocal  But  this  is  not  confirmed  by 
any  other  author.    Sync.  Clwonogr.  \,  151. 


130 


AtfCIE  'T  EGTrT. 


the  Libyan  hills  is  a  temple  of  small  dimensions,  consisting  of  a 
sanctuary  surrounded  with  galleries  and  eight  apartments.  It  was 
begun  by  Thothmes  I.  and  carried  on  by  several  of  his  successors 
of  the  same  name.  In  front  of  this  building,  towards  the  river, 
are  additions  of  the  most  various  ages ;  the  enclosure  and  the  pro- 
pylsea  bear  the  name  of  Antoninus  Pius  ;  a  lofty  pylon  beyond  it 
exhibits  the  offerings  of  Ptolemy  Soter  IP.  Nectanebus,  the  last 
king  of  the  last  independent  dynasty  of  Egypt,  appears  on  the  bas- 
reliefs  of  a  small  chapel,  nearly  leveled  ;  and  the  name  of  Tirha- 
kah,  though  chiseled  out  when  the  Saitic  dynasty  was  established, 
after  the  expulsion  of  the  Ethiopian,  may  still  be  traced  on  an 
elder  building  which  adjoins  it.  The  name  of  Thothmeseion  has 
been  given  to  this  edifice,  in  honor  of  its  founder.  Rameses  (III.) 
IV.  united  it,  by  a  pylon  and  dromos,  to  the  far  more  splendid 
palace  which  he  erected,  nearer  to  the  foot  of  the  hills,  not  in  the 
same  line,  but  a  little  to  the  south,  and  which  Champollion  calls 
the  Southern  Rameseion.  The  part  which  is  nearest  to  the  Thoth- 
meseion has  been  called  by  the  French  Commission,  the  Pavilion3. 
It  is  of  a  character  differerJ  from  any  of  the  other  remains  of 
Egyptian  architecture9,  is  of  two  stories,  with  windows  more  nu- 
merous and  larger  than  are  commonly  seen  in  other  monuments ; 
and  the  walls  of  the  apartments  are  decorated  with  representa- 
tions of  the  private  life  of  the  king  in  his  harem  and  the  amuse- 
ments of  his  hours  of  relaxation.  The  exterior  walls  exhibit  Ra- 
meses in  the  attitude  of  s.  conqueror,  smiting  the  chiefs  of  the 
foreign  nations,  leading  them  into  the  presence  of  the  god  Arnun- 
re,  or  receiving  from  him  a  commission  to  go  and  make  war  upon 
them.  The  dromos  wdch  cr.cceeds  to  the  pavilion  is  265  feet  in 
length ;  the  pylon  at  ^e  end  is  covered  with  sculptures  relating 

1  Champ.  Lettres,  322.  3  Antiquity  2,  58. 

8  Henry,  Eg.  Pharaon.  2,  227.  It  is  composed  of  three  pieces,  of  which 
the  axis  is  the  same,  hut  the  size  regularly  diminishes;  so  that  the  section 
resembles  that  of  an  eye-glass  with  its  three  tubes  dra  vn  out. 


Pavilion  of  medinet  iroQ.  137 

tD  the  coronation  of  Rameses  and  his  rictories  o^er  the  natic*  s 
of  the  South.  Beyond  is  a  hypaethral  court,  135  feet  ;ong  by  110 
feet  broad,  adorned  with  Osiride  pillars  twenty-three  feet  in  height ; 
both  sides  of  the  towers  of  the  pylon  erhibit  the  wars  of  Ja- 
meses with  an  Asiatic  nation.  Through  a  second  pylon  ?  sscond 
court  is  entered,  of  rather  inferior  dimensions,  but  remarkable  for 
the  massive  proportions  of  its  columns,  which  have  only  three 
diameters,  their  height  being  twenty-four  feet  and  their  circum- 
ference nearly  twenty-three.  The  spaces,  of  intercolumniation  are 
unequal,  and  the  cornice,  which  is  double  the  architrave,  is  heavy. 
All  beyond  this  hall  is  a  mass  of  ruin.  The  walls,  internal  and 
external,  are  covered  with  sculpture.  The  architrave  represents 
the  dedication  of  the  palace ;  the  north-east  wall,  the  ccrciiatio  . 
of  the  king  and  religious  processions.  The  triumphs  of  the  Icl.^ 
are  continued  ;  heaps  of  the  hands  and  other  members  of  his  con- 
quered enemies  are  thrown  down  before  him,  and  their  nu.nber 
counted  and  inscribed.  In  one  of  the  battle-pieces  a  lion  is  repre- 
sented as  running  by  the  side  of  the  king.  This  circuinstf.n;<j,  ar.d 
one  or  two  others  mentioned  by  Diodorus  as  to  be  seen  i\  h« 
tomb  of  Osymandyas,  do  not  at  present  appear  in  the  sculptures 
of  the  building  which  we  have  identified  with  it;  his  authciities 
therefore  had  probably  blended  in  one  description  their  recollections 
of  two  distinct  buildings.  The  western  wall  is  covered  with  a  record 
of  the  offerings  made  by  Rameses  in  the  different  monlhs  of  the 
year1. 

To  the  south-west  of  this  temple  is  a  low  plain,  whose  'im'ts 
marked  by  high  mounds  of  send  and  alluvial  soil,  it  is  7300 
feet  in  length  and  3000  in  breadth,  consequently  exceeding  seven- 
fold the  area  of  the  Champ  de  Mars  at  Paris2.  The  French  Com- 
mission have  described  it  under  the  name  of  a  hippodrome ;  Ciiani- 
pollion  considers  it  as  a  fortification ;  Minutoli  and  Wilkinson  as 

1  Champollion,  Lettres,  361. 

'  Description  de  l'Egy^te  Ant  2,  138 


138  AFCIBNi  y^TT. 

a  receptee  ot  watei,  and  the  latter  specifically  as  the  lake  ou 
which  was  performed  the  ceremony  of  conveying  the  ombahned 
body  in  a  boat,  s:  frequently  ^presented  in  the  funeral  solemni 
ties  of  the  tombs.    For  thie  .ast  purpose  it  appears  far  too  large. 

The  whole  sweep  of  the  Libyan  hills  from  Qoorneh  to  Medinet 
Aboo  is  full  of  sepulchres1,  chiefly  excavations  in  the  rock,  which 
it*  calcareous,  of  a  fine  grain  and  moderate  hardness.  They  appear 
to  have  been  made  expressly  for  sepulchral  purposes,  and  not  to 
be  old  quarries,  converted  into  sepulchres2.  In  the  quarries  of 
Silsileh  and  Mokattam  no  graves  have  ever  been  found.  This  was 
the  Necropolis  of  the  whole  city,  no  tombs  existing  on  the  eastern 
side.  For  a  space  of  five  miles  and  to  the  height  of  from  300  to 
400*feet,  the  face  of  the  hills  is  pierced  with  rectangular  openings, 
from  which  passages  lead  into  the  heart  of  the  rock,  sometimes 
horizontally,  sometimes  with  an  inclination  and  interposed  stair- 
cases and  landings.  These  terminate  in  chamlers,  succeeded  by 
ott  er  passages  arc  other  chambers ;  or  are  interrupted  by  pits, 
horn  twenty  to  forty-five  feet  deep,  communicating  by  apertures 
:.n  their  bottom  or  sides  with  chambers  and  pits  beyond.  Their 
length  varies;  the  whole  extent  of  the  tomb  of  Petamunop  is  320 
feet  in  a  straight  line,  and  862,  reckoning  in  the  cross-passages 
and  returns  ;  its  area  is  22,217  square  feet,  or  an  acre  and  a  quar- 
ter of  ground9.  The  most  magnificent  have  an  open  vestibule 
before  the  entrance,  and  the  entrance  itself  is  adorned  with  sculp- 
-ure ;  otners  open  at  once  from  the  face  of  the  hill.  AVhere  the 
"ocse  nature  of  the  soil  threatened  a  fall,  they  are  arched  with 
vude  brick.  The  sides  of  the  passages  and  chambers  are  often 
covered  with  sculptures  and  paintings,  to  receive  which  they  have 
been  elaborately  prepared.  As  pebbles  and  tossils  sometimes 
occur,  they  have  been  taken  out  with  the  greatest  care  and  the 
space  filled  up  with  another  stone  or  cement.    In  general  the 

1  Descr.  de  l'Eg.  AnL  8,  8.  '  Rwellini,  Moo.  Civ.  1,  110. 

•  Wilkinaon,  Mod.  Eg.  2,  220. 


SEFULCKHKS. 


139 


sculpture  does  not  project  from  the  surface  of  the  wall ;  in  a  few 
instances  figures  have  been  carved  in  high  relief,  but  thay  are 
usually  in  niches  towards  the  end  of  the  galleries.  Commonly  the 
walls  are  smooth,  without  any  attempt  to  imitate  by  carving  the 
members  of  architecture.  They  were  covered  with  a  fine  stucco, 
on  which  the  designer  drew  his  figures  in  red,  and  the  painter  laid 
on  his  colors  like  an  illuminator.  They  are  usually  divided  into 
rectangular  spaces,  ornamented  with  chequers,  arabesques  and 
various  graceful  patterns,  in  which  far  more  freedom  is  shown  than 
in  the  religious  buildings1.  The  subjects  are  infinitely  varied ; 
scenes  of  every-day  life  are  perhaps  the  most  numerous  in  the 
tombs  of  private  individuals ;  but  acts  of  adoration  to  the  gods, 
funeral  ceremonies,  historical  events,  are  all  delineated,  besides  a 
profusion  of  mystical  groups,  whose  meaning  cannot  be  expounded 
till  their  legends  have  been  more  fully  interpreted.  The  minuteness 
and  delicacy  of  the  hieroglyphic  characters  is  astonishing ;  it  has 
been  calculated  that  there  are  1200  on  a  space  of  between  forty 
•  and  fifty  feet2. 

The  sepulchres  at  Qoorneh  being  excavated  in  a  looser  stratum 
than  those  which  are  more  remote  and  higher  up,  have  fallen  into 
great  decay;  but  as  they  were  generally  unsculptured,  they  pio- 
bably  were  not  occupied  by  the  wealthier  classes'.  The  hills  above 
the  Meneptheion  and  northern  Rameseion  abound  with  the  sepul- 
chres of  priests  and  individuals  of  the  higher  ranks,  who  selected 
the  firm  strata  which  they  offer,  and  adorned  the  walls  with  a 
variety  of  paintings  and  sculptures  which  make  them  inferior  only 
to  the  tombs  of  the  kings.  This  distinction  generally  prevails, 
that  the  tombs  of  the  higher  classes  occur  in  the  most  solid  part 
of  the  rock,  but  we  can  trace  no  strict  separation  of  castes ;  nor 
any  gradual  extension  in  chronological  order,  the  two  extremities 
of  the  hills,  at  Qoorneh  and  beyond  Medinet  Aboo,  havipg  been 

1  Descr.  de  i'Eg.  Ant.  3,  40.  3  Descr.  Ant,  3,  48. 

•  Belzoni,  1  350,  2^  ■ 


140 


ancient  Earn. 


occupied  apparently  as  early  as  the  central  portion.  Beside*  the 
excavated  sepulchres,  many  are  found  constructed  of  brick,  and 
some  pyramids  of  the  sam3  material.  The  mummies  are  piled  on 
each  other  in  the  pits,  :r  laid  down  in  rows,  but  never  erect 
against  the  walls.  The  tombs  of  the  lower  orders  contain  mum- 
mies of  bulls,  cows,  rams,  jackals,  cats,  crocodiles,  fishes,  ibises, 
and  other  birds  held  sacred  by  the  Egyptians1,  and  a  small  valley 
in  the  south-west  has  received  the  name  of  The  Apes'  Burial- 
place,  from  the  multitude  of  embalmed  cynocephali  which  have 
been  found  there. 

The  Royal  Sepulchres  are  chiefly  in  a  valley  which  bears  the 
Arabic  name  of  Bab-el-Melook,  '  Gate  of  the  Kings2.'  It  is  not 
far  from  the  Thothmeseion  already  described,  but  is  usually  ap- 
proached by  a  circuitous  and  more  level  route  from  Qoorneh,  from 
which  it  is  distant  about  two  nines.  Before  reaching  it,  another 
valley  branches  off  at  a  short  distance  to  the  right,  called  the 
Western  Valley,  which  contains,  besides  the  tomb  of  Amunophlll. 
near  the  entrance,  those  of  several  kings  of  a  foreign  dynasty  ;  and' 
another,  the  remotest,  of  a  predecessor  of  Rameses  II.,  whose  n^me 
is  uncertain'.  Immense  heaps  of  rubbish  have  accumulated,  and 
make  research  difficult ;  it  is  here  perhaps  that  we  have  to  looi 
for  the  tombs  of  Amunoph  L  and  II.,  and  the  four  Thothmes,  the 
predecessors  of  Amunoph  III.  in  the  eighteenth  dynasty.  . 

The  Bab-el-Melook  is  well  adapted  by  solitude  and  seclusion  to 
be  the  burial-place  of  kings.  It  is  enclosed  by  perpendicular  scarps 
of  limestone  rock,  equally  devoid  of  the  traces  of  animal  and  vege- 
table life,  and  appears  originally  to  have  been  a  basin  among  the 
hills,  without  any  outlet.  A  narrow  passage  has  been  cut  through 
the  rock  at  the  lower  end,  wheno*  *-9  name  of  gate  has  been  de- 
rived.   It  divides  itself  into  branc^s  nearly  at  right  angles  to  the 

1  Belzoni,  1,  261. 

Bab  in  Coptic  signifies  antrum,  spelunea.    See  Peyron  «.  we, 
•  Champollion  (Lettres,  247)  calls  him  Skai ;  Wilkinson,  Oeeta  or  K**k 


ROYAL  EEITLC  FIRES.  141 

principal  valley,  and  twenty  tombs  at  kast  have  been  ascertained 
to  exist  in  it.  The  ancients,  who  describe  these  excavations  under 
the  name  of  Syringes  or  tunnels,  reckon  them  originally  at  forty- 
seven1  ;  seventeen  were  known  in  the  days  of  the  first  Ptolemy, 
and  of  these  fourteen  have  been  identified  by  the  inscriptions,  in 
which  Greeks  and  Romans  have  recorded  their  visits  ;  Strabo  speaks 
of  forty ;  twenty-one  have  been  numbered  by  Sir  Gardner  Wilkin- 
son. They  are  all  of  monarchs  of  the  eighteenth,  nineteenth  anS 
twentieth  dynasties,  which  were  Theban.  No  order  is  observed  in 
their  distribution  through  the  valley;  each  monarch  appears  to 
have  selected  the  spot  which  pleased  him,  and  prepared  his  own 
tomb,  as  at  Memphis  he  raised  his  own  pyramid.  It  has  been  ob- 
served that  the  most  spacious  and  highly-finished  are  those  of 
monarchs  who  enjoyed  a  long  reign  and  could  devote  many  years 
to  the  excavation  and  ornament  of  their  future  resting-place ;  and 
after  all  death  generally  overtook  them  before  their  work  was 
finished ;  for  only  those  of  Amunoph  III.,  Rameses  Meiamun  and 
Rameses  HI.  are  complete  in  all  their  parts. 

The  sepulchre  of  Rameses  I.2  (Ramesu)  consists  of  two  long  cor- 
ridors without  sculpture,  and  a  chamber  containing  a  sarcophagus. 
The  entrance  is  nearly  choked  with  ruins.  That  of  Setei-Meneph- 
thah,  the  builder  of  the  Menephthei  )n  of  Qoorneh,  discovered  by 
Belzoni,  is  adjacent  to  it,  and  is  the  most  splendid  of  them  all, 
being  320  feet  in  length — not  all  in  the  same  line  or  on  the  same 
level,  but  descending  by  steps  and  inclined  passages  to  ISO  feet 
At  the  distance  of  about  100  feet  from  the  entrance,  Belzoni's  fui 
ther  progress  appeared  to  be  stopped  by  a  pit  30  feet  deep  and 
14  feet  by  12  wide.  A  small  aperture,  visible  on  the  opposite  side, 
suggested  the  idea  that  there  might*  be  something  beyond,  and 
on  trial  an  entrance  was  obtained  into  a  corridor  succeeded 
by  other  stairs  and  passages,  and  ending  ia  a  coved  saloon  37 

1  Diod.  1,  46.    Strabo,  lib.  17;  p.  815.   B'L^oui  himself  discovered  six. 

•  Marked  16  ^  Wilkinson's  Strvej. 


142  ANCIENT  EGYPT. 

feet  by  2Y,  filled  with  paintings,  in  the  centre  of  which  stood 
the  beautiful  sarcophagus  of  alabaster  which  is  now  in  the  museum 
of  Sir  J.  Soane.  It  was  entire,  but  Belzoni  was  not  the  first  who 
had  made  a  forcible  entry  into  the  tomb  ;  the  mummy  was  gone, 
and  the  cover  of  the  sarcophagus  broken  to  pieces.  Immediately 
under  the  place  on  which  it  stood  was  an  inclined  passage,,  with  a 
staircase,  the  entrance  concealed  by  the  pavement,  extending  300 
feet  further  through  the  rock.  One  of  the  apartments  contains 
an  astronomical  ceiling  in  which  the  firmament  is  a  brilliant  azure 
and  the  stars  white1.  All  the  walls  of  the  passages  and  chambers, 
as  far  as  the  saloon  of  the  sarcophagus,  are  so  covered  with  figures 
and  hieroglyphics,  that  hardly  a  foot  square  is  left  vacant.  Thei. 
subjects  are  very  various,  but  none  relating  to  the  occupations  of 
common  life ;  the  most  remarkable  is  the  procession  of  the  foui 
nations,  who  were  supposed  to  be  prisoners  made  by  Necho  in  his 
warlike  expeditions,  when  the  sarcophagus  was  referred  to  his  son 
Psammuthis  or  Psammis,  but  more  probably  explained  by  Cham- 
Dollion  of  the  different  nations  of  the  earth. 

The  tomb  which  the  inscriptions  of  the  Roman  times  call  that 
of  Memnon  is  really  that  of  Rameses  (V.)  Meiamun2,  or  his  succes- 
sor, as  Champollion  asserts.  Everything,  according  to  this  author, 
refers  to  the  soul  of  the  defunct  king,  which  being  mystically 
identified  with  the  Sun,  is  represented  as  passing  successively 
through  the  twelve  hours  of  the  day  and  of  the  night.  The  same 
idea  is  astronomically  exhibited  on  one  of  the  ceilings.  A  female 
figure,  bent  so  that  the  body,  legs  and  arms  occupy  three  sides,  is 
a  symbol  of  the  heavens ;  twelve  divisions  in  the  upper  and  as 
many  in  the  low^r  part  represent  the  day  and  night.  During  the 
day  the  Sun  is  accompanied\y  various  divinities,  changing  in  each 
horary  division ;  at  night  his  bark  is  towed  by  them.  Adjoining 
to  these  are  tables  of  the  influence  of  the  stars  on  different  parts 

1  Belzoni,  Researches,  New  Plates,  ILL 

2  No.  9  in  Wilkinson's  Survey. 


ROYAL  SEPULCHRES. 


of  the  body,  during  each  of  the  twenty-four  hours1.  Tht  hall 
which  precedes  that  in  which  the  sarcophagus  is  found,  is  conse- 
crated to  the  four  genii  of  Amenthe,  the  Egyptian  Hades.  In  the 
most  complete  tombs  it  exhibits  the  appearance  of  the  king  before  the 
forty-  It.  o  judges  or  assessors  of  Osiris.  In  that  of  Rameses  V.  there 
aie  £>  y-two  columns  of  hieroglyphics,  containing  the  laudatory 
sentences  which  the  judges  pronounce2,  with  a  picture  of  the  conste1 
.ations  and  their  influences  on  different  parts  of  the  human  body 
for  every  day  of  the  year.  The  tomb  called  the  Harpers'3,  as  being 
that  whence  Bruce  derived  the  picture  of  two  harpers  playing4, 
belongs  to  Rameses  IY\,  and  is  remarkable  for  the  number  of 
scenes  and  objects  of  domestic  life  painted  on  the  walls.  In  the 
small  apartments  of  this  tomb  are  pits,  in  which  the  chief  officers 
of  the  king  may  have  been  deposited,  the  subjects  on  the  walls 
referring  to  their  several  functions,  as  cook,  armor-bearer,  super- 
intendent of  the  royal  boats,  &c5. 

A  separate  place  of  interment  was  allotted  to  the  queens.  It 
lies  about  3000  feet  to  the  north-west  of  the  temple  of  Medinet 
Aboo.  They  are  the  consorts  of  the  kings  who  were  buried  in  the 
Bab-el-Melook ;  twenty-four  have  been  counted,  and  about  twelve 
are  known  to  have  been  those  of  queens,  but  the  sculptures  are  much 
destroyed,  with  the  exception  of  those  of  Taia,  queen  of  Amunoph 
in.  They  are  supposed  to  be  what  Diodorus  calls  the  Tombs  of 
the  Pallaces,  or  concubines  of  the  Theban  Jupiter,  their  position 
corresponding  pretty  nearly  with  the  distance  of  ten  stadia6  from 
the  tomb  of  Osymandyas.  The  confusion  of  characters  seems 
Btrange,  but  may  be  accounted  for  from  a  circumstance  mentioned 
by  Charnpollion7,  that  they  all  bear  the  title  of  Wife  of  Amun. 

We  return  to  the  eastern  bank  of  the  river,  the  true  Diospolis, 

1  Champ.  Lettres,  239.  *  Champ.  Lettres,  242. 

"  No.  1 1  in  Wilkinson's  Survey.  *  Travels,  vol.  2,  p.  29. 

*  Wilkinson,  Mod  Egypt  and  Thebes,  2,  206.    Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4,  102. 
Diod  1,  47.  7  Lettres,  p.  286.    Lepsius,  Einleitung,  p.  307. 


144  ANCIENT  Eovrr. 

where  the  two  villages  of  Luxor  (El-Uksor)  and  Karnak  contain 

u  m  merits  of  Egyptiar  grandeur,  even  more  remaikable  than 
tli  joc  tv'nch  we  have  already  described.  Thf.  ruins  of  Luxor  stand 
close  to  the  river ;  a  stone  jetty,  prolonged  by  an  addition  of 
u  ■ ~  \  served  at  once  ns  a  landing-place  and  a  prot  :tion  against 
the  e  croachments  of  tne  current.  The  entrance  to  the  ruin,  is  at 
the  point  the  most  remote  from  the  river,  looking  to  the  north-east, 
ani  the  most  conspicuous  object  on  approaching  was  the  pair  of 
»Miuks  sixty  and  seventy  feet  in  height,  erected  by  Rameses  II. 
I  tic  still  remains;  the  other  has  been  removed  to  France,  and  set 
up  in  the  Place  de  la  Concorde.  The  architect  had  endeavored 
*o  hide  their  inequality  by  placing  them  on  unequal  bases,  and 
advancing  the  smaller  sor  tewhat  nearer  to  the  eye.  The  hiero- 
glyphic characters  are  wrought  with  the  highest  degree  of  perfec- 
tion ,  faeir  derth  in  many  instances  exceeds  two  inches,  and  the 
Arabs  contrive  to  climb  them  vj  placing  their  feet  in  the  excavated 
part.  Behind  these  obelisks  are  two  sitting  monolitha.  statues  of 
the  same  king,  of  the  red  granite  of  Syene  ;  including  their  cubical 
bases,  they  were  thirty-nine  feet  above  the  level  of  the  ancient 
soil,  but  are  now  buried  in  deposits  of  earth  and  rubbish  from 
the  bust  downwards.  The  pylon,  fifty-one  feet  in  height,  and  the 
pyramidal  wings  contain  representations  of  the  battles  of  Rameses 
in  the  fifth  year  of  his  reign,  and  therefore  of  the  same  campaign 
which  is  recorded  on  the  walls  of  the  temple  at  AboosimbeP.  The 
court  to  which  this  pylon  gives  entrance  is  190  feet  long  and  170 
broad,  and  surrounded  by  a  peristyle  of  double  columns.  A  pylon, 
built  by  Amunoph  III.,  opposite  to*that  of  Rameses,  opens  i^pon  a 
colonnade,  which  leads  to  a  second  court  of  somewhat  swiMler 
dimensions,  terminating  in  a  portico  with  a  quadruple  row  oi  eight 

1  According  to  Champollion,  the  original  part  is  brick,  joined  with  a 
cement  of  extraordinary  hardness ;  the  reparations,  stone  taken  from  build 
mgs  of  no  very  high  antiquity. 

•  Champollion,  Lettres,  217. 


"KARNAK. 


145 


columns.  Bfeyond  this  are  a  multitude  of  apartments ;  among 
them  may  be  distinguished  a  sanctuary  and  a  chamber,  on  the 
walls  of  which  are  represented  the  birth  of  Amunoph  and  his 
presentation  to  the  tutelary  god.  Everything  southward  of  the 
second  pylon  is  the  work  of  Amunoph,  and  this  edifice  might  pro- 
perly be  called  the  Amenophion  of  Eastern  Thebes1. 

Returning  to  the  north-east  entrance,  we  find  an  mterval  of 
about  6000  feet  to  the  remains  of  Karnak.  The  space,  right  and 
left,  appears  to  hare  been  covered  with  buildings^  and  a  dromos 
bordered  with  cuidro-sphirures2,  to  have  connected  the  two  quar- 
ters in  which  the  sacred  edifices  were  placed.  If  they  extended 
through  the  whole  space,  they  must  have  amounted  to  600  ;  but 
at  present  they  remain  only  at  the  end  nearest  to  Karnak,  where  the 
dromos  divided,  one  part  turning  to  the  right,  the  other,  with  only 
a  slight  deviation,  to  the  left.  If  we  follow  the  former,  we  find, 
at  the  distance  of  about  600  feet,  the  commencement  of  another 
dromos  of  crio-sphinxes,  the  largest  which  exist  among  the  ruins 
of  Thebes.  The  head  is  that  of  a  ram,  the  body  of  a  lion  ;  the 
fore-paws  are  protruded,  the  body  rests  upon  the  hind-paws ;  a 
drapery  in  numerous  folds  descends  from  the  back  of  the  head 
over  the  shoulders  and  the  breast.  There  must  have  been  between 
sixty  and  seventy  in  a  double  row,  at  the  distance  of  eleven  feet, 
between  this  point  and  the  south-western  entrance  of  the  palace 
of  Karnak.  This  stupendous  mass  of  buildings  stands  within  a 
circuit  wall  of  brick,  1800  feet  long  and  somewhat  less  broad. 
Its  principal  approach  seems  to  have  been  by  the  dromos  which 
we  have  just  described.  Five  lofty  pylones  and  four  spacious 
courts  intervene,  between  the  end  of  the  dromos  and  the  main 
body  of  the  building;  the  first  gateway  of  the  pylon  in  entirely 
of  granite,  beautifully  wrought  ;  on  the  outer  side  were  two 
colossi  of  granite,  on  the  inner  two  of  crystalline  limestone. 


*  Champollion,  Lettres,  p.  208.  *  See  p.  115,  note  4 

VOL.  L  7 


146 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


For  some  reason  not  easily  divined,  the  pylones  have  not  been 

placed  in  the  same  line,  which  must  have  detracted  from  the  effect 
which  their  number  and  size  would  otherwise  have  produced. 
From  the  last  court  the  palace  is  entered  nearly  in  the  middle ; 
the  portions  which  lie  on  the  right  and  left  are  of  very  different 
character,  that  to  the  right  being  occupied  by  a  multitude  of 
smaller  apartments,  while  the  left  contains  only  two,  the  hypostyle 
hall  and  the  grand  court  in  front  of  it.  These  smaller  apartments, 
however,  were  the  nucleus  of  the  whole  pile,  according  to  an  ana- 
logy elsewhere  observed  in  the  great  Egyptian  buildings,  which 
expanded  themselves  from  a  centre  by  subsequent  additions,  and 
were  not  planned  from  the  first  in  their  actual  order  and  relation. 

In  the  court  first  entered  are  two  obelisks  of  Thothmes  L,  one 
erect  and  perfect,  the  other  broken  to  pieces ;  in  the  next  to  the 
right,  two  formerly  stood,  and  one  still  remains,  ninety-two  feet  in 
height, — the  loftiest  known,  except  that  of  St.  John  Lateran  at 
Rome.  To  this  succeeds  the  sanctuary,  approached  by  a  granite 
gateway,  and  composed  itself  of  the  same  material.  Around  it 
are  a  multitude  of  small  apa^ments  of  doubtful  use,  and  behind, 
some  columns,  which  both  by  their  polygonal  form  and  the  shield 
of  Sesortasen  I.  mark  this  as  the  earliest  portion  of  the  building. 
The  most  important  additions  in  this  portion  of  the  enclosure  were 
made  by  Thothmes  III.  In  one  of  the  chambers  built  by  him,  he 
is  represented  sacrificing  to  his  ancestors,  the  kings  of  Thebes. 
This  document,  called  the  Karnak  Tablet,  and  hereafter  to  be  more 
fully  explained,  is  one  of  the  most  important  records  of  Egyptian 
chronology1. 

If  we  return  to  the  point  at  which  we  entered  this  pile  of 
buildings,  and  take  the  opposite  direction,  we  pass  from  the 
court  in  which  stands  the  obelisk  of  Thothmes,  by  a  gateway 
Dearing  the  victories  of  Rameses  III.,  in1  to  the  hypostyle  hall^ 

1  Hieroglyphics  of  the  Egyptian  Society,  No.  96. 


THE  HYPO  STYLE  HALL. 


14< 


which  next  to  the  pyramids  is  the  most  impressive  and  won- 
derful of  all  the  remains  of  ancient  Egypt1.  Its  dimensions 
170  feet  by  329,  are  such,  that  according  to  the  observation 
of  the  French  Commission,  the  Cathedral  of  Notre-Dame  at  Paris 
might  stand  within  it  and  not  touch  the  walls2.  The  columns  of 
the  central  row,  twelve  in  number,  are  sixty-six  feet  in  height  with- 
out the  pedestal  or  abacus.  They  are  composed  of  assizes,  each 
three  feet  two  inches  in  height,  and  are  eleven  feet  in  diameter, 
equalling  therefore  in  their  solidity  the  dimensions  of  the  hollow 
columns  of  Trajan  and  the  Place  Venddme.  It  would  require 
six  men  with  extended  arms  to  embrace  their  circumference. 
On  either  side  are  seven  rows,  containing  122  columns,  forty- 
one  feet  nine  inches  in  height,  and  nine  feet  in  diameter. 
Above  the  capitals  is  an  abacus,  four  feet  in  height,  on  which 
the  architraves  of  the  ceiling  rested ;  those  of  the  central  avenue 
were  of  course  the  widest,  and  as  the  space  between  the  columns 
was  seventeen  feet,  and  the  architrave  extended  from  centre 
to  centre,  their  width  could  never  be  less  than  twenty-eight 
feet.  The  shorter  columns  have  a  cornice  above  the  architrave,  to 
bring  them  somewhat  nearer  to  an  equality  with  those  of  the 
central  row ;  but  even  this  has  not  sufficed  ;  and  above  the  cornice 
a  kind  of  attic  has  been  constructed  of  upright  stones,  reaching  to 
the  same  height  as  the  architrave  of  the  loftier  pillars,  and  sup 
porting  the  stones  of  the  ceiling.  Light  and  air  were  admitted 
into  the  hall  through  openings  above  the  side  rows,  which  thus 
answer  to  the  clerestory  of  a  Gothic  middle  aisle.  The  whole 
height  from  the  floor  to  the  ceiling  is  eighty  feet, 

1  "  Aucun  peuple  aneien  ni  moderne  n'a  concju  Part  d'architecture  sur 
une  6«kelle  aussi  sublime,  aussi  grandiose,  que  le  firent  les  vieux  Egyptiens 
et  Timagination  qui  en  Europe  s'elance  bien  au-dessus  de  nos  portiquess 
s'arrete  et  tombe  impuissante  au  pied  des  140  colonnes,  de  la  salle  hypf> 
style  de  Karnak."    Champollion,  Lettres,  p.  98. 

8  £>eacr.  de  1'Eg.  Ant  2,  436. 


148 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


The  destination  of  this  magnificent  hall,  built  by  Setei  Meneph* 
thah,  is  uncertain ;  most  probably  it  served  for  the  celebration  of 
the  panegyries  or  public  religious  assemblies,  which  were  periodi- 
cally held  in  Egypt,  or  for  the  administration  of  justice.  Cham- 
pollion  even  thinks  that  the  hieroglyphic  character  for  panegyry  is 
a  section  of  one  of  these  hypostyle  halls  or  manoskhs\  Such  a 
grove  of  columns,  however  impressive  by  their  architectural  effect, 
must  have  interfered  greatly  with  the  purposes  of  sight  and  hear- 
ing ;  and  of  the  apparent  area,  a  very  large  proportion  must  have 
been  occupied  by  the  bases  of  the  pillars.  Though  so  much  of  the 
imposts  has  fallen,  a  great  number  of  the  columns  are  still  left 
standing.  But  the  water  of  the  inundation  penetrates  by  infiltra- 
tion to  their  bases,  and  loosens  the  soil ;  they  lose  their  perpendi- 
cular position,  and  one  after  another  falls  prostrate.  The  walls 
have  been  adorned  with  historical  bas-reliefs  both  within  and 
without,  partly  by  Setei,  the  founder,  partly  by  his  son  Rameses  II. 
The  latter  added  to  the  hypostyle  hall  a  vast  open  court,  on  the 
north-west  side  and  towards  the  river,  2*75  feet  by  329,  having  & 
covered  corridor  on  either  side,  and  a  double  row  of  columns  down 
the  centre'.  The  passage  from  the  hall  into  this  court  was  by  a 
lofty  pylon  and  propyla,  the  lintels  which  covered  the  entrance 
between  them  being  forty  feet  ten  inches  in  length.  But  the  sym- 
metry of  the  court  is  greatly  injured  by  a  temple  built  by  Rame- 
ses III.,  which  interrupts  the  line  of  the  southern  colonnade,  pro- 
jects fifty-four  feet  into  the  area,  and  is  continued  for  about  double 
that  length  on  the  outside.  The  principal  gateway  towards  the 
river  is  exactly  opposite  to  thai  which  communicates  with  the 
hypostyle  hall ;  there  are  others  on  the  eastern  and  western  sides. 
On  one  of  these,  the  nearest  to  the  grand  hall,  are  seen  the  names 
of  the  cities  and  nations  conquered  by  Sheshonk  in  bis  expedition. 

i  Lettres,  278. 

«  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  p.  247,  and  his  Map  of  Thebe* 


KARNAK. 


H9 


An  avenue  of  criospliinxes  led  up  to  the  principal  gateway,  and 
two  granite  statues,  probably  of  Rameses  II.,  stood  immediately 
before  it. 

Besides  the  buildings  we  have  now  described,  the  wall  of  enclo- 
sure comprised  others  of  inferior  magnitude.  The  dromos  which 
unites  Luxor  with  Karnak  divides  itself  into  two  branches,  and  in 
our  survey  we  followed  that  which  led  to  the  south.  The  eastern 
branch,  which  is  almost  in  a  line  with  Luxor,  led  through  a  dro- 
mos of  rams1,  majestically  couched  upon  their  pedestals.  Judging 
from  those  which  remain,  there  must  have  been  a  double  row  of 
fifty-eight  in  a  space  of  about  500  feet.  At  the  end  of  the  dro- 
mos stands  a  gateway,  the  loftiest  of  all  that  remain  in  Egypt, 
sixty-four  feet  in  height,  not  flanked  as  usual  by  pyramidal  pro- 
pyla,  but  standing  alone,  like  the  triumphal  arches  of  the  Romans. 
This  deviation  from  the  established  practice  of  the  Egyptians2 
might  alone  have  excited  a  suspicion  that  it  was  the  work  of  later 
times  ;  the  inscriptions  prove  that  it  was  constructed  by  Ptolemy 
Euergetes  I.  It  now  stands  completely  insulated,  but  apparently 
in  the  line  of  the  brick  wall  which  enclosed  the  whole  area. 
Another  dromos  behind  the  gateway  conducts  to  a  temple  founded 
by  Rameses  IV.  and  continued  by  Rameses  VIII.  and  others. 
There  was  witlru  the  enclosure  a  lake,  and  exterior  to  it,  on  the 
east,  south  and  west,  ruhs  of  a  number  of  temples,  some  of  the 
Pharaonic,  others  of  the  Ptolemaic  age.  Remains  of  a  Ptolemaic9 
temple  are  found  at  Medamoud  to  the  north  of  Karnak,  where 
the  Arabian  clmn,  returning  to  the  river,  terminates  the  plain  of 
Thebes  on  the  eastern  side  ;  but  it  is  not  probable  that  it  was  ever 
included  within  the  limits  of  the  ancient  city. 

1  Descr.  de  l'Eg.  2,  509,  not  criosphinxes,  as  Sir  G.  "Wilkinson  says.  The 
(vfrYY03*  to  grasp  and  pierce)  must  have  the  body  and  claws  of  a  lion. 

•  There  is  a  similar  instance  at  Denderah ;  but  Denderah  is  not  of  the 
age  of  the  Fharaohs. 

•  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  133,  mentions  some  blocks  of  the 


150 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


Besides  the  spaces  which  we  have  described  as  covered  with 
ruins,  many  others  bear  evident  marks  of  having  been  once  occu- 
pied with  buildings.  They  may  be  traced  by  the  coarse  grass 
called  halfeh,  the  Poa  cynosuroides  of  botanists,  which  nourishes 
in  a  soil  composed  of  rubbish1.  But  nowhere  has  the  antiquary 
been  able  to  discover  any  remains  of  the  hundred  gates  which 
Homer  attributes  to  Thebes,  through  each  of  which  issued  two 
hundred  men  with  horses  and  chariots2.  That  these  are  meant  of 
the  gates  of  a  city,  not  of  the  pylones  of  the  palaces  and  temples, 
nor  of  the  royal  stables3,  is  evident ;  the  exaggeration  may  be  re- 
garded as  a  proof  how  little  the  Greeks  knew,  in  the  Homeric  age, 
of  Egypt,  and  what  scope  was  thus  afforded  to  the  imagination 
of  the  poet 

age  of  Amunoph  IL  and  Rameses  IL  found  here,  but  they  may  have  been 
transported. 

1  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  246. 

■  IL  f.  881.   QfiQat 

A-iyvirrtai,  89t  n'XsTara  ddftois  iv  KT^ara  KtTrait 

A"  6'  lKaT6ftnv\o(  cicrt,  Sit)k6ciioi  £  dv*  Uaarij* 

*Avepss  e^oi^vsvat  avv  lirnoiotv  xal  6j(t(r<piv. 
*  Diod.  1,  45.  Tovs  lirnojvas  tuardv  ysyovivai  Kara  rriv  Trapaworaniav  rr?j>  and 
Mlp^ecoj  a%pi  Qri0c2v  rd5v  Kara  Aj/Jvjjk,  ck&otov  Ss^o^^vov  dva  Siatcou'iovs  frnrovj,  u>v 
In  vvv  ra  9s[ie\ia  StUwoQai.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  observe  that  no  trace 
is  to  be  found  of  the  wonderful  tunnel  of  which  Pliny  speaks,  36,  20.  "  Le- 
gitur  et  pensilis  hortus ;  imo  vero  totum  oppidum  ^Egyptiae  Thebae,  exerci- 
tus  armatoa  subter  educere  solitis  regibus,  nullo  oppidanoruni  sentiente." 


CHAPTER  VIIL 


AMOUNT  OF  POPULATION. 

In  a  country  which  had  been  so  accurately  measured  as  Egypt  in 
the  time  of  Sesostris1,  we  cannot  doubt  that  exact  returns  of  the 
population  had  been  made.  Amasis  towards  the  end  of  the 
monarchy  compelled  every  man  to  appear  before  a  magistrate  and 
declare  his  mode  of  life,  and  this  if  fully  carried  out  must  have 
afforded  an  estimate  of  the  number  of  adult  males.  The  results, 
however,  have  not  been  recorded  in  ancient  authors,  nor  discovered 
on  monuments.  Herodotut  gives  no  account  of  the  population ; 
Diodorus2  says  that  in  ancient  times  it  had  amounted  to  seven  mil- 
lions and  was  not  less  in  his  own.  Agrippa,  in  the  speech  attri- 
buted to  him  by  Josephus3,  estimates  the  inhabitants  of  Egypt  at 
seven  millions  and  a  half,  besides  Alexandria  which  contained 
300,000  more.  As  his  object  was  to  dissuade  the  Jews  from  enter- 
ing into  a  contest  with  the  Romans,  who  had  so  easily  conquered 
Egypt,  he  would  rather  overrate  than  underrate  its  population.  No 
satisfactory  conclusion  can  be  drawn  from  the  statement  of  Hero- 
dotus, that  in  the  time  of  Amasis  there  were  20,000  inhabited 
towns,  or  of  Diodorus,  who  says  that  18,000  were  entered  in  the 
registers4.  The  numbers  are  startling  from  their  magnitude,  and 
we  are  not  informed  of  the  amount  of  population  in  each  inha- 
bited place.    The  estimates  of  modern  writers,  made  before  Egypt 

1  Herod.  2,  109,  177.  ■  1,  81.  1  Jos.  Bell,  Jud.  2,  16. 

*  Her.  2,  177.  Diod.  u.  s.  Theocritus  (17,  85)  increases  the  numbers  of 
Herodotus  by  more  than  one-third,  for  the  glory  of  Ptolemy  PhiladelphuR. 


152 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


had  been  surveyed  and  measured,  varied  from  the  four  millions  cf 
De  Pauw  to  the  twenty-seven  millions  of  Goguet1. 

Jomard,  availing  himself  of  the  great  map  prepared  by  the  engi- 
neers attached  to  the  French  Expedition,  has  endeavored  to  solve 
this  problem  on  statistical  principles2.  He  traced  on  this  map  the 
sites  of  the  ancient  cities  of  Egypt,  which  amount  to  200  whose 
names  are  ascertained.  To  Thebes  he  allots  700,000  inhabitants; 
to  Memphis  and  Heliopolis  together  400,000 ;  to  forty-seven  chief 
towns  of  nomes  470,000,  and  to  150  other  towns  750,000.  Fol- 
lowing a  proportion  which  has  been  observed  to  prevail  in  other 
countries,  he  assumes  that  the  small  towns  of  1000  inhabitants 
were  three  times  as  numerous  as  the  larger ;  the  villages  of  500, 
nine  times  as  numerous  as  the  small  towns ;  the  hamlets  of  200, 
thirty  times  as  numerous  as  the  villages,  and  hence  obtains  a  total 
of  5,420,000.  By  means  of  the  same  map  he  has  estimated  the 
extent  of  land  capable  of  culture  in  ancient  Egypt,  and  finds  that  the 
population  of  each  square  league  was  2077  (not  including  in  this 
average  the  dense  population  of  the  great  cities),  while  that  of 
France  in  1818  was  only  1082  in  the  same  area8. 

Tacitus  relates  that  when  Germanicus  visited  Thebes  he  was 
shown  the  monuments  of  the  reign  of  Rameses-Sesostris,  and 
informed  by  the  priests  that  Egypt  had  formerly  contained  700,000 
men  of  the  military  age4.  We  are  not  told  what  was  the  military 
age  in  this  country ;  at  Athens  it  extended  from  eighteen  to  sixty ; 
at  Rome  from  seventeen  to  sixty.  We  may  assume  it  at  eighteen 
to  sixty  in  Egypt,  with  whose  customs  those  of  Athens  had  a  close 

Origin  of  Laws,  vol  2,  p.  12,  Eng.  Tr. 

'  Description  de  l'Egypte,  Ant  Mem.  voL  9,  103  foil 

•  Jomard,  w.  a.  p.  1 99. 

4  "  Jussus  e  senioribus  sacerdotum  patrium  sermonem  interpretari,  refe- 
rebat,  habitasse  quondam  septingenta  millia  state  militari."  Ann.  2,  60. 
Comp.  Strabo,  17,  p.  816,  who  is  evide'ntly  less  accurate,  as  he  epeaka  of 
obelisks  in  the  Theban  sepulchres. 


AMOUNT  OF  POPULATION. 


153 


analogy.  Now  the  analysis  of  the  census  of  1821  shows  that  in  a 
population  of  20,160  persons,  the  males  from  eighteen  to  sixty  were 
46441.  This  is  more  than  one-fifth,  and  estimated  by  these  data 
the  whole  population  of  Egypt  would  be  scarcely  3,500,000.  If 
we  assume  eighteen  to  forty  as  the  military  age,  we  shall  have  a 
free  population  of  4,500,000,  and  slaves  may  have  swelled  the 
amount  to  more  than  five  millions. 

The  great  works  undertaken  by  the  Egyptian  monarchs  lead  us 
to  form  an  exaggerated  conception  of  the  population.  They  imply 
two  things :  a  large  amount  of  disposable  labor,  that  is,  of  laboi 
not  essential  to  procuring  the  means  of  subsistence,  and  the  powei 
to  compel  the  employment  of  it  upon  unproductive  objects2.  In  no 
country  of  the  ancient  world  was  subsistence  so  easily  obtained  as 
in  Egypt 3;  in  none  was  less  required  for  the  mere  support  of  life. 
According  to  Diodorus,  twenty  drachmae  sufficed  for  the  annual 
maintenance  of  a  child  till  he  grew  up4.  The  climate  was  salubri- 
ous, and  the  human  species  increased  rapidly5;  yet  these  alone 
would  not  have  produced  such  a  numerous  population,  but  for  the 
cheapness  of  food.  Left  to  themselves,  the  people  might  have  spent 
in  inactivity  the  leisure  which  the  facility  of  acquiring  subsistence 
gave  them ;  but  the  absolute  power  of  the  king  and  the  priests 
enabled  them  to  exact  their  labor  for  the  execution  of  public  works, 

J  See  Fynes  Clinton,  Fasti  Hellenici,  2,  387 ;  3,  459.  At  Athens  the  period 
of  foreign  service  began  at  twenty  and  ended  at  forty ;  at  Rome  foreign 
service  ended  at  forty-six. 

a  Arist  Pol.  5,  9,  4.  ■  Her.  2,  14. 

4  Diod.  1,  80.  I  presume  this  to  be  the  annual  cost,  though  the  words  of 
Diodorus  may  seem  to  imply  the  entire  cost    'AwiroSirwv  t&v  vXeiorw  <co> 

yvpvaiv  rpt^Ofiivcju  Sia  ri]v  evxpaotav  t&v  toitojv  H)v  naaav  6aTvai  ijr  ol  yoveis  aypii  3»> 
Ci's  fiXtKinp  t\dy  rd  tckvov  ov  ttXeio}  iroiovai  Spa^wv  etKoai. 

6  Aristotle,  Hist.  Anim.  7,  5,  says  that  births  of  five  children  at  once  were 
common  in  Egypt,  which  Trogus  increased  to  seven.  Plin.  7,  8.  Strabo, 
16,  695.  These  statements  may  be  received  as  evidence  of  the  reputation 
for  fecundity  which  the  Egyptian  women  enjoyed. 

1* 


154 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


designed  for  the  honor  of  the  sovereign  or  of  religion.  Another 

cause  of  the  proneness  to  believe  that  the  population  of  ancient 
Egypt  exceeded  anything  that  has  been  known  in  modern  coun- 
tries, is  the  opinion  that  large  tracts  formerly  susceptible  of  culti- 
vation have  been  covered  by  the  Desert  sand.  It  has  been  already 
observed  that  this  opinion  is  incorrect,  and  that  in  fact,  by  the  ope- 
rations of  the  Nile,  the  extent  of  productive  soil  is  constantly  on 
the  increase1. 

The  population  of  modern  Egypt  was  estimated  two  centuries 
ago  at  four  millions,  probably  on  no  very  accurate  grounds.  It  was 
computed  from  measurement  and  taxation  by  Jomard  at  two  mil- 
lions and  a  half2,  during  the  French  occupation  of  the  country. 
Sir  G.  Wilkinson  reduces  its  present  amount  to  1,800,0008 ;  a  suf- 
ficient proof,  that  under  the  government  of  Mahomed  Ali,  though 
order  has  been  enforced  and  commerce  increased,  no  real  improve- 
ment has  taken  place  in  the  general  condition  of  the  people. 

1  See  p.  67  of  this  voL  "  Jomard  u.  «.  p.  189. 

*  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  1,  316. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


AGRICULTURE  AND  HORTICULTURE. 

If  we  may  believe  Diodorus  (1,  43),  the  Egyptians  originally  lived 
only  on  such  plants  as  the  marshes  produced,  and  especially  on 
the  agrostis  ;  they  next  advanced  to  a  fish  diet,  thence  to  the  use 
of  flesh-meat,  and  only  after  a  long  time  began  to  use  grain  and 
fruits  for  food.  This  is  evidently  a  speculation  in  the  form  of  his- 
tory, to  which  the  gradual  emersion  of  Egypt  from  the  waters 
naturally  gave  rise.  The  oldest  historical  records  agree  with  the 
monuments  in  exhibiting  them  as  already  an  agricultural  people. 

The  remark  of  Virgil1,  that  Jupiter  had  made  the  art  of  culti- 
vating the  earth  difficult,  in  order  that  the  faculties  of  men  might 
be  sharpened,  is  certainly  not  applicable  to  Egypt.  Its  occupants 
found  no  forests  to  be  felled  or  rocks  to  be  cleared  away,  but  a 
deep,  light  and  fertile  alluvial  soil.  If  in  the  lower  part  of  its 
course  the  Nile  was  bordered  by  marshes,  there  was  an  ample 
space  in  Middle  and  Upper  Egypt,  through  which  the  fall  of  the 
river  was  sufficient  to  drain  the  waters  of  the  inundation  when  it 
subsided,  and  leave  a  surface  which  the  wind  and  sun  prepared 
speedily  for  cultivation.  From  the  account  of  Herodotus  it  would 
seem  as  if  all  labor  of  man  had  been  unnecessary,  beyond  casting 
the  seed  upon  the  earth  in  the  region  below  Memphis.  "  They 
obtain  the  produce  of  the  soil,"  says  he,  "  more  easily  than  any 

 Pater  ipse  colendi 

Haud  facilem  esse  viam  voluit,  primusque  per  artem 
Movit  agros,  curis  acuens  mortal ia  corda. — Georg.  1,  122. 


156 


ANCIENT  KGTPT. 


other  Egyptians,  or  indeed  any  other  men.  They  neither  undergo 
the  labor  of  opening  furrows  with  the  plough,  nor  breaking  the 
clods  with  a  hoe,  nor  any  other  of  the  operations  which  all  others 
perform  upon  corn  land  ;  but  when  the  river,  having  spontaneously 
covered  the  lands,  has  supplied  them  with  moisture  and  retired 
again,  then  each  man  having  sown  his  own  field  turns  in  swine 
upon  it,  and  having  trampled  the  seed  in  by  means  of  the  swine 
awaits  the  harvest,  and  having  trodden  out  the  corn  by  means  of 
the  swine  carries  it  off1."  In  this,  as  in  some  other  instances,  the 
contrast  which  struck  Herodotus  between  Egypt  and  all  other 
countries,  especially  Greece,  has  led  him  to  make  his  statement  of 
the  difference  stronger  and  more  absolute  than  the  fact  warrants. 
The  hope  of  the  husbandman  depended  primarily  indeed  on  the 
season,  which  sometimes  withheld  the  necessary  amount  of  rain  in 
Ethiopia,  and  sometimes  poured  it  down  in  excess.  But  if  the 
river  rose  to  its  standard  height,  the  care  of  the  cultivator  was 
necessary  to  enable  him  to  derive  the  greatest  benefit  from  the 
inundation.  He  had  to  admit  the  rising  water  on  the  fields  on 
which  he  meant  to  raise  a  crop,  to  exclude  it  from  those  in  which 
crops  were  still  growing,  and  to  provide  for  its  distribution  by  a 
system  of  minutely  ramified  canals.  As  it  retired,  he  had  to 
detain  it  by  dams  till  it  had  deposited  all  its  fertilizing  mud.  It 
was  not  true,  therefore,  even  of  Lower  Egypt  generally,  that  the 
harvest  was  raised  with  no  other  labor  than  that  which  Herodotus 
describes. 

The  simplest  of  their  agricultural  instruments  was  the  hoe,  which 
probably  in  some  soils  supplied  the  place  of  the  plough,  by  trac- 
ing a  shallow  furrow,  or  completed  its  work  by  breaking  the  clods. 
The  form  of  the  hoe  was  nearly  that  of  the  letter  A,  if  one  side  be 
supposed  to  be  slightly  curved  and  elongated  into  a  tooth.  The 
curved  part  was  generally  of  wood,  as  well  as  the  handle.  The 
plough  as  represented  in  the  pictures  of  Gizeh',  was  little  more 

1  2,  14.  '  Rosellini,  M.  Civ.  I,  289,  296.  PL  xxxii.  2. 


AGRICULTURE  AND  HORTICULTURE. 


157 


than  an  enlarged  copy  of  the  hoe,  the  curved  side,  turned  down- 
wards, having  become  the  share,  resembling  in  form  the  coulter  of 
a  modern  plough,  the  handle  having  been  lengthened  into  a  pole, 
and  two  curved  pieces  of  wood  added  at  the  point  of  junction,  by 
which  it  was  guided.  It  is  doubtful  if  metal  were  ever  used  for 
the  share ;  no  such  instrument  has  been  found  in  Egypt,  but  from 
its  color  in  some  of  the  paintings,  Rosellini  infers  that  brass  has 
been  used.  The  parts  of  the  plough  were  merely  tied  together  in 
some  representations,  and  the  whole  structure  of  the  instrument 
shows  how  light  was  the  duty  which  it  had  to  perform.  The 
ploughmen  only  in  a  few  instances  appear  to  be  using  their  strength 
to  force  the  share  deep  into  the  soil.  A  sower  followed  the  plough, 
carrying  a  bag  or  satchel  of  matting,  from  which  he  scattered  the 
seed  broadcast.  It  does  not  appear  that  the  ground  was  subse- 
quently harrowed  to  cover  it  in  ;  Herodotus  speaks  of  the  employ- 
ment of  swine  for  this  purpose ;  Diodorus  with  more  probability 
describes  cattle  as  being  used1,  and  he  is  confirmed  by  the  monu- 
ments, in  which  flocks  of  goats  appear  in  fields  which  have  been 
just  turned  up  by  the  hoe  or  the  plough*.  The  oxen  or  cows 
by  whom  the  plough  was  drawn  were  sometimes  yoked  by  the 
neck  and  sometimes  by  the  horns.  From  the  time  of  the  scat- 
tering of  the  seed  till  harvest,  it  seems  to  have  been  left  to  the 
genial  influences  of  the  sun  and  air,  which  ripened  wheat  in 
about  five  months,  barley  in  four  ;  at  least  the  Egyptian  monu- 
ments exhibit  no  traces  of  those  labors  which  the  Roman  aoric;:l- 
turist  had  to  undergo8,  in  order  to  secure  his  crop.    When  ripe, 

1  DiocL  1,  36.     To  <nr£p/ia  Qakovras  litayeiv  ra  ffofftcfi^ara.    He  appears  to  have 

thought  that  the  ploughing  was  dispensed  with  altogether. 
'  Rosellini,  u.  s. 

 Subit  aspera  silva, 

Lapp&que  tribulique,  interque  nitentia  culta 
Infelix  loliura  tt  steriles  dominantur  avenae. 
Quod  nisi  et  assiduis  terram  insectabere  rastris, 


158 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


the  corn  was  reaped  with  the  sickle,  the  grain  trampled  out  by 
oxen,  winnowed  by  being  thrown  into  the  air  from  baskets,  and 
stored  up  in  granaries.  The  form  of  one  of  these  is  exhibited  in  a 
painting  of  the  tomb  of  Rotei  at  Benihassan.  It  consists  of  a 
double  range  of  structures  resembling  ovens,  built  of  brick  with  an 
opening  in  the  top  and  a  shutter  in  the  side.  A  flight  of  stairs 
gives  access  to  the  top  of  these  receptacles,  into  which  the  grain, 
measured  and  noted,  is  poured  till  they  are  full.  The  mode  of 
emptying  them  was  to  open  the  shutter  in  the  side,  which  dis- 
charged all  above  it,  after  which  it  was  easy  for  men  to  enter,  and 
throw  out  through  the  opening  the  contents  of  the  lower  part1.  In 
another  representation  from  a  tomb  at  Thebes,  the  opening  of  the 
oven-shaped  receptacle  is  at  the  bottom.  In  a  tomb  at  Kum-el- 
Ahmar  we  see  the  sheaves  of  corn  thrown  into  a  hollow  conical 
receptacle.  Besides  wheat  and  barley,  the  monuments  show,  that 
the  dhorra  (Holcus  sorghum)  was  also  grown  extensively  in  Egypt, 
and  Rosellini  mentions  that  among  the  various  seeds  which  he  has 
'ound  in  the  Theban  tombs,  some  have  been  recognised  by  a  skil- 
ful botanist  as  unquestionably  belonging  to  this  plant".  The  grain 
was  obtained,  not  by  treading  out,  but  by  drawing  the  head 
through  a  set  of  spikes  which  entirely  separated  it.  Whether  this 
were  the  olyra  or  zea  on  which  Ilerodotus  represents  the  Egyp- 
tians as  living,  while  they  despised  wheat  and  barley  as  ignoble 
food8,  or  the  rye  which  is  mentioned  in  the  book  of  Exodus  as 
destroyed  by  the  hail,  is  uncertain4.    There  must  be  some  exagge- 

Et  sonitu  terrebis  aves,  et  ruris  opaci 

Falce  premes  umbras,  votisque  vocaveris  irabrem, 

Heu  magnum  alterius  frustra  spectabis  acervum. 

Virg.  Georg.  1,  152. 
1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  1,  328,  tab.  xxxv.    Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  2,  18fl 
»  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  2,  397.    Rosellini,  M.  Civ.  1,  364. 

•  Herod.  2,  36. 

*  The  Hebrew  word  nS03  Kusenieth  (Exod.  ix.  82)  is  rendered  by  tat 


AGRICULTURE  AND  HORTICULTURE. 


15S 


ration  in  the  statement  of  Herodotus  respecting  the  contempt  of 
wheat  and  barley  by  the  Egyptians,  seeing  in  what  large  quanti- 
ties they  were  grown. 

Nature  has  not  only  given  to  the  soil  and  climate  of  Egypt  an 
uncommon  aptitude  for  the  production  of  crops  of  grain,  but  has 
placed  it  in  the  neighborhood  of  countries  to  which  the  same  ad- 
vantage has  been  denied.  On  the  West  it  is  bordered  by  sandy 
deserts ;  on  the  East  by  a  rocky  region  equally  incapable  of  culture. 
Palestine  is  not  a  corn  country,  except  in  its  most  northern  district, 
Galilee;  and  the  sands  of  the  Arabian  Desert  intervene  between  it*, 
and  the  fertile  plains  of  Mesopotamia.  To  Egypt  therefore  the 
inhabitants  even  of  distant  countries  naturally  came1,  when  visited 
by  famine,  to  supply  themselves  from  its  superabundant  produce, 
which  not  being  perishable,  might  be  stored  up  for  many  years. 
The  long  ranges  of  granaries  were,  no  doubt,  intended  to  receive 
more  than  one  harvest. 

Another  object  of  cultivation  in  Egypt  was  flax,  which  was 
grown  chiefly  in  the  Delta,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Tanis,  Pelu- 
sium,  and  Buto;  but  also  at  Tentyra  in  Upper  Egypt;  it  was  a 
source  of  great  wealth  to  the  country,  though  the  fibre  had  less 
strength  than  that  produced  in  some  other  regions'.  It  was 
plucked  up  by  the  hand,  the  linseed  stripped  off  and  then  steeped 
and  heckled.  These  operations  are  represented  in  the  paintings  at 
Benihassan  and  elsewhere,  with  very  little  variation  from  modern 
practice.  The  cultivation  of  cotton  is  not  represented  on  any  mo- 
nument, a  circumstance  which  would  conclude  strongly  against  the 

Septuagint  here  5\vpa,  in  Is.  xxviii.  25,  $t<u  It  is  supposed  to  be  the  groin 
which  furnished  the  far  or  adoreum  of  the  Latins:  Pliny,  18,  11.  Far  in 
Egypto  ex  olyra  confieitur. 

1  Gen.  xii.  10;  xxvi  1 ;  xlii.  57.  "All  countries  came  into  Egypt  to  Jo- 
seph to  buy  corn,  because  tta  famine  was  6ore  in  all  lands."    Tlvpo<p6pot  61 

wi*  aiyMtvra  k^-koj  Nf}t$  ayovotv  dir  Aiyvrrrov,  ptyiorov  x\of>rov.     BacchyL  Fr.  27. 

*  Pliny,  19,  1.    J]gjptio  lino  minimum  fixmitatis,  plurimuin  JuorL 


160 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


opinion  that  the  byssus  of  Herodotus  was  cotton  cloth,  even  had 
net  the  examination  of  the  mummy  bandages  proved  that  they  are 
linen.  Rosellini,  however,  says  that  he  has  found  the  cotton  seed 
in  an  unopened  tomb,  and  we  know  from  Pliny  that  it  was  culti- 
vated in  Upper  Egypt  in  his  time,  and  that  the  priests  made  their 
garments  from  it1. 

The  culture  of  the  esculent  plants  and  roots  which  formed  a 
large  part  of  the  diet  of  the  Egyptians,  must  also  have  been  a 
principal  feature  in  their  husbandry.  Of  these  the  ancients  parti- 
^  cularly  mention  the  leguminous  class,  the  bean2,  the  vetch,  the 
lentil,  to  the  growth  of  which  the  climate  and  soil  were  so  favour- 
able that  they  appeared  above  ground  on  the  third  day  after 
sowing,  with  the  exception  of  the  bean3.  Cucurbitaceous  plants, 
such  as  the  cucumber4,  gourd  and  melon6,  so  grateful  and  salutary 
in  hot  climates,  grew  also  in  Egypt  in  great  abundance ;  and  it 
was  equally  celebrated  for  the  excellence  of  its  onions,  leeks  and 
garlic,  which  with  us  serve  only  as  the  condiment  of  food,  but  in 
Egypt  supplied  a  considerable  nutriment  to  the  body  of  the  people, 
their  flavour  being  much  milder  than  when  grown  in  northern 
climates.  The  lands  nearest  to  the  Nile,  or  to  the  canals  which 
did  not  require  the  inundation  to  fill  them,  would  naturally  be 
appropriated  to  this  kind  of  cultivation,  which  demands  a  frequent 
supply  of  water  during  the  growth  of  the  crop.  A  very  simple 
mode  of  raising  it  by  the  bucket  and  pole  is  figured  in  one  of  the 
tombs,  by  a  succession  of  which  with  reservoirs  it  might  be  labo- 
1  Pliny,  u.  s.  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  1,  360. 

*  Herodotus  (2,  37)  says  the  bean  was  not  much  cultivated.  The  ancienti 
me  /aba  and  Kvapos  of  the  seed  of  the  lotus.    Diod.  1,  34. 

"  Pliny,  18,  10,  2. 

4  According  to  Herodotus,  an  inscription  on  the  Great  Pyramid  recorded 
the  amount  of  money  spent  in  food  of  this  description,  radishes,  leeks  and 
onions;  and  the  account,  if  not  historical,  is  at  least  characteristic  of  Egyp- 
tian customs. 

*  Number*  xl  6. 


AGRICULTURE  AND  HORTICULTURE. 


1C1 


riously  brought  to  the  needful  elevation1;  but  before  the  Greek 
and  Roman  times  the  use  of  water-wheels  was  not  known*.  The 
language  of  Moses  in  Deut.  xi.  10,  "the  land,  whither  thou  goest 
in  to  possess  it,  is  not  as  the  land  of  Egypt,  from  whence  ye  >ame 
out,  where  thou  sowedst  thy  seed,  and  wateredst  it  with  thy  foot, 
as  a  garden  of  herbs,"  is  supposed  to  allude  to  th9  use  of  a  water- 
wheel  of  which  the  moving  fores  was  supplied  by  the  foot ;  but 
we  find  no  trace  in  the  monuments  of  this  or  any  other  hydraulic 
mechanism. 

An  important  supplement  to  the  cereal  food  of  the  Egyptians 
was  found  in  the  lotus  and  the  papyrus,  which  though  spontaneous 
products  were  multiplied  and  improved  by  culture3.  The  ciboriurn 
or  capsule  of  the  lotus  contained  a  number  of  seeds  resembling 
beans ;  these  ground  and  kneaded  with  water  or  milk*  furnished  a 
bread,  which,  if  eaten  warm,  was  very  wholesome.  The  root  of 
the  same  plant  was  sweet,  and  was  eaten  by  the  ancient  Egyptians, 
as  it  still  is  in  the  districts  which  do  not  produce  corn.  The  root 
and  lower  part  of  the  stalk  of  the  papyrus  was  either  chewed  raw 
or  boiled  or  roasted. 

Herodotus  says  that  the  inhabitants  of  .the  corn-growing  region 
(>?  cVejpopsV/j  Alyutfros)  used  wine  made  from  barley,  because  there 
were  no  vines  in  their  country'.    The  same  soil  seldom  serves  for 

1  RoseUini,  M.  flta  tav.  t\  2. 

*  The  wheel  widen  was  in  use  in  the  time  of  Diodorus  was  the  mgXfa;,  or 
spiral,  cf  Archil aeiei  (I,  34);  one  of  these,  which  raised  water  from  the  " 
Nile  to  supply  the  garrison  of  the  Memphite  Babylon,  was  worked  by  1 60 
men.    Strabo,  17,  807. 

■  Her.  2.  92.  Theophr.  H.  Plant  4,  9.  The  Greeks  despised  the  Egyptians 
as  eaters  of  the  papyrus.  Bi(i\ov  H  Kapzd;  uv  Kparti  ord^tv.  iEsch.  SuppL  788. 

4  Pliny,  22,  28  (21). 

1  2,  77.  St  CyriL  quoted  by  Rosellini,  observes  that  no  wine  or  com 
was  produced  in  the  marshy  districts  of  Egypt  He  adds,  "alii  fcahret 
terram  arabilera  et  fcecundissimam  et  vitium  sunt  cnltores  studiofiUfii>za." 
But  eight  centuries  had  intervened  between  the  two  writer* 


102 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


grain  and  for  vineyards,  which  thrive  best  on  the  sides  of  hills1 ; 
and  in  later  times  it  was  in  "the  district  of  Fyourn,  on  the  borders 
of  the  lake  Mareotis  and  at  Plinthine,  at  the  extremities  of  the  cul- 
tivated land,  that  wine  was  grown3.  The  monuments  prove,  how- 
ever, that  from  the  earliest  times  its  cultivation  a:id  manufacture 
have  been  known  in  Egypt,  in  accordance  with  the  accounts  in 
Scripture'.  In  one  of  the  oldest  tombs,  that  of  Eimai  at  Gizeh, 
the  whole  process  is  represented.  The  vines  appeal  to  have  been 
supported  by  notched  poles,  and  trained  upon  espaliers ;  elsewhere 
they  are  seen  in  low  bushes,  such  as  the  vine  countries  of  Europe 
exhibit*.  The  fruit  is  gathered  in  baskets  and  conveyed  to  a  large 
vat,  where  it  is  trodden  by  men  who  take  hold  of  a  rope  fixed 
above  them,  by  which  they  raise  themselves  a  little  to  increase  the 
force  of  their  treading.  In  another  representation  the  grapes,  al- 
ready deprived  of  their  first  running,  are  enclosed  in  a  bag  of 
matting,  which  ?s  then  violently  twisted  by  sticks  inserted  in  the 
ends,  so  that  the  juice  streams  through  the  interstices.  Here,  too, 
we  see  that  everything  in  Egypt  was  accomplished  by  mere  manual 
force,  without  any  mechanical  contrivance.  The  must  was  then 
placed  in  vessels  to  ferment,  and  finally  the  wine  poured  off  into 
the  oblong  jars  in  which  it  was  ptesorved.  These,  like  the  Roman- 
amphorae,  had  sometimes  a  pointed  foct,  so  that  they  would  not 
stand  of  themselves,  but  were  preserved  upright  in  wooden  frames. 
Both  red  and  white  wines  were  made  in  Egypt,  and  the  group  of 
characters  which  represents  wine  is  followed  sometimes  by  others 
which  apparently  discriminate  the  quality,  but  the  meaning  of 
which  is  unknown. 

1   apertoe 

Bacchus  amat  colles. — Virg.  Georg.  2,  118. 

•  Strabo,  11,  *799.  Athen.  Ep.  1,  p.  33.  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  4,  131. 
Tb*  wine  of  Coptos  in  Upper  Egypt  was  verv  thin.    Athon.  u.  «. 

'  «>«n.  xL  10.    Nnrab.  xx  5. 

•  WilkinBon,  M.  and  C.  2,  14*7. 


AGRICULTURE. 


163 


Lower  Egypt  contained  extensive  marsh- districts  which  wer« 
unfitted  for  cultivation,  but  from  their  luxuriant  herbage  well- 
adapted  for  the  pasturage  of  cattle.  The  districts  in  which  this 
was  carried  on  lay  remote  from  the  civilization  of  the  cultivated 
Egypt,  and  the  herdsmen  were  a  rude  and  lawless  race1.  They 
dwelt  in  huts  constructed  of  reeds,  and  used  the  roots  of  the  lotus 
for  bread.  To  this  cause,  rather  than  the  remembrance  of  the  evils 
inflicted  on  Egypt  by  Asiatic  nomads,  that  prejudice  against  the 
feeders  of  cattle  is  probably  to  be  attributed,  which  shows  itself  in 
the  history  of  Joseph.  In  the  portion  of  Lower  Egypt,  eastward 
of  the  Pelusiac  branch,  the  country  of  Goshen  appears  to  have  lain, 
which  was  assigned  to  the  Israelites  as  the  most  suitable  to  the 
pasturage  of  their  cattle2.  The  higher  parts  of  the  Nile,  that  is 
Middle  and  Upper  Egypt,  can  have  afforded  little  scope  for  pas- 
turage ;  but  the  representations  in  the  tombs  of  Gizeh  and  Kumel- 
Ahmar  prove  that  the  care  and  tending  of  cattle  was  carried  on  in 
these  districts  also.  Even  the  necessities  of  agriculture  must  have 
led  to  the  maintenance  of  oxen  and  cows  in  the  cultivated  Egypt, 
no  other  animal  being  used  in  ploughing  and  treading  out  the 
grain.  The  Nile  supplied  by  its  main  stream  and  its  canals  ready 
means  of  conveyance ;  but  where  water-carriage  was  impracticable 
and  human  power  not  available,  cattle  were  employed  in  draught. 
Cows  are  represented  drawing  the  slide  or  low  cart  on  which  the 
mummy  was  conveyed  to  the  tomb,  and  the  blocks  of  stone  which 
were  brought  from  the  quarries  of  Mokattam  for  the  repair  of  the 
Memphion  temple  are  drawn  by  three  pair  of  oxen.  Herds  of  wild 
cattle  may  also  have  been  found  in  the  desert  regions  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  Nile,  which  contain  spots  producing  pasture ;  for  among 
the  pictures  in  the  tombs  of  Upper  Egypt  is  a  representation  of  a 

1  Strabo,  IT,  p.  802.    Diod.  1,  43. 

•  Gen.  xlviL  6.  "  In  the  best  of  the  land  make  thy  father  and  brethren 
to  dwell ;  in  the  land  of  Goshen  let  them  dwell."  Tlie  best  of  the  land  mn?t 
here  be  understood  as  "  best  adapted  for  their  purpose." 


164 


ANCIENT  EGTrT. 


huntsman  who  is  shooting  them  with  arrows,  and  another  catching 
them  with  a  noose1.  The  monuments  give  ample  evidence  of  the, 
care  with  which  the  domesticated  cattle  were  tended.  Large  yards 
were  attached  to  the  farm-houses,  provided  with  sheds  for  sheltering 
them,  and  rings  to  which  they  were  tied  while  feeding3.  During 
the  inundation  it  was  necessary  to  withdraw  them  from  the  fields 
and  collect  them  in  the  villages  and  towns  which  usually  stood  on 
elevated  ground ;  if  overtaken  by  the  waters  they  were  rescued  in 
boats.  They  were  branded  with  their  owner's  mark  and  numbered  ; 
when  sick,  medicine  was  administered  to  them  by  a  person  who 
bears  the  title  of  attendant*.  Such  was  the  spontaneous  luxuriance 
of  vegetation  after  the  waters  had  retired,  that  if  the  land  were  left 
unsown  it  produced  an  abundant  crop  of  natural  herbage.  The 
culture  of  artificial  grasses  could  not  be  unknown  to  a  people  whose 
soil  and  climate  were  so  well  suited  to  their  production. 

Egypt  was  especially  favorable  to  the  growth  of  sheep,  the  ewes 
according  to  the  ancients  bringing  forth  lambs  and  yielding  wool 
twice  in  the  year4.  The  flesh  of  the  sheep  was  little  esteemed,  and 
was  forbidden  food  in  the  Theban  nome,  as  the  ram  was  sacred  to 
the  great  god  of  Thebes.  No  example  of  its  slaughter  for  food  or 
sacrifice  appears  in  the  paintings,  though  that  of  oxen  is  so  com- 
mon6. Upper  garments  of  wool8  were  generally  worn  by  the 
Egyptians  and  even  by  the  priests,  though  religious  motive^  forbade 
their  being  carried  into  a  temple  or  used  in  interments ;  but  the 

1  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  8,  18,  from  Beni  Hassan,  Ibid.  15. 
a  Wilkinson  M.  and  C.  2,  134,  from  Alabastron. 

•  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  1,  270,  Tav.  mi    The  word  is  Renen.    See  the 

Lexicon  in  Bunsen,  1,  p.  579. 
4  Diod.  1,  87. 

*  According  to  Strabo  (17,  p.  803),  it  was  only  in  the  temple  #  Serapis  at 
the  Natron  Lakes,  that  sheep  in  his  time  were  offered  in  sacrifice.  This 
district  was  hardly  in  Egypt*    Comp.  Her.  2,  18. 

9  Herod.  2,  42.  2,  81.  Yates,  Textrinum  antiquomm,  p.  28.  Pliny 
N.  H.  8,  78. 


AGRICULTURE. 


16£ 


wool  of  Egypt  was  coarse  and  of  a  short  staple.  Large  flocks  of 
goats  were  also  kept,  which  are  represented  in  the  paintings  as 
browsing  upon  the  branches  of  the  thorny  Mimosa  which  grows 
very  abundantly  in  Egypt1.  Besides  these  we  find  from  the  paint 
ings  that  the  ibex,  oryx  and  others  of  the  antelope  tribe  were 
tamed,  and  notwithstanding  the  wildness  which  they  naturally 
exhibit,  as  completely  domesticated  as  the  sheep  or  the  goat9.  From 
the  same  sources  we  learn  how  important  a  place  the  breeding  and 
care  of  cattle  held  in  the  economical  system  of  the  Egyptians.  The 
kings  had  herds  on  their  own  demesnes,  for  in  the  tomb  of  Meno- 
phres  at  Saccara',  two  bulls  are  represented  with  the  inscription 
royal  house,  with  the  number  on  one  86,  on  the  other  43.  In  the 
tomb  of  Ranni,  a  military  man,  at  Eilethya4,  is  represented  a  visit 
of  inspection  paid  by  a  proprietor  to  his  farm.  He  is  distinguished 
by  an  ornamented  collar  and  a  long  garment,  and  has  in  one  hand 
a  sceptre  or  mace,  in  the  other  the  staff  which  among  the  Egyp- 
tians marked  the  higher  classes.  Two  servants  follow  him,  one 
carrying  his  bow  and  quiver  and  a  stool,  the  other  his  slippers. 
Before  him  goes  a  writer  with  a  roll  and  writing  instruments  ;  two 
herdsmen  bring  in  the  cattle,  one  of  whom  throws  himself  prostrate 
before  his  master,  and  the  other  is  evidently  repeating  to  the  writer 
the  tale  of  cattle,  sheep,  goats  and  swine  which  are  under  his  charge. 
•An  inscription  above  records  the  numbers  of  each — cattle  122; 
rams  300;  goats  1200;  swine  1500.  In  a  tomb  near  the  Pyra- 
mids, 860  asses,  974  sheep,  834  oxen,  220  cows,  and  2234  goats  are 
numbered  as  the  property  of  the  occupant*.  The  minuteness  of 
these  registers  in  such  a  place  is  a  singular  proof  how  far  the 
Egyptians  carried  the  notion  that  the  tomb  should  be  the  counter- 
part of  the  house ;  the  record  of  his  own  wealth  while  living  was 
to  be  kept  under  the  cognizance  of  its  inhabitant 

1  Rosellini,  M.  Civ.  1,  260.  3  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C,  4,  140. 

»  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  1,  250.        *  Rosellini,  Hon.  Civ.  1,  262,  Tav.  xxx 

•  Champollion-Figefto.    LTJnivers,  p.  185. 


100 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


The  ass  was  the  ordinary  beast  of  burden  in  Egypt ;  the  horse 
never  appears  in  use  either  for  husbandry  or  draught  or  riding ; 
its  sole  employment  was  in  the  war-chariot,  either  in  actual  service, 
or  in  the  processions  in  which  the  king  appeared  in  military  state1. 
The  wagons  which  Joseph  sent  to  bring  his  father  down  into 
Egypt  do  not  appear  to  have  been  drawn  by  horses3 ;  the  sight  of 
a  wheel-carriage,  unknown  among  the  patriarchs,  was  sufficient  of 
itself  to  convince  him  that  the  narrative  of  his  sons  was  true.  That 
the  horse  was  at  this  time  bred  in  Egypt  is  however  implied  in  the 
same  history ;  as  the  intensity  of  the  famine  increased,  the  people 
brought  "  their  horses  and  their  flocks  and  their  herds  and  their 
asses3 "  to  exchange  for  food ;  and  when  the  Israelites  quitted  the 
land,  Pharaoh  pursued  them  with  a  large  body  of  chariots.  Egypt 
was  probably  the  country  from  which  neighboring  nations  gra- 
dually learnt  the  use  of  war-chariots  and  purchased  war-horses ; 
for  if  Arabia  in  this  age  produced  a  breed  of  horses,  it  does  not 
appear  that  then  or  since  it  has  ever  broken  them  to  harness.  We 
know  that  when  the  Jews,  contrary  to  the  injunction  of  their 
legislator,  began  to  multiply  horses,  Egypt  was  the  source  from 
which  they  derived  them4.  The  earliest  mention  of  Egypt  in 
Grecian  literature  is  in  reference  to  the  multitude  of  its  war-chariots6, 
and  Diodorus  is  probably  correct  when  he  says  that  the  horses 
were  kept  in  numerous  stables  along  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  from 
Memphis  to  Thebes.  That  we  never  see  them  in  the  landscapes 
which  mingle  Egyptian  scenery  with  the  occupations  of  Egyptian 
life  may  be  owing  to  this  circumstance.  They  were  not  turned 
out  to  graze,  but  fed,  as  the  Arab  horses  are  now,  on  barley  and 
straw.    But  though  Egypt,  by  its  abundance  of  food,  was  well 

*  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  8, 179,  gives  a  drawing  from  a  tomb  at  Thebes,  of 
a  plaustrum  drawn  by  oxen,  in  which  an  Ethiopian  princess  rides.  It  ie 
very  like  a  chariot,  but  closed  at  the  sides,  and  shaded  by  an  umbrella. 

»  Gen.  xlv.  27.  3  Gen.  xlvii.  17. 

*  Deut.  xvii.  16;  1  Kings,  x.  28.  •  Horn.  II.  881. 


HORTICULTURE. 


167 


adapted  for  then  maintenance  and  multiplication,  it  is  not  the 
country  in  which  we  should  expect  to  find  a  native  breed  of  horses, 
for  it  is  not  productive  of  the  food  on  which  they  would  subsist  in 
the  wild  state,  and  the  fierce  animals  of  the  adjoining  deserts  would 
speedily  have  destroyed  them.  If  the  race  was  introduced  from 
Arabia  by  the  Shepherds,  it  was  multiplied  and  prepared  for  war- 
chariots  by  the  Egyptians.  Their  forms  are  light,  and  their  action 
very  spirited.  What  was  their  prevailing  color  it  is  difficult  to  say ; 
in  the  paintings  they  are  always  red,  bnt  so  are  the  men,  whose 
real  color  was  dark.  It  is  remarkable  that  in  the  hieroglyphical 
inscriptions  the  mares  are  called  by  the  Semitic  name  of  Ses1  (Heb. 
Sus),  the  horses  by  the  name  of  htar  (Copt,  hto,  htor).  War-cha- 
riots are  the  most  costly  of  all  the  varieties  of  military  force ;  and 
that  the  Egyptians  should  have  maintained  so  large  a  body  of  them, 
for  no  other  purpose  than  war  and  state,  gives  a  high  idea  of  the 
ancient  wealth  of  the  monarchy.  They  do  not  appear,  however, 
in  any  monument  prior  to  the  eighteenth  dynasty. 

The  art  of  horticulture  is  closely  connected  with  that  of  agricul 
ture,  and  indeed  in  Egypt,  from  the  large  quantity  of  vegetable 
food  that  was  raised  and  the  system  of  minute  irrigation  that  pre- 
vailed, the  distinction  between  the  culture  of  the  field  and  the 
garden  was  less  than  in  other  countries.  The  land  was  watered 
"as  a  garden  of  herbs3."  We  see  in  one  representation  men  car- 
rying water  in  earthen  jars  to  be  poured  upon  the  beds,  in  another 
raising  it  by  a  bucket  tied  to  a  beam,  to  the  other  end  of  which  a 
large  stone  is  appended*.  Fruits  of  various  kinds,  the  date,  the 
pomegranate,  the  fig,  the  sycamore,  the  persea,  are  recognised  in 
the  paintings,  and  some  of  them  have  been  found  in  the  tombs. 
The  paintings  refute  the  statement  of  Diodorus4,  that  the  Persea 
was  introduced  into  Egypt  from  Ethiopia  by  Cambyses.  Others 
said  from  Persia ;  and  both  appear  to  be  founded  on  false  etymo 

1  Hierogl.  of  Egyptian  Society,  PI.  42.  L  51.  o.  19.  k. 

1  Deufc.  «.  1Q  1  Rosellini,  M.  Civ.  xL  4  1,  84. 


108 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


logy.  Other  fruits,  as  the  peach  and  the  alinond,  are  described  as 
growing  in  Egypt  by  ancient  authorities.  Of  all  these  none  wag 
so  important  in  Egyptian  economy  as  the  date,  which  is  an  article 
of  food,  not  of  luxury,  in  the  countries  in  which  it  is  produced1. 
Oriental  exaggeration  reckoned  up  360  uses  to  which  different 
parts  of  the  tree  might  be  applied3.  The  ancient  Egyptians  derived 
from  it  uses  not  less  various,  as  appears  from  the  numerous  articles 
found  in  the  tombs3 ;  and  a  wine  was  extracted  from  the  fruit, 
which  was  used  in  the  process  of  embalming,  and  probably  also  as 
a  beverage.  The  fruit  produced  in  the  Delta  was  of  inferior  qua- 
lity4 ;  the  best  grew  in  the  Thebaid.  Both  the  Doum  palm  ( Cuci- 
fera  Thebaica),  of  which  the  stem  divides,  and  the  Dachel  (Palma 
dactylifera)  which  grows  up  with  a  single  trunk,  are  found,  dis- 
tinctly characterized,  in  the  paintings  of  the  tombs6. 

Horticulture  among  the  Egyptians,  however,  was  not  merely  an 
economical,  but  an  cesthetic  art.  A  garden  laid  out  with  walks, 
shaded  with  trees  and  refreshed  by  canals  and  reservoirs  of  water, 
appears  to  have  been  the  usual  appendage  to  a  house  of  the  higher 
order,  and  a  painting  of  a  royal  garden  has  been  fortunately  pre- 
served in  a  tomb  at  Thebes,  belonging  to  a  military  chief  in  the 
reign  of  Amunoph  II.6  The  river,  or  a  large  canal,  runs  beside  it, 
and  the  broad  walk  which  intervenes  between  it  and  the  entrance 
is  planted  with  a  row  of  trees.  '  A  flight  of  steps  leads  from  the 
bank  to  the  lofty  gateway,  which  bears  a  hieroglyphic  inscription 
and  the  shield  of  the  king.    The  centre  of  the  garden  itself  is  occu- 

1  Gentium  aliquibus  panis ;  plurimis  etiam  quadrupeduin  cibus.  Plin.  13,  6. 

*  Strabo,  16,  742.    Dr.  Clarke,  Travels,  5,  409.    See  p.  74  of  this  volume. 

*  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  2,  180. 

*  Strabo,  17,  p.  818.  Though  it  requires  a  plentiful  supply  of  water  and 
by  its  presence  marks  those  spots  in  the  Desert  in  which  water  is  found,  it 
thrives  best  in  a  sandy  and  saline  oiL 

*  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  1,  386,  xL  2,  8. 

*  Mon  Civ.  2,  386,  Tav.  brix,    Wilkinson,  M.  and  0.  2,  141,  where  « 

vignette  is  givea 


HORTICULTURE. 


169 


pied  by  a  vineyard,  enclosed  by  a  wall,  in  which  vines  covered  with 
ripe  fruit  are  trained  on  a  trellis-work.  Within  the  wall  which  sur- 
rounds the  whole  garden,  the  two  species  of  palm  before-men- 
tioned are  planted  in  symmetrical  alternation,  trees  of  a  different 
growth  and  thicker  foliage  being  placed  between  them.  A  row 
of  the  Dachel  palm  also  surrounds  the  enclosure  of  the  vineyard. 
There  are  four  reservoirs  of  water  symmetrically  disposed,  in  which 
waterfowl  are  playing,  and  the  lotus  grows  beside  them.  Oppo- 
site to  the  entrance  and  beyond  the  vineyard  is  a  summer-house  of 
three  stories,  with  windows  opening  on  the  garden,  in  the  apart- 
ments of  which  are  flower-stands  with  vases,  and  altars  or  tables 
on  which  fresh-gathered  flowers  are  laid  as  if  for  offerings.  No 
great  variety  of  flowers  was  cultivated  in  the  Egyptian  gardens1. 
The  lotus  and  papyrus  appear  again  and  again  in  the  form  of 
wreaths,  nosegays,  offerings  upon  altars,  ornaments  of  sculpture 
and  painting.  Beside  two  of  the  reservoirs  are  painted  wooden 
arbors.  From  other  paintings  we  find  that  the  reservoirs  were 
also  fish-ponds ;  in  one  of  these  an  Egyptian  is  represented  seated 
in  his  chair,  angling  beside  a  pond ;  his  dress  and  posture  suffi- 
ciently indicating  that  he  pursues  an  amusement,  not  an  occupa- 
tion2. Such  were  the  gardens  of  pleasure  in  which  the  kings  and 
great  men  of  Egypt  took  delight  in  the  days  of  the  splendor 
and  luxury  of  the  Theban  monarchy.  They  were  probably  the 
model  of  the  gardens  of  Solomon,  who  is  represented  as  saying 
(Eccl.  ii.  5),  "  I  made  me  gardens  and  orchards :  I  planted  trees  in 
them  of  all  kinds  of  fruit :  I  made  me  pools  of  water  to  water 
therewith  the  wood  that  bringeth  forth  trees."  They  were  artificial 
and  formal;  but  a  garden  which  is  an  appendage  to  a  palace, 
naturally  imitates  the  stateliness  and  regularity  of  architecture 
rather  than  the  freedom  and  variety  of  nature.  The  taste  for  land- 
scape gardening  is  of  very  recent  growth. 

1  Comp.  Plin  21,  1.  In  Egypto  minime  odorati  flores,  quia  ncbuloaus  el 
rotcidus  aer  est  a  Nilo  flumine.  •  Wilkinson,  3,  52. 

vol.  I.  8 


CHAPTER  X. 


THE  CHASE.  FISHERIES. 

The  nature  of  the  country  in  Egypt  seems  not  to  have  allowed  of 
the  formation  of  parks  or  paradises,  which  the  Persian  monarcha 
planted  with  all  kinds  of  trees  and  stocked  them  with  wild  animals 
for  the  chase1.  The  Egyptians  may,  however,  have  brought  the 
game  which  they  had  taken  alive  in  the  open  country  into  pre- 
serves, where  they  were  kept  till  needed  for  food.  Egypt  did  not 
abound  with  wild  animals3.  It  is  probable  that  the  hills  on  the 
Arabian,  not  on  the  Libyan  side  of  the  Nile,  are  the  scene  of  those 
hunting-pieces  which  are  found  in  the  tombs  both  of  Lower  Egypt 
and  the  Thebaid ;  one  of  the  most  remarkable  of  these  is  in  the 
tomb  of  Rotei  at  Benihassan3.  We  learn  from  it  that  it  was  the 
custom  of  the  Egyptians,  as  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  when  a 
herd  of  wild  animals  harbored  in  a  spot  which  might  be  easily 
enclosed,  to  carry  a  line  of  nets  supported  on  poles  around  it,  in 
which  they  might  be  entangled  when  they  endeavored  to  escape4. 
Being  roused  from  their  haunts  by  the  dogs  and  hunters,  they 
were  pierced  by  the  arrows  of  the  sportsmen,  or  pulled  down  by 
the  dogs.  Among  the  animals  represented  in  the  tombs  are  in  t 
only  wild  cattle,  antelopes,  oryxes,  and  hares,  but  foxes,  porcupines, 
hyaenas,  wolves  and  jackals,  showing  that  a  large  tract  of  country 
had  been  enclosed  by  the  net,  and  that  the  objects  of  the  chas€ 

1  Xenoph.  Hell.  4,  1,  8,  14.    Curt  8,  1,  11.    (2.  Ed.  Zumpt.) 

*  See  p.  *76  of  this  volume. 

*  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  1,  191,  Tav.  xv. 

*  Virg.  /En.  4,  121.    Saltus  indagine  ciugunt 


THE  HIPPOPOTAMUS. 


171 


were  not  merely  the  animals  suitable  for  food.  The  painter  has 
also  in  one  instance  indulged  his  imagination  by  introducing  some 
which  belong  only  to  a  mythical  zoology1.  We  know  from  the 
accounts  of  Herodotus,  that  the  Egyptians,  like  other  ancient 
nations,  believed  in  the  existence  of  animals  which  have  no  proto- 
type in  nature,  and  the  desert  is  the  appropriate  haunt  of  such 
fantastic  creations.  The  dogs  are  of  various  breeds,  grayhounds 
to  run  down  the  feebler  and  swifter  animals,  and  those  of  greater 
strength  and  fierceness  to  attack  the  wolf  or  the  bull2.  Amidst  all 
the  neglect  of  perspective  which  characterizes  Egyptian  art,  there 
is  wonderful  spirit  and  character  in  the  drawing  of  the  dogs  and 
the  animals  which  they  are  attacking,  abundantly  proving,  that 
the  stiffness  and  monotony  complained  of  in  the  treatment  of  reli- 
gious subjects,  did  not  arise  from  want  of  talent  in  the  artists,  but 
from  the  restraint  imposed  by  authority  and  tradition.  In  this 
mode  of  hunting,  the  sportsman  generally  appears  on  foot;  at 
other  times,  when  the  chase  is  in  more  open  ground,  he  is  mounted 
in  his  chariot,  the  game  being  driven  by  the  attendants  and  the 
dogs  within  reach  of  the  arrows. 

To  a  people  who  lived  so  much  upon  and  in  the  river  as  the 
ancient  Egyptians,  the  hippopotamus  and  the  crocodile  must  have 
been  objects  of  hostility.  Both  of  them  no  doubt  were  found  in 
ancient  times  through  the  whole  course  of  the  Nile3,  though  now 
the  hippopotamus  is  not  seen  except  by  accident  below  the  Second 
Cataract,  and  the  crocol  le  rarely  below  27°  N.L4.  No  represen- 
tation of  the  chase  of  the  hippopotamus  has  been  found  in  Lower 
Egypt,  but  in  the  tombs  of  the  Thebaid  it  is  not  uncommon.  If 

1  Rosellini,  M.  Civ.  1,  191,  xxiii  2,  4,  5.  One  ha8  the  head  of  a  serpent, 
another  of  a  hawk  on  the  Dody  of  a  quadruped.  The  third  has  the  head 
of  a  bird,  and  is  winged. 

*  Wilkinson  (M.  and  C.  3,  16)  gives  a  drawing  from  Beni  Hassan,  in 
which  a  tamed  lion  appears  to  be  used  in  hunting. 

s  Diod.  1,  35.  4  See  p.  79  of  this  volume. 


172 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


discovered  on  land,  where  it  did  much  mischief  in  the  fields  and 
plantations  near  the  bank,  it  was  assailed  with  barbed  weapons ; 
if  in  the  water  it  was  attacked  from  boats,  and  the  lances  had 
ropes  fastened  to  them,  so  that  like  a  harpooned  whale  it  was 
tracked  beneath  the  surface,  and  when  it  rose  again  to  breathe  was 
pierced  with  new  weapons  till  it  was  exhausted  by  loss  of  blood1. 
Its  flesh  was  tough  and  indigestible,  but  its  skin  was  valuable  from 
its  excessive  hardness  as  a  covering  for  shields  and  for  the  thongs 
of  whips3.  The  flesh  of  the  crocodile  was  equally  worthless,  but 
it  was  pursued  in  most  parts  of  Egypt  for  its  voracity  and  in  others 
from  a  religious  feeling,  while  in  some  parts,  as  at  Ombi,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Thebes  and  on  the  Lake  Mceris,  it  was  tamed 
and  worshipped.  Herodotus9  describes  a  mode  of  catching  it  by  a 
hook  baited  with  the  back  of  a  young  pig ;  Diodorus  by  nets : 
the  Tentyrites  encountered  it  in  the  water  and  thrust  a  piece  of 
wood  into  its  open  jaws  which  prevented  them  from  closing.  In 
a  painting  at  Kum-el-Ahmar  it  is  represented  as  being  speared 
from  a  boat4,  and  it  was  sometimes  killed  by  blows  on  the  head 
from  heavy  bars  of  iron. 

The  chase  of  wild  animals  can  never  in  a  country  like  Egypt 
supply  any  important  part  of  the  sustenance  of  the  people.  It 
was  otherwise  with  the  arts  of  fishing  and  fowling.  Many  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  marshy  districts  of  the  Delta  in  which  grain 
could  not  be  raised  lived  wholly  upon  fish5,  which  they  caught 
an^  dried  in  the  sun  ;  but  throughout  Egypt  fishing  was  a  profi- 
table branch  of  industry  and  a  productive  source  of  food6.  The 
paintings  represent  the  various  modes  of  catching  them,  with  the 
line,  the  net  and  the  barbed  spear,  as  well  as  the  processes  of  dry- 
ing and  salting7.    The  fish  were  caught  in  the  greatest  numbers, 

1  Wilkinson,  M.  and  a  3,  71.  1  Wilkinson,  3,  69. 

»  Herod.  2,  68.  *  Rosellini,  M.  Civ.  1,  %L 

•  Herod.  2,  92.  •  Isaiah  rix  8. 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  1,  221,  xxv.  Wilkinson,       and  C.  3,  St. 


FISHERIES. 


173 


not  in  the  bi  anches  of  the  river,  but  in  the  pools  and  lakes  which 
were  dry  during  the  low  state  of  the  Nile,  and  filled  as  the  inunda- 
tion proceeded.  This  remark  of  Herodotus,  however,  must  be 
considered  as  applicable  to  the  smaller  kinds  of  fish,  which  even 
now  swarm  in  such  places ;  the  larger  must  have  been  taken  chiefly 
in  the  rivers  or  those  lakes  which  have  at  all  times  of  the  year  a 
communication  with  the  Nile.  The  fishery  of  the  Lake  Mceris 
and  the  canals  which  connected  it  with  the  river  was  the  most  pro- 
ductive ;  during  the  time  that  the  water  flowed  inward,  it  produced 
under  the  Persian  kings  a  talent  of  silver  (£250  if  an  Attic  talent 
is  meant)  daily  for  the  royal  treasury ;  during  the  remainder  of 
the  year,  a  third  part  or  twenty  minas.  By  placing  nets '  at  the 
openings  of  the  dams  by  which  the  water  flowed  from  the  Nile 
or  into  it,  the  Egyptian  fishermen  would  have  the  same  advantage 
as  ours  by  placing  their  nets  in  the  mouths  of  tide-rivers1.  The 
simple  apparatus  of  the  fisherman  is  nearly  the  same  in  all  coun- 
tries, and  that  represented  in  the  Egyptian  monuments  hardly 
differs  from  our  own.3 

Fish  are  among  the  least  changeable  part  of  the  zoology  of  a 
country,  and  those  for  which  the  Nile  was  celebrated  in  ancient 
times  are  now  easily  recognised  among  its  inhabitants.  The  genus 
Silurus  was  the  most  abundant ;  Perca,  Cyprinus,  Labrus  and 
Salmo  are  also  found3.  The  general  character  is  sufficiently  distinct 
in  the  paintings,  but  the  Egyptian  artists  have  not  given  the  figures 
either  of  their  fish  or  their  birds  with  such  minute  accuracy  as  to 
enable  the  zoologist  to  determine  their  species.    They  are  said  by 

1  Our  version  of  Isaiah  xix.  10,  speaks  of  M  sluices  and  ponds  for  fish," 
as  if  artificially  constructed,  but  this  is  scarcely  a  correct  translation.  See 
Gesenius  ad  loc. 

'  See  the  description  given  by  Abdollatiph  of  the  fishing  as  practised 
under  the  Caliphs,  quoted  by  Rosellini,  M.  C.  1,  p.  230. 

'  Clot  Bey  (Russegger,  Reisen,  voL  1,  p.  300)  reckons  fifty-two  speciea  ol 
fiah  inhabiting  the  Nile.    Their  real  number  is  probably  not  ascertained. 


174 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


those  who  have  eaten  them  to  be  rather  insipid1 ;  and  as  affording 
an  attenuating  diet  they  were  forbidden  to  the  priests ;  but  they 
are  well  suited  to  a  hot  climate,  the  languid  appetite  in  the  height 
of  summer  relishing  no  other  kind  of  animal  food' ;  and  the 
Israelites  in  the  Desert, "  when  their  soul  was  dried  away,"  regretted 
the  fish  as  well  as  the  vegetables  of  Egypt'.  When  salted  they 
were  exported,  at  least  in  later  times,  to  foreign  countries.  Sea- 
fishing  appears  not  to  have  been  practised  by  the  Egyptians  ;  their 
religious  prejudices  kept  them  from  venturing  on  the  element 
which  represented  Typhon ;  and  the  shallow  and  muddy  waters 
of  the  coast  are  not  suited  to  this  occupation,  which  is  not  much 
carried  on  at  the  present  day. 

The  great  extent  of  marsh  in  Egypt  and  the  long  continuance 
of  the  inundation  caused  it  to  abound  in  waterfowl  beyond  most 
other  countries.  The  paintings  represent  the  modes  in  which  they 
were  taken  and  preserved  for  food.  Most  commonly  they  were 
enclosed  in  a  net  which  was  let  down  over  the  space  in  which  the 
birds  were  known  to  be,  and  suddenly  drawn  together.  Frequently 
the  sportsman  is  represented  as  going  in  his  boat  of  papyrus 
among  the  aquatic  plants  in  which  the  birds  harbored,  and  knock- 
ing them  down  by  the  throwstick4.  In  other  instances  they  are 
caught  in  traps,  and  it  is  evident  that  the  use  of  decoy-birds  was 
not  unknown  to  the  Egyptians.  Most  of  those  which  are  repre- 
sented as  being  taken  for  food  are  of  the  duck  and  goose  tribe. 
The  quail  is  also  mentioned  by  Herodotus*  as  being  first  slightly 
salted  and  then  used  without  cooking.  These  birds  came  in  vast 
flocks  from  the  sea,  and  furnished  the  criminals  who  were  banished 
to  Rhinocolura,  on  the  coast  between  Egypt  and  Palestine,  with  a 

1  Athenffiua,  7,  812,  says  on  the  contrary,  'pepsi  b  NelXos  ytm  roAAi  Ix*** 

Kal  xavra  ?iSi(rra. 

8  Harmer'B  Obs.  on  Scripture,  2,  327. 

*  Numbers  sd.  5. 

•  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  3,  39.  *  %  77. 


ARTIFICIAL  hatching. 


175 


considerable  portion  of  their  food1.  They  abound  also  in  tha 
Desert  of  Sinai*. 

An  important  branch  of  rural  economy  in  Egypt  was  the  hatch- 
ing of  poultry  by  artificial  heat.  It  is  not  mentioned  by  Hero- 
dotus, nor  does  it  appear  in  the  paintings  ;  and  it  is  described  by 
Diodorus,  as  an  example  of  a  practice  recently  added  to  those 
which  had  been  perfected  by  long  experience  and  handed  down 
by  tradition'.  Indeed  it  is  doubtful  whether  our  domestic  fowl 
was  known  in  Egypt  before  the  Persian  Conquest.  It  .cannot  be 
identified  on  the  monuments,  though  there  is  a  hieroglyphic  cha- 
racter commonly  called  a  chicken.  The  modern  Egyptians  hatch 
eggs  by  the  regulated  heat  of  ovens  ;  the  ancients  buried  them  in 
the  ground,  covered  up  with  dung*. 

DiocL  1,  60.  1  Lepsius,  Tour  to  Mount  Sinai. 

•  Diod.  1,  74. 

*  At.  Hist.  An.  6,  2.  E*rr«rTtral  ra  aia  liroagovTuv  r&v  dpviQuv'  oi  jjlt)v  <iX\i 
Jt*i  aitopaTa  Iv  rij  yj  axnrsp  h  Aiyvirra>t  KaropvTT6vTuv  ris  tt)v  yr\v  fa  rj  K6xp(p,  Hist. 

Aug.  Script  Saturninua,  8. 


CHAPTER  XL 


NAVIGATION  AND  COMMERCE. 

The  sea  was  regarded  by  the  Egyptians  with  the  dislike  and  appre- 
hension natural  to  a  people  whose  original  dwelling  was  inland, 
and  who  were  not  compelled  to  become  familiar  with  its  dangers 
in  order  to  supply  themselves  with  food.  They  looked  upon  it  alsc 
with  horror ;  as  first  corrupting  and  then  swallowing  up  the  sweet 
waters  of  their  beneficent  Nile ;  and  gave  it  the  name  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  evil1.  In  their  early  history  we  find  no  traces  of  maritime 
navigation ;  they  avoided  the  sea  themselves  and  discountenanced 
the  visits  of  foreign  vessels.  This  was  a  prudent  precaution  ;  lor 
the  earliest  navigators,  Phoenicians,  Carians,  Greeks,  were  all  pirates 
and  kidnappers2.  The  distant  military  enterprises  of  the  kings  of 
the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  dynasties  led  to  the  construction  of 
fleets,  both  on  the  Red  Sea  and  the  Mediterranean.  If  the  Shep- 
herds, who  held  Lower  Egypt  so  long  under  their  sway,  imme- 
diately previous  to  these  dynasties,  were  Phoenicians,  they  must 
have  been  acquainted  with  maritime  navigation,  though  Phoenicia 
itself  had  not  yet  attained  that  rank  as  a  maritime  state  which  it 
afterwards  assumed.  At  no  period  however  was  Egypt  a  great 
naval  power.  Inland  navigation,  on  the  contrary,  was  one  of  the 
most  characteristic  features  of  Egyptian  life.  The  waters  of  the 
Nile  in  their  lowest  season  are  never  so  shallow  as  not  to  be  ablo 
to  carry  the  vessels  of  light  draught  with  which  it  was  navigated, 

1  Plut  IflL  et  Osir.  p.  868. 

•  Horn  Od  /.  71,  o.  459.    Thuc.  L  6, 7    Joel,  8,  6.    Her.  2,  54* 


NAVIGATION  AND  COMMERCE. 


177 


The  inundation  answered  the  same  purpose  as  spring-tides  in  our 
rivers,  and  extended  the  benefit  of  water-conveyance  far  beyond  the 
ordinary  limits.    Whatever  might  be  the  object  for  which  change 
of  place  was  desired,  the  Nile  furnished  the  means  of  its  accom- 
plishment.   The  gentle  and  equable  fall  of  the  river,  which  does 
not  much  exceed  two  feet  in  a  mile1  in  its  medium  state,  makes  it 
not  difficult  to  ascend  against  the  stream  by  oars  or  towing,  and  as 
the  N.W.  winds  blow  steadily  during  the  inundation,  they  coun- 
teract the  effect  of  the  increased  current.    In  Egypt  the  Nile  has 
no  rocks  in  its  bed,  and  though  a  sudden  squall  may  drive  a  sailing 
vessel  on  a  shoal  or  against  the  bank,  the  shock  is  not  dangerous 
from  the  softness  of  the  mud.    The  shrines  of  the  gods  were  con- 
veyed by  water  in  solemn  procession  and  in  richly  ornamented 
barges  from  their  chief  temple  to  the  lesser  sanctuaries  of  the  nome. 
Royal  personages  and  eminent  functionaries  travelled  in  the  same 
way,  and  with  equal  splendor,  from  one  part  of  the  kingdom  to 
aD other.    Egyptian  pilgrims  to  oracles  and  other  holy  spots  did  not  " 
toil  along  rocky  or  sandy  roads,  but  embarked  on  boats,  floated 
down  the  Nile,  with  music  and  dancing,  and  halting  at  each  town 
on  the  bank,  summoned  the  inhabitants  to  join  them  in  their  festi- 
vities*.   The  dead  were  conveyed  to  their  last  resting-place  across 
the  same  stream,  which  during  life  was  for  ever  before  their  eyes, 
and  the  scene  of  so  much  of  their  occupation  and  amusement. 

Herodotus  has  described  only  one  kind  of  Egyptian  vessel,  the 
large  -Sari3,  which  was  employed  for"  the  transport  of  goods.  It 
was  built  of  the  Sont  (Acanthe),  the  hardest  wood  that  Egypt 
afforded,  and  without  ribs,  tree-nails  of  great  length  supplying  their 

1  Russegger,  Reisen,  il  1,  645,  gives  it  2*3  Paris  F.  in  a  geographical 
mile. 

•  Her.  2,  60. 

•  2,  96.  The  name  is  generally  derived  from  bai,  in  Coptic  a  palm- 
branch,  but  this  tree  was  not  used  for  ships.  The  Coptic  phai  or  6af,  "  to 
ea  ry, '  seems  a  more  probable  etymology. 

8* 


178 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


place ;  the  seams  were  caulked  with  papyrus,  and  the  sails  were 
made  of  the  same  material.  These  arks  floated  do\£h  the  stream, 
and  were  towed  up  if  the  wind  were  not  strong  enough  to  impel 
them  against  it.  They  were  very  numerous,  and  the  tonnage  of 
the  largest  amounted  to  several  thousand  talents1.  The  smallest 
vessels  were  made,  like  a  canoe  or  pirogue,  from  a  single  trunk3 ; 
others  again  were  constructed  with  ribs  and  a  keel,  which  is  usually 
very  shallow,  to  allow  of  the  easy  extrication  of  the  vessel  if  it 
should  take  the  ground ;  and  both  the  bow  and  the  stern  were 
high  out  of  the  water.  The  sails,  which  were  square,  were  either 
of  papyrus  or  canvas,  and  were  hoisted  or  lowered  by  means  of 
rings,  blocks  being  apparently  unknown  to  the  ancient  Egyptians. 
The  mast,  which  is  single,  might  be  struck  to  prevent  the  action  of 
the  wind  upon  it  as  the  vessel  floated  down  the  stream.  We  some- 
times see  as  many  as  forty  rowers  sitting  or  standing  in  a  large 
river-boat,  but  they  are  always  ranged  on  the  same  level.  When 
their  number  was  so  large,  a  man  standing  near  the  midship  gave 
the  time  for  the  stroke.  The  steering  wras  performed  by  one  or 
more  large  oars  at  the  stern,  and  a  man  stationed  at  the  bow 
sounded  with  a  long  pole3. 

As  the  Nile  had  no  bridges,  communication  between  its  opposite 
banks  must  have  been  kept  up  by  means  of  boats  in  the  ordinary 
state  of  the  river;  and  during  the  inundation,  when  the  whole 
country,  with  the  exception  of  the  banks,  is  under  water,  this  modo 
must  have  superseded  all  others.  For  ordinary  purposes  the 
Egyptians  used  boats  of  a  very  simple  construction,  narrow  and 
sharp  like  a  bean-shell  (pkaselus),  made  of  papyrus  rendered 
water-tight  by  bitumen4,  or  paddled  themselves  in  large  vessels  of 

1  The  talent  was  probably  75lb.  ■  Rosellini,  M.  C.  2,  p.  41. 

'  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  8,  195-209. 

4  Rosellini,  M.  Civ.  6,  1.  Plin.  N.  H.  18,  22.  Comp.  Exod.  ll  8.  Lucan,  4, 
186.  In  Minutoli's  Travels,  plate  25.  the  Barabras  of  Elephantine  ar* 
represented  crossing  the  river  astride  on  floats  ol  reed. 


NAVIGATION  AND  COMMERCE. 


179 


earthenware1.  The  tombs  of  Benihassan  contain  lepresentations  of 
boats  of  larger  size,  in  one  of  which  Amenemha,  the  tenant  of  the 
tomb,  is  conveying  the  females  of  his  family  upon  the  Nile.  It  has 
a  partial  covering,  like  that  of  a  gondola  or  a  modern  Egyptian 
cangia?.  The  tomb  of  Rameses  IV.  at  Thebes  gi^es  an  idea  of  the 
splendor  of  these  barges  when  used  for  the  conveyance  of  royal 
personages.  The  whole  body,  the  pavilion,  the  masts  and  the 
rudder,  are  painted  of  the  color  of  gold,  the  sails  are  fringed,  and 
chequered  in  various  brilliant  colors,  and  the  figure  of  the  vulture 
and  the  phoenix  are  embroidered  upon  them.  The  eye  of  Osiris  is 
painted  on  the  prow  or  the  rudder,  the  handles  of  which  represent 
the  royal  emblems  of  the  Uraeus  and  the  jpsckent,  or  the  head  of  a 
divinity9. 

All  that  has  been  written  on  the  subject  of  the  commercial  voy- 
ages of  the  Egyptians  in  the  times  of  the  Pharaohs  is  entirely  con- 
jectural ;  neither  history  nor  the  monuments  afford  us  any  evidence 
of  their  existence.  We  have  seen*  that  as  early  as  the  fourth  dy 
nasty  they  had  communication  with  the  Red  Sea,  at  Suez  and 
Kosseir,  and  under  the  eighteenth  an  attempt  at  least  was  made 
to  carry  a  canal  from  Lower  Egypt  to  the  head  of  the  Gulf.  By 
these  channels  they  might  receive  the  productions  of  Arabia  and 
India ;  but  it  does  not  appear  that  they  ever  made  voyages  to  these 
countries  in  the  times  of  their  native  princes.  They  received  no 
doubt  by  land  the  productions  of  the  nations  which  surrounded 

1  Juvenal,  15,  129,  makes  them  rcno  and  sail  in  such  boats. 
Parvula  fictilibits  solitum  dare  vela  phaselis, 
Et  brevibus  pictee  remis  incumbere  testae 
'  The  enclosed  chamber  was  called  by  the  Greeks  Bd\a[ios,  and  such  boata 
gxdfai  0aXa/iT?yot,  Strabo,  17,  800.    In  such  a  vessel  Caesar  would  have  a*- 
eended  the  Xile  with  Cleopatra  to  the  Cataract,  if  his  army  had  not  refused 
to  follow.    Suet  Csea.  52. 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  tav.  107-110.    Wilkinson,  M.  and  a  3,  209. 
'  Chap.  IL  of  this  volume. 


180 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


them,  but  even  in  this  traffic  Egypt  seems  ts  have  been  passive 
The  Midianites  who  were  carrying  spicery  and  balm  and  myrrh 
exchanged  them  probably  for  the  corn  and  the  manufactures  of 
Egypt.  Abounding  as  it  did  both  in  the  productions  of  the  soil 
and  in  those  of  ^industry  and  art,  and  placed  between  countries 
which  neither  grew  corn  nor  excelled  in  manufactures,  it  could  not 
fail  to  attract  a  large  inland  commerce,  from  Arabia  and  Palestine, 
Libva  and  Ethiopia.  We  do  not  however  find  that  the  Egyptians 
quitted  their  own  country  to  engage  in  this  commerce ;  and  with 
the  exception  of  the  short  period,  during  which  Greek  and  Roman 
habits  prevailed,  such  has  always  been  tbeir  relation  to  their  neigh- 
bors. Like  India  and  China,  Egypt  has  been  sought  by  more 
enterprising  commercial  nations ;  but  its  natives  have  seldom  been 
seen  in  foreign  harbors  or  caravans.  Their  characteristic  has 
been  patient,  sedentary  industry  employed  in  agriculture  and  ma- 
nufactures. The  productions  of  the  East  have  been  deposited  in 
Egypt,  and  from  thence  distributed  over  the  West ;  but  strangen 
have  brought  them  and  strangers  have  carried  them  away. 


CHAPTER  XIL 


MECHANICAL  AND  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS. 

Of  the  perfection  to  which  the  finer  kinds  of  mechanical  art  had 
arrived  in  Egypt,  the  remains  which  have  been  brought  to  light 
from  the  catacombs  and  which  fill  our  Museums,  afford  the  most 
satisfactory  proof.  The  polishing  and  engraving  of  precious  stones 
must  have  been  practised  in  very  early  times1,  since  the  signet  of 
Taia,  the  queen  of  Amenophis  III.,  is  still  in  existence  in  the 
Egyptian  Museum  of  the  Vatican5.  The  skilful  engraving  of  the 
J ews  at  the  time  of  their  Exodus8,  must  have  been  learnt  during 
their  residence  in  Egypt,  if  it  be  not  rather  attributable  to  Egyptian 
artists  who  had  followed  the  people  in  their  migration.  Their  orna 
ments  and  articles  of  household  luxury  prove  that  they  were  ac- 
quainted with  the  art  of  enamelling  and  with  the  manufacture  of 
glass  in  all  its  varieties.  Their  porcelain,  which  more  nearly  re- 
sembles glass  in  its  quality  than  the  substance  which  we  call  porce- 
lain, is  remarkable  for  the  brilliancy  of  its  colors  and  the  delicacy 
with  which  they  are  blended.  Their  common  pottery  was  inferior, 
both  in  fineness  of  material  and  tastefulness  of  design,  to  the  Greek 
and  Etruscan,  yet  some  of  their  vases  have  considerable  elegance. 

1 1  do  not  mention  the  supposed  seal  of  Cheops  (Shufu),  said  to  be  in  the 
possession  of  Dr.  Abbot  at  Cairo,  nor  the  collar  of  Menea.  The  former  1 
am  convinced  is  a  forgery;  the  latter  certainly  not  contemporary  with 
Menes,  though  it  may  be  made  up,  in  some  measure,  of  genuine  Egyptian 
work.  See  an  engraving  of  it  in  M.  Prisse  d'Avennes,  Suite  des  Monumens, 
fcc,  pL  47. 

a  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  261.  ■  ExoJL  rxviil  15. 


182 


ANCIENT  EGYFT. 


We  find  vases  figured  on  the  walls  of  a  tomb  of  the  age  of  Amu- 
noph  I.,  and  they  exhibit  those  graceful  decorative  borders,  the 
invention  of  which  has  generally  been  attributed  to  the  Greeks. 
The  manufacture  of  porcelain,  glass  and  pottery  could  not  be  car- 
ried on  without  a  knowledge  of  the  properties  of  the  metallic  oxides 
by  which  they  are  colored.  This  involves  an  acquaintance  with 
chemistry,  an  art  which  appears  to  have  derived  its  name  from  the 
native  name  of  Egypt  (Chemi),  and  to  have  been  preserved  in  that 
country  through  all  the  changes  of  empire  and  diffused  in  the 
Middle  Ages  by  the  Arabian  Conquest.  We  are  led  to  the  same 
inference  by  the  skill  in  dyeing  and  printing  which  the  ancieni 
Egyptians  possessed.  Their  linen  was  celebrated  in  the  earliest 
times1 ;  it  was  not  only  dyed  but  richly  embroidered,  and  rivalled 
the  productions  of  the  Babylonian  needle.  The  specimens  which 
have  come  down  to  us  are  almost  entirely  mummy-cloths,  and 
cannot  therefore  be  expected  to  represent  the  fineness  of  the  most 
perfect  manufacture,  in  which  kings  and  great  men  were  clad. 
The  linen  corslet  which  Amasis  (about  the  middle  of  the  sixth 
century  b.  c.)  sent  to  the  shrine  of  Minerva  at  Lindus,  had  accord- 
ing to  Herodotus'  3G0,  according  to  Pliny3  365  threads  twisted 
together,  in  each  single  thread  of  which  it  was  composed;  and 
though  these  astronomical  numbers  may  excite  suspicion  as  to  their 
literal  truth,  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  of  the  wonderful  fine- 
ness with  which  the  threads  were  spun.  The  corslet  sent  to  the  Lace- 
demonians4 had  figures  worked  in  it  of  gold  and  cotton.  Cotton 
appears  to  have  been  of  later  cultivation  in  Egypt,  the  mummy- 
bandages  being  all  of  linen,  as  their  examination  by  Bauer's 
powerful  microscope  has  shown6.   In  Pliny's  time,  however,  cotton 

1  Prov.  viL  16.  the  word  here  used  for  linen,  is  the  606vn  of  the 

Greeks. 

*  8,  47.  *  19,  1.  4  Herod,  u.  s. 

•Her.  2,  86.  See  Thomson,  in  Philos.  Mag.  Not.  1834.  Wilkinson, 
DUnners  and  Customs,  8.,  115. 


METALLURGY. 


18S 


had  become  much,  more  common,  and  he  describes  the  cloth  made 
from  it  under  the  name  of  Una  xylina1.  It  had  probably  been  in- 
troduced from  Ethiopia,  for  a  late  traveller2  informs  us  that  it 
grows  wild  on  the  banks  of  the  White  River  above  Khartoum. 

The  machinery  for  spinning  and  weaving  used  by  the  Egyptians 
appears  from  the  paintings  to  have  been  very  rude ;  yet  we  know 
from  the  cotton  fabrics  of  India  that  the  dexterity  acquired  by  long 
traditionary  practice  may  rival  the  perfection  of  machinery.  In  the 
grottos  of  Benihassan,  both  men  and  women  are  represented  spin- 
ning8. The  operation  is  performed  by  the  spindle,  which  is  of  the 
same  form  as  the  women  of  Egypt  use  at  the  present  day.  To 
obtain  the  advantage  of  a  longer  cast,  the  spinner  is  raised  upon  a 
stool,  or  the  thread  is  passed  over  a  forked  stick.  Some  are  draw- 
ing a  single  thread  from  the  tow;  others  uniting  two  or  more 
threads  into  one.  The  processes  of  weaving  are  represented  on  the 
same  monuments,  with  cloths  of  a  plain  and  also  of  a  checked  pat- 
tern. Both  the  horizontal  and  the  perpendicular  loom  were  in  use, 
and  the  weaver  sometimes  pushed  the  woof  upwards,  sometimes 
downwards,  not  always  in  the  latter  direction,  as  the  words  of 
Herodotus  seem  to  imply4.  The  shuttle,  properly  speaking,  does 
not  appear  to  have  been  used,  and  instead  of  it  a  stick,  hooked  at 
each  end,  was  employed  to  pass  the  thread  of  the  woof.  The  use 
of  treadles  also  was  unknown,  and  the  threads  of  the  warp  are  kept 
apart  by  sticks6.  Both  sexes  are  engaged  in  weaving,  but  the 
women  who  are  so  employed  are  evidently  of  a  low  class  and  work- 
ing at  a  trade.  Rosellini  observes  that  lie  has  not  in  a  single 
instance  found  the  mistress  of  the  house  or  her  daughters  engaged 

1  Pliny,  u.  8.  Jul.  Poll  7.  75.  Yates,  Textrinura  Antiquorum,  1,  261,  40  S. 

2  "Werne,  Expedition  to  discover  the  Sources  of  the  true  -Nile. 

*  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  2,  16. 

4  Her.  2,  35.  *Y<paivovoiv  ol  plv  aXXot  avto  rfiP  (tprf/cijf  CiQtovTS^  A/yunrjoc  51 
(tara). 

•  Wilkinoon,  M.  and  C.  3,  134. 


184 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


at  the  loom,  a  strong  contrast  to  the  manners  of  Greece,  and  one 
of  those  which  induced  Herodotus  to  say  that  the  Egyptian  cus- 
toms were  the  opposite  of  those  of  the  rest  of  the  world.1 

Various  processes  of  metallurgy  are  represented  in  the  tombs  and 
grottos.  Egypt,  the  soil  of  which  belongs  to  a  very  late  formation, 
does  not  itself  produce  any  metals ;  but  copper  and  gold  were  found 
in  the  primitive  regions  near  the  Red  Sea9.  Gold-dust  was  brought 
by  caravans  from  the  interior  of  Africa ;  silver  and  gold  in  ingots 
and  rings  are  among  the  tribute  paid  by  African  and  Asiatic 
nations.  Iron  ore  is  found  in  the  same  region  near  Mount  Sinai, 
which  abounded  in  copper3 ;  these  mines  were  wrought  in  the  times 
of  the  kings  who  erected  the  Pyramids,  and  Col.  Howard  Vyse  has 
found  a  piece  of  iron  in  an  internal  joint  of  the  Great  Pyramid, 
where  it  could  only  have  been  placed  at  the  time  of  its  erection4. 
Herodotus  supposed  that  a  large  quantity  of  iron  was  employed  in 
building  the  Pyramid,  and  therefore  must  have  had  evidence  of  its 
use6,  and  he  says  also  that  an  iron  instrument  was  employed  in 
embalmment".  The  difficulty  of  working  granite,  even  with  tools 
of  the  best-tempered  steel,  is  so  great  that  it  appears  incredible  that 
any  combination  of  copper  should  have  the  hardness  requisite  for 
this  purpose.  The  weapons  represented  in  the  tomb  of  Rameses 
IV.  have  a  blue  color  like  that  of  steel7.  These  considerations 
leave  no  doubt  of  the  use  of  iron  from  very  early  times  in  Egypt. 
There  is  still  a  difficulty  in  explaining  the  almost  entire  absence  of 

1  Her.  u.  «.  9  See  Chapter  IL  of  this  volume. 

•  Lepsius,  Journey  to  Mount  Sinai. 

4  The  Catalogue  of  Passalacqua  (Nos.  547,  548)  contains  arrows  pointed 
with  iron  from  the  catacombs  of  Thebes,  and  other  instruments  of  the  same 
metaL 

•  Her.  2,  125.  Having  mentioned  that  1600  talents  of  silver  were  ex- 
pended in  onions  and  other  vegetables  for  the  workmen,  he  says,  K<$c« 

$lxd(  5X>a  6sdanavnaQai  iari  Is  Tt  oiSnpovTa)  tpyagovro  kui  air'mt  Kai  ladifra  r»?| 
kfya^opivota  j 

•  i,  8ft.  7  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  tav.  cxxi. 


CARrENTRT. 


185 


iron  tools  and  instruments  among  the  remains  Of  Egyptian  anti- 
quity— a  difficulty  not  wholly  removed  by  the  circumstance  that  this 
metal  is  very  easily  destroyed  by  oxidation.  It  probably  became 
more  scarce  in  later  times  in  consequence  of  the  loss  of  the  metal- 
liferous region  near  Mount  Sinai,  which  the  Egyptians  do  not  seem 
to  have  possessed  after  the  nineteenth  dynasty. 

The  traces  of  ancient  operations  at  Syene  show,  that  in  order  to 
detach  the  shaft  of  an  obelisk,  the  Egyptian  quarry-men  made  a 
groove  through  the  entire  length,  into  which  wedges  of  dry  wood 
were  inserted.  These  being  wetted,  expanded  themselves  so  pow- 
erfully, yet  so  uniformly,  that  the  whole  was  separated  in  one  piece. 
If  metal  wedges  had  been  employed,  it  would  hardly  have  been 
possible  to  strike  them  along  a  line  of  100  feet,  without  the  risk  of 
fracturing  the  stone.  The  pickaxe  and  the  chisel  must  have  been 
used,  with  an  incalculable  amount  of  labor,  to  detach  the  mass  of 
rock  required  for  a  shrine  or  a  colossal  statue.  M.  de  Roziere 
thought  that  he  could  detect  at  Syene  the  exact  space  of  500 
square  feet,  from  which  the  colossus  of  the  Rameseion  in  Western 
Thebes  had  been  hewn. 

The  remains  of  Egyptian  carpentry  comprehend  every  article  of 
domestic  luxury.  Their  tools  were  nearly  the  same  as  the  modern 
artificer  employs,  though  less  perfect  as  mechanical  instruments, 
and  leaving  more  to  his  acquired  dexterity.  The  saw,  of  which 
the  Greeks  attribute  the  invention  to  Daedalus,  appears  in  some  of 
the  oldest  Egyptian  tombs.  The  hatchet  and  the  adze  are  used 
for  splitting  and  finishing ;  in  the  use  of  the  latter,  which  has  a 
bent  handle,  the  Egyptian  workman  must  have  had  great  skill,  as 
it  supplied  the  place  both  of  the  plane  and  the  lathe,  neither  of 
which  were  known.  With  these  they  fashioned  the  legs  of  a  couch 
or  the  pole  and  wheels  of  a  chariot1.  Chariots  were  exported  ;  and 
if  we  may  trust  the  numbers  in  1  Kings  x.  29,  the  price  of  one  m 
the  time  of  Solomon  was  GOO  shekels  of  silver,  which  reckoning  tha 
1  Roselliiii,  Moil  Civ.  2.  44. 


186 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


shekel  at  two  shillings,  would  be  sixty  pounds;  a  great  pi  ice  ce* 
tainly  for  a  work  so  simple  compared  with  a  modern  carriage, 
unless  we  suppose  that  as  royal  chariots  they  were  elaborately 
painted  or  covered  with  plates  of  metal. 

For  the  coarser  kinds  of  carpentry  the  wood  of  the  sycamore  was 
chielly  used,  which  is  soft  but  durable.  The  acacia  furnished  those 
articles  in  which  hardness  and  polish  are  required,  as  the  shafts  of 
military  weapons  or  the  handles  of  tools,  as  well  as  various  kinds 
of  furniture.  For  articles  of  luxury,  as  the  splendid  chairs  or 
thrones  on  which  the  Theban  monarchs  are  seated,  they  employed 
foreign  woods,  whose  origin  is  the  evidence  of  an  extensive  com- 
merce— the  ebony  of  Ethiopia,  the  mahogany  (Swietenia '  febrifuga) 
of  India,  the  firs  and  junipers  of  Syria,  the  cedar  of  Lebanon1.  The 
arts  of  veneering  and  inlaying  with  the  more  precious  woods  were 
also  known.  Ivory  was  wrought  into  various  objects  of  taste,  as 
boxes  and  caskets ;  the  tusks  of  the  elephant  appear  among  the 
Articles  of  tribute  which  the  African  nations  bring  to  the  Egyptian 
sovereigns.  The  accuracy  of  the  workmanship  is  not  less  remarkable 
than  the  variety  of  the  material ;  with  wooden  pegs  for  nails  they 
were  able  to  join  their  work  together  with  entire  compactness2. 

1  RoeellinL  Mon.  Civ.  2,  81.  "  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  8,  167. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


MILITARY  EQUIPMENT,  ARMOUR  AND  WARFARE. 

In  the  division  of  the  Egyptian  people  into  castes,  military  service 
was  the  duty  of  the  two  classes  of  Calasirians  and  Hermotybians, 
whose  relation  to  the  rest  of  the  community  will  be  considered 
when  we  come  to  treat  of  the  Constitution  and  Laws  of  Egypt. 
They  were  distributed  in  the  time  of  Herodotus  chielly  through  the 
nomes  of  Lower  Egypt.  Their  numbers  (410,000  men)  exceeded 
tne  ordinary  demands  of  the  government  for  permanent  duty,  and 
it  is  probable  that  from  time  to  time  enrolments  took  place,  either 
of  those  who  had  arrived  at  military  age,  or  were  about  to  be  called 
into  actual  service ;  or  of  those  who  were  to  form  in  turn  the  body- 
guard of  the  king.  Such  an  enrolment  appears  to  be  represented 
m  a  tomb  at  Qoorneh,  of  an  individual  of  the  military  caste,  where 
nine  men,  followed  by  one  holding  a  cane  in  his  hand,  present 
themselves  before  a  scribe  who  records  their  names1.  In  the  same 
tomb  are  seen  a  company,  also  of  nine  recruits,  who  are  evidently 
undergoing  the  process  of  drilling,  and  are  learning  to  march,  under 
the  instruction  of  a  sergeant.  The  tombs  of  the  military  chiefs 
Amenemhe,  Rotei,  Nevothph  and  others  at  Beni-Hassan  contain 
many  groups  of  wrestlers,  who  are  engaged  with  each  other  in  the 
most  varied  exercises2.  It  is  supposed  that  the  gymnastic  training 
of  the  soldiers  is  here  represented,  and  we  may  thus  reconcile  the 
monuments  with  Herodotus,  who  denies  that  such  contests  were 
in  use  among  the  Egyptians,  except  in  the  town  of  Chemmis,  where 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  ex. 

■  Mem.  de  l'Eg.  4,  344.    Rosellini,  11  Civ.  cxi-exvi. 


188 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


they  were  practised  in  honor  of  Perseus.  It  is  evident  that  he  iE 
speaking  of  solemn  games,  like  those  of  Oiympia1.  Diodorus  also 
tells  us  that  the  palaestra  was  disapproved  by  the  Egyptians',  as 
tending  to  give  only  a  transient  strength  to  the  body ;  but  this 
objection,  which  might  be  justly  applicable  to  the  high  training  of 
a  Grecian  school,  does  not  apply  to  the  simple  exercise  which  is 
represented  in  these  paintings. 

With  the  exception  of  mounted  cavalry,  every  description  of 
force  known  in  ancient  warfare  appears  in  the  military  scenes  repre- 
sented on  the  monuments  of  Egypt.  Their  armies  were  chielly 
composed  of  infantry  armed  with  shields  and  lances  or  bows ;  but 
they  had  also  light  troops,  answering  to  the  4,1X0/  of  the  Greeks 
and  the  velites  of  the  Latins,  who  used  light  darts  and  the  sling  or 
the  throw-stick,  a  weapon  which  even  now  is  found  very  effective 
in  African  warfare3.  The  body-armor  of  the  Egyptian  infantry  was 
much  less  perfect  than  that  of  the  Greeks.  The  feet  were  either 
wholly  bare  or  covered  only  with  the  ordinary  sandal ;  the  legs  and 
thighs  were  not  protected  by  greaves  or  cuisses.  Coats  and  cui- 
rasses of  mail  were  sometimes  worn,  formed  of  small  plates  of  metal 
joined  so  as  to  allow  the  free  movement  of  the  body4 ;  but  the 
infantry  soldier  in  general  had  only  a  quilted  tunic,  or  a  cuirass  of 
the  same  kind,  without  any  metallic  covering.  The  helmet  also 
was  only  a  quilted  cap,  descending  over  the  back  part  of  the  neck 
and  shoulders.  Kings  usually  appear  in  battle,  with  a  conical 
helmet  of  metal.  The  shield,  the  common  form  of  which  was 
curved  at  the  top  and  straight  or  slightly  converging  at  the  sides, 
was  made  of  wood5  and  often  covered  with  leather  or  hide.  They 

1  Herod  2,  91.  TvpviKdv 

•  1,  81.  •  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  1,  829. 

*  See  cuirasses  in  Rosellini,  M.  R.  tav.  ciil  Coats  of  mail  with  sleeves, 
M.  C.  cxxL 

6  'OnXtrai  qvv  iro6fiptai  £v\ivais  dtrriaiv  (AtytJ^rtol  it  ovtoi  l\tyovTO  eivai).  Xcn. 

Anab.  1,  8.  2.  1. 


WAR-CHARIOTS. 


189 


were  usually  half  the  height  of  the  body1 ;  but  the  light  troops  car 
ried  them  of  smaller  size  and  probably  lighter  material,  as  wicker- 
work.  The  shield,  in  close  fight,  could  be  slung  round  on  the 
shoulders.  The  side-arm  was  either  a  straight  sword,  with  two  cut- 
ting edges  and  a  point  like  a  dagger,  or  a  falchion  with  a  curved 
blade.  Besides  these  we  often  see  the  kings  armed  with  a  battle- 
axe  (sckopsch)  with  a  curved  blade  :  a  mace  bound  with  metal  and 
having  a  heavy  metal  ball  at  the  end  is  also  a  common  weapon. 
The  Egyptians  depended  chiefly  in  battle  on  the  bow ;  unlike  the 
Homeric  heroes,  the  kings  and  warriors  mounted  in  cars  never 
appear  hurling  javelins,  but  always  discharging  arrows.  The  bow 
was  between  five  and  six  feet  long,  the  arrow  from  twenty  to  thirty 
inches2,  and  as  the  bow  was  raised,  so  as  to  bring  the  arrow  to  a 
line  with  the  eye,  it  was  drawn  with  the  greatest  force  and  the  arrow 
discharged  with  the  surest  aim8.  Javelins  for  casting,  and  spears 
and  pikes  for  thrusting,  were  also  used ;  and  when  a  fortress  was 
attacked  we  see  a  pike  of  extraordinary  length,  raised  by  severa. 
men,  who  are  sheltered  under  a  shed  of  boards,  to  assail  the  defend- 
ers on  the  walls4.  Sappers  appear  armed  with  hatchets  for 
destroying  the  foundations  of  walls,  with  large  shields  for  their 
defence  while  carrying  on  their  operations. 

The  use  of  the  war-chariot  was  of  remote  antiquity  in  Egypt'. 
Homer  describes  Thebes  as  having  a  hundred  gates,  through  each 
of  which  marched  out  200  men  with  horses  and  chariots8.  Rightly 

1  Wilkinson,  M.  and  0.  t,  298.       '  2  Wilkinson,  1,  308. 

8  'Ap%aTicdv  to  rr)v  vevpav  irtXagsiv  ra>  pa£u>-  S  xat  'AjtagSves  ivoiovv'  ro  6s  ^X.Pl 
kc&  es  to  Se^idv  ov$  airriv  ivTo.  'vtn>  vecjTtpov.  Eust.  ad  II.  4,  118.  What  he  calls 
the  modern  practice  was  ancient  in  Egypt.  The  Greeks  raised  the  javelin 
to  a  level  with  the  ear.    Hippol.  Eur.  220. 

4  Rosellini,  M.  R.  tav.  c.  ci.  cii.  There  is  a  round  hole  in  the  upper  part 
of  these  shields,  with  a  contrivance  for  opening  or  closing,  which  seems 
designed  to  afford  the  soldier  the  opportunity  of  reconnoitring  under  cover 

6  Of  the  use  of  the  horse  in  Egypt,  see  p.  1 66  of  this  volume. 

e  D     883.    See  p.  150  of  this  volume. 


190 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


interpreted  this  only  means  that  the  military  array  of  Thebei 
amounted  to  20,000  men,  and  that  horses  and  chariots  were  u  part 
of  the  force ;  the  original  does  not  justify  the  conclusion  of  Diodo- 
rus,  that  it  could  send  forth  20,000  chariots1,  and  indeed  affords  no 
clue  to  their  number.  The  account  of  the  Exodus  describes  Pha- 
raoh as  pursuing  the  children  of  Israel  with  "  600  chosen  chariots, 
even  (not  and  as  in  our  version)  all  the  chariots  of  Egypt,"  a  mode- 
rate and  probable  estimate.  The  monuments  give  us  a  perfect 
idea  of  the  construction  of  the  war-chariot.  The  body  is  lightly 
framed,  sometimes  with  open  sides,  and  fixed  so  that  the  part  on 
v/hich  the  warrior  stood  was  between  the  axle  and  the  pole,  an 
arrangement  which  made  his  posture  easier  than  if  he  had  stood 
immediately  over  the  axle.  It  was  curved  in  front,  open  at  the 
back,  without  a  seat,  and  low  enough  to  be  mounted  without  a 
step.  A  royal  chariot  was  usually  richly  ornamented  at  the  sides, 
but  the  ornaments  were  of  a  light  open  work ;  quivers  were  fixed 
transversely  on  the  outer  side  from  which  the  warrior  supplied 
himself  with  arrows,  or  short  spears  for  close  fight.  Each  chariot 
held  two  persons,  one  of  whom  guided  the  horses  while  the  other 
fought.  The  king  very  generally  appears  alone,  having  the  reins 
fastened  round  his  body,  so  as  to  leave  both  hands  free  for  the  use 
of  the  bow ;  but  as  he  would  thus  lose  all  power  of  guiding  the 
horses,  and  as  he  is  generally  without  defensive  armor,  it  is  pro- 
bable  that  he  was  accompanied  by  a  charioteer,  although  the  artist 
has  represented  him  as  filling  the  chariot  alone8,  to  enhance  his 
dignity  and  give  space  for  exhibiting  him  in  colossal  proportions. 
The  wheels,  which  were  never  more  than  two,  have  six  spokes, 
rarely  four ;  the  pole  proceeded  from  the  middle  of  the  axle  and 

1  !,  45.  Eust.  ad  loc.  Horn.,  who  naturally  asks,  si  rocavrat  pvpiadts  inirtuv 
tJJ  T<5Xft,  ol  \oiiTol  ffTpaTtwrat  oaoi ;  The  poet  appears  to  speak  according  to 
Greek  ideas  of  military  force,  as  if  the  whole  population  of  Thebes  of  a  oer 
tain  age  were  military. 

3  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  1,  337. 


USE  OF  CAYALKY. 


19) 


was  bent  upwards  at  a  short  distance  from  the  body  of  the  car- 
riage; the  yoke  was  fastened  to  the  end  of  the  pole,  aDd  each 
horse  attached  to  the  car  by  a  single  trace,  extending  on  his  inner 
side  from  the  base  of  the  pole  to  the  saddle.  The  heads  of  the 
horses  were  borne  up  tight  by  a  rein,  made  fast  to  a  hook  in  front 
of  the  saddle,  and  the  long  reins  passed  through  a  ring  or  loop  at 
the  side.  The  heads  of  the  horses  were  adorned  with  lofty  plumes, 
and  sometimes  defended  by  a  head-piece  of  metal ;  their  harness  was 
covered  with  ornaments  of  metal,  serving  also  for  protection  espe- 
cially at  the  shoulder-joint,  and  their  bodies  with  housings  of  vari- 
ous and  splendid  colors.  In  short,  as  all  the  essential  principles 
which  regulate  the  construction  and  draft  of  carriages  are  exempli- 
fied in  the  war-chariots  of  the  Pharaohs,  so  there  is  nothing  which 
modern  taste  and  luxury  have  devised  for  their  decoration  to  which 
we  do  not  find  a  prototype  in  the  monuments  of  the  eighteenth 
dynasty1.  Their  construction,  however,  was  so  slight,  that  though 
well  fitted  for  the  level  and  smooth  roads  of  Egypt,  it  is  difficult  to 
conceive  how  they  could  be  used  in  such  rocky  countries  as  Pales 
tine.  The  want  of  shoes  for  the  horses  must  also  have  been 
severely  felt  in  such  a  country.  The  horse  is  not  found  at  all  in 
Egyptian  monuments  prior  to  the  invasion  of  the  Shepherd  kings. 
It  is  probable  therefore  that  the  Egyptians  learnt  the  use  of  this 
animal  from  their  nomad  conquerors. 

Mounted  cavalry  never  appear  in  monuments  of  any  age  among 
the  Egyptian  forces.  RoselliniV  who  has  examined  them  with 
special  reference  to  this  subject,  observes  that  he  has  found  only 
eight  examples  in  which  men  are  seen  on  horseback,  and  that  six 
of  these  are  evidently  foreigners ;  two  only  Egyptians,  who  are  no 
part  of  a  military  force,  nor  engaged  in  any  military  act,  and  their 
introduction  irfto  a  battle-piece  only  shows,  that  the  art  of  riding 

'  A  splendid  example  is  seen  in  the  chariot  of  Rameees  III.  at  Abooa:mb«L 
Roeellini,  Mon.  Reali,  lxxxi. 
•  Mon.  Civ.  3,  2<<2. 


192 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


vr&s  not  unknown.  A  difficulty  has  been  created  by  the  supposed 
mention  of  cavalry  in  the  history  of  the  Exodus.  In  the  "  song  of 
Moses  and  the  children  of  Israel "  it  is  said1,  "  Jehovah  hath  tri- 
umphed gloriously ;  the  horse  and  Ids  rider  he  hath  drowned  in 
the  sea."  13ut  the  word  here  rendered  rider2  is  equally  applicable 
to  one  who  rides  in  a  chariot,  or  on  horseback,  and  is  used  of  both, 
Jerem.  xxii.  4.  In  the  preceding  chapter  of  Exodus  indeed,  in  the 
narrative  of  the  pursuit  of  the  Israelites,  it  is  said  that  the  Egyp- 
tians followed  "  with  horses  and  chariots  and  horsemen  ; "  and  the 
word  there  used  is  one  that  in  the  Old  Testament  always  denotes 
a  mounted  horseman3.  In  die  19th  verse  of  the  loth  chapter, 
where  the  historian  no  longer  quotes  the  song  of  Moses,  but  speaks 
in  his  own  person,  the  same  word  is  again  used.  In  the  later 
books  of  Scripture  the  existence  of  large  bodies  of  cavalry  in  the 
Egyptian  armies  is  evidently  taken  for  granted*.  The  destruction 
of  the  host  is  more  intelligible,  if  we  suppose  it  to  have  consisted 
only  of  chariots.  The  horses  entangled  in  their  harness,  the  men 
oppressed  with  armor  and  perhaps  embarrassed  by  the  reins  which 
they  often  fastened  round  their  bodies,  might  be  overwhelmed  by 

1  Exod.  xv.  1. 

*  ^^1-    It  is  used  1  Kings,  xxii.  34,  of  the  driver  of  the  chariot 

*  125*13-  The  etymology  of  this  word,  all  whose  senses  flow  from  the 
idea  of  dividing,  proves  that  it  means  a  man  astride  on  a  horse.  The  Sep- 
tuagint  render  both  and  "EH  3  by  the  same  word,  avaddrw,  amounted 
rider. 

4  2  Chron.  xii.  3,  Shishak  is  said  to  come  up  with  1200  chariots  and  60,000 
horsemen.  In  the  corresponding  passage  in  1  Kings  xiv.  25,  there  is  no 
mention  of  chariots  or  horsemen.  Rosellini  endeavors  to  make  it  appear 
that.  O*  1251 3  signifies,  not  horsemen,  but  horses  covered  with  housings ; 
but  there  is  no  authority  for  such  a  rendering,  nor  would  it  suit  other 
passages.  He  might  have  found  an  easier  solution  of  his  difficulty  in  his 
own  explanation  of  the  mention  of  cavalry  in  tho  army  of  Sesostris:  "Lo 
Storico  scriveva  qui,  come  in  molti  altri  luoghi,  le  cose  egizie  secondo  1# 
idee  de'  suoi  tempi  6  del  buo  popolo."    M.  Civ.  3,  257. 


TOMB  OF  RAMESES  IV. 


103 


a  sudden  reflux  of  the  waves  and  "  sink  into  the  bottom  as  a  ston« 
and  like  lead  into  the  mighty  waters ; "  but  a  body  of  cavalry 
could  not  have  been  so  entirely  destroyed;  a  considerable  part 
would  have  saved  themselves  by  swimming. 

The  tomb  of  Rameses  IV.  in  the  valley  of  hab-el-Melook,  con- 
tains, along  with  representations  of  arms,  a  number  of  military 
ensigns,  which  are  either  the  figures  or  emblems  of  the  gods. 
Anubis  is  represented  by  his  jackal,  Phre  by  his  hawk,  Thoth  by 
his  ibis,  Seb  by  his  crocodile,  and  twelve  other  gods  by  their  usual 
figures.  They  served  to  distinguish  the  several  corps,  probably 
according  to  the  tutelary  divinity  of  the  nome  in  which  they  dwelt. 
Among  the  various  fictions,  to  account  for  the  worship  of  animals 
in  Egypt,  one  was  that  originally  the  Egyptians  had  no  ensigns, 
and  being  consequently  defeated  by  their  enemies,  to  preserve  bet- 
ter discipline  in  future  they  placed  figures  of  animals  on  spears, 
and  so  discriminated  the  corps  of  the  army ;  and  being  thus  victo- 
rious honored  these  animals  ever  afterward  as  a  mark  of  gratitude. 
We  see  accordingly  that  bodies  similarly  armed  are  placed  together 
and  march  in  step.  But  although  so  many  monuments  remain 
exhibiting  battles,  it  is  difficult  to  deduce  from  them  any  inference 
as  to  the  progress  which  the  strategic  art  had  made.  We  do  not 
commonly  see  the  armies  drawn  out  in  line  or  performing  evolu- 
tions, but  engaged  in  the  melee ;  and  the  leading  object  of  the 
artist  has  evidently  been  to  aggrandize  the  king.  He  is  represented 
of  colossal  size,  trampling  down  hosts  of  his  enemies  under  the  feet 
of  horses  as  exaggerated  in  their  proportions  as  himself,  or  piercing 
them  with  showers  of  arrows.  Their  battles  are  epic  rather  than 
strategic.  The  Egyptians  appear  to  have  been  provided  with  no 
military  engines,  either  for  the  discharge  of  weapons  in  battle,  or 
the  attack  of  fortified  places.  Where  the  attack  of  a  fortress  is 
represented,  the  defenders  are  taken  off  by  a  flight  of  arrows,  or  a 
spear  is  brought  up  by  several  men,  placed  under  cover,  of  sufficient 

vol.  i.  9 


194 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


length  to  reach  to  the  battlement  of  the  wall.  Scaling  ladders 
were  also  used  in  assault. 

The  Egyptian  camp  does  not  appear  to  have  been  entrenched, 
but  simply  surrounded  with  a  palisade.  In  the  representation  of 
the  wars  of  Rameses  III.  at  Thebes  and  Aboosimbel,  the  king's 
tent  is  placed  opposite  to  the  entrance,  and  surrounded  by  the  tents 
of  his  officers1.  The  horses,  unyoked  from  the  chariots,  are  ranged 
together  in  one  part,  the  chariots  in  another ;  the  asses  which 
carried  the  baggage  are  placed  by  themselves,  and  their  pack- 
saddles  and  panniers  in  another  part ;  one  part  of  the  camp  was 
appropriated  as  a  hospital  for  the  soldiers  and  also  for  the  sick  ani- 
mals ;  in  another  we  see  drilling  and  flogging  going  on.  Without 
the  camp  the  infantry  and  charioteers,  partially  armed,  are  exercising 
themselves  in  peaceful  evolutions2.  This  single  monument  gives 
us  an  insight  into  the  military  system  of  the  Egyptians,  which 
we  could  never  have  obtained  from  the  written  histories,  and 
shows  a  minuteness  of  arrangement  and  organization  which  could 
only  be  the  result  of  long  experience  in  war'. 

1  Rosellini,  M.  R.  cviL 

'  In  the  middle  of  this  camp  lies  a  lion,  having  his  fore  paws  bound ;  his 
keeper,  with  an  uplifted  cane,  stands  near  him.  Rosellini  supposes  it  intro- 
duced here  symbolically.  It  seems,  however,  from  Diodorus(l,  48),  that  on 
the  monument  of  Osymandyas,  which  was  really  the  Rameseion  of  Thebes, 
tne  king  was  represented  fighting  with  a  lion  by  his  side,  cvvaywiguncvov 
tov  Ovp'iov  KaTairXrjKrtKMs.  Some  of  the  expounders  of  this  monument  said 
that  he  really  carried  with  him  a  tamed  lion ;  others  that  he  wished  by 
means  of  this  animal  to  express  the  qualities  of  his  own  character.  The 
former  seems  most  probable ;  only  we  need  not  believe,  what  Diodorus 
adds,  that  this  tame  lion  put  the  enemy  to  the  rout.  No  doubt  the  promi- 
nence given  to  the  king  in  every  Egyptian  representation  of  a  battle  is  in 
great  measure  artistic  flattery;  a  tame  Hon  would  have  been  a  useless  com- 
panion to  him  in  the  furious  career  which  he  is  represented  as  running 
r-gainst  the  enemy. 

*  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson  has  ascertained,  by  researches  among  the  ruin« 


NAVAL  BATTLE. 


195 


A  single  monument  remains,  from  which  we  can  learn  anything 
of  the  naval  warfare  of  the  Egyptians.  It  is  preserved  on  the 
walls  of  the  palace  at  Medinet  Aboo,  and  represents  a  combat  of 
the  ships  of  Rameses  IV.  with  those  of  a  nation  of  western  Asia, 
whose  name  has  been  read  by  Roseilini  Fekkaroo  (supposed  by 
others  to  be  Philistines),  and  the  Shairetana,  in  whom  some  see 
Sidonians1.  It  is  not  clear  whether  the  engagement  takes  place  at 
sea  or  in  a  river.  The  vessels  have  a  single  mast  and  sail ;  they 
are  impelled  by  single  benches  of  rowers,  who  are  protected  by 
bulwarks  at  the  side  of  the  decks ;  on  the  top  of  the  mast  is  a 
kind  of  basket  in  which  an  archer  is  stationed,  or  a  watchman  to 
make  signals.  The  Egyptian  vessels  have  a  lion's  head  at  the 
prow  ;  those  of  their-  enemies  the  head  of  a  waterfowl.  Both  are 
manned  by  soldiers,  the  Egyptians  armed  with  bows  and  arrows, 
their  enemies  with  round  shields  and  swords ;  the  vessels  are 
driven  against  or  alongside  of  each  other  by  the  rowers,  and  the 
soldiers  fight  fiercely  from  the  decks.  The  Egyptians  have  posses- 
sion of  the  shore  or  the  bank,  from  which  the  king  and  a  body  of 
archers  are  discharging  their  arrows  ;  so  that  the  enemy  are  placed 
between  two  fires.  The  vessels  appear  slight  for  the  navigation 
of  the  sea  ;  and  the  water-plants  near  the  border  rather  indicate  a 
river.  In  this  case  we  must  suppose  that  the  Nile  is  the  scene  of 
the  conflict,  and  that  the  Egyptians  are  defending  their  country 
against  foreigners,  who  have  established  themselves  within  its 
borders,  and  built  a  navy  there.  According  to  Herodotus,  &esos- 
tris  was  the  first  who  built  ships  of  war.  His  Sesostris  was  pro- 
bably the  Rameses  III.  of  the  monuments,  and  if  so,  he  preceded 
by  three  reigns  the  king  under  whom  this  naval  battle  took 
place. 

of  Semneh,  that  the  Egyptians  had  carried  the  art  of  fortification  to  a  high 
degree  of  scientific  perfection ;  but  no  detailed  account  of  his  observation* 
has  yet  been  published. 

1  Roseilini,  Mon.  Reali,  cxxx.,  cxxxi. 


CHAPTER  XI V. 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  AND  MANNERS. — AMUSEMENTS. 

Tins  Pyramids,  temples  and  palaces  of  Egypt  have  been  secured 
by  their  massive  strength  against  entire  destruction  ;  but  the 
houses  were  built  of  perishable  materials,  and  no  such  fortunate 
accident  as  that  which  preserved  Pompeii  has  enabled  us  to  look 
into  the  interior  of  an  ancient  Egyptian  town.  "We  search  in  vain 
even  for  foundations  in  many  places,  where  the  former  existence 
of  a  considerable  population  is  clearly  proved  by  extensive  ceme 
teries.  The  houses  were  built  in  general  of  crude  brick,  and  they 
have  either  fallen  to  decay  or  been  destroyed  that  their  materials 
might  be  applied  to  other  purposes.  At  Thebes,  the  blackened 
remains  of  the  foundations  bear  traces  of  the  conflagrations  to 
which  from  the  time  of  Cambyses  downward  the  city  was  exposed. 
But  from  these,  though  we  may  discover  the  strength  of  the  walls 
and  the  size  of  the  lowest  apartments,  we  could  gain  no  informa- 
tion respecting  the  interior  disposition  of  the  inhabited  part,  or  the 
height  to  which  the  house  was  raised ;  and  little  respecting  the 
arrangement  of  the  streets.  Fortunately  the  paintings  of  the 
sepulchres,  which  so  generally  relate  to  domestic  life,  have  pre- 
served some  views  of  the  houses  in  which  the  scenes  represented 
are  carried  on.  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson1  has  explored  the  remains 
of  an  ancient  town  near  Tel-Amarna,  which  he  believes  to  be 
Alabastron  ;  and  though  they  may  not  belong  to  very  remote 
times,  they  serve  to  enlarge  the  scanty  information  which  we 
derive  from  other  sources. 

1  Manners  and  Customs,  2,  100. 


HOUSE- ARCHITECTURE. 


197 


Diodorus,  speaking  of  the  second  Busiris,  wliom  he  represents  as 
the  founder  of  Thebes,  says  that  he  built  the  houses  of  private  per- 
sons some  with  four,  some  with  five  stories1.  In  the  historian's 
age,  great  part  of  Thebes  had  been  long  in  ruin,  and  certainly  no 
houses  existed  there  to  p  ove  what  had  been  the  style  of  architec- 
ture in  the  mythic  reign  of  Busiris.  His  statement  is  probably  one 
of  those  exaggerations  by  which  the  glory  of  this  ancient  capital 
was  magnified.  That  the  houses  should  have  been  of  that  height, 
would  be  inconsistent  with  what  Diodorus  himself  tells  us,  of  the 
indifference  of  the  Egyptians  to  the  magnitude  and  splendor  of 
their  dwellings ;  it  is  contrary  to  the  practice  of  the  East  in  all 
ages,  and  to  the  evidence  of  the  paintings.  From  these  we  may 
conclude  that  the  ordinary  plan  of  an  Egyptian  house  compre- 
hended only  a  single  story  besides  the  basement,  with  a  terrace  on 
the  roof,  open  or  covered,  surrounded  by  a  balustrade  or  battlement2. 
In  hot  climates,  two  great  objects  in  the  arrangement  of  houses 
are,  to  admit  air  and  exclude  heat.  To  attain  the  latter,  the 
Egyptians  made  their  windows  small  and  their  apartments  lofty 
and  for  ventilation  it  is  probable  that  they  had  a  contrivance  in 
the  root,  similar  to  that  which  is  now  used  in  Egypt3.  Houses 
which  stood  detached  and  enclosed  within  a  wall  of  their  own,  had 
an  ornamented  garden  around  them,  such  as  we  have  already  de- 
scribed. Their  villas  were  still  more  spacious,  comprehending  a 
variety  of  apartments,  and  had  frequently  the  appendage  of  a  farm- 
yard4. The  walls  of  the  principal  rooms  were  covered  with  stucco 
and  ornamented  with  paintings.  These  have  generally  perished ; 
but  from  the  tombs  it  is  evident  that  the  Egyptians  in  very  early 
times  had  made  great  advances  in  house  decoration.  Their  walls 
ard  ceilings  are  painted  in  a  variety  of  patterns,  combining  elegance 

1  1,  45.  9  Rosellini,  M.  Civ.  2,  lxviii 

s  See  it  described  in  "Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  2,  121. 

4  Wilkinson,  2,  132,  from  the  sculpture?  at  Alabastron.  It  is  to  be  re 
gretted  that  he  has  not  given  more  precise  information  as  to  his  authority 


198 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


of  form  with  richness  of  coloring.  M;,ny  of  them,  even  of  very 
early  kings,  exhibit  a  remarkable  resemblance  to  those  which  we 
see  in  the  Mosaics  of  the  Romans,  and  which  have  been  imitated 
in  our  carpets  and  floorcloths.  What  is  called  the  Maeander,  or 
Greek  border,  appears  in  a  tomb  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty1.  The 
resemblances  are  so  numerous  and  so  striking  as  to  leave  no  doubt 
that  the  Greeks  and  Romans  derived  from  JEgypt  these  combina- 
tions, the  artistic  excellence  of  which  is  attested  by  the  circumstance, 
that  they  please  as  much  at  the  present  day,  as  in  the  remote  age 
when  they  made  their  first  appearance. 

The  tombs  contain  a  considerable  number  of  specimens  of  Egyp- 
tian furniture,  but  they  are  usually  of  an  uncostly  kind ;  the  luxury 
which  prevailed  is,  however,  sufficiently  attested  by  the  paintings. 
Compared  with  modern  houses,  those  of  Egypt  indeed  would  seem 
scantily  furnished :  they  had  neither  curtains,  nor  carpets,  nor 
mirrors,  nor  the  elegant  apparatus  of  book-shelves,  chiffoniers  and 
writing-desks,  which  literary  habits  have  introduced  among  us. 
Musical  instruments  too  were  not  with  them  part  of  the  furniture. 
Stands  for  flowers,  vases  of  perfume,  and  even  altars  for  the  recep- 
tion of  offerings  which  were  not  to  be  consumed  by  fire,  appear 
frequently  in  representations  of  the  interior  scenes  of  Egyptian  life9. 
Besides  these,  tables,  chairs  and  couches  were  the  principal  articles 
which  their  rooms  contained,  and  these  in  wealthy  houses  were 
made  of  costly  materials,  elaborately  wrought  and  polished.  Their 
forms  display  freedom  and  elegance ;  some  of  them,  as  the  imitation 
of  the  legs  and  feet  of  animals,  have  been  perpetuated  to  the  pre- 
sent day  in  the  workmanship  of  the  corresponding  pieces  of  furni- 
ture. The  thrones  or  chairs  of  state,  which  are  pictured  in  the 
tombs  of  the  kings,  were  richly  gilt  and  painted,  and  luxuriously 
cushioned ;  the  back  bends  with  an  easy  and  graceful  curve ;  the 
head  of  a  lion,  or  the  entire  figure,  forms  the  arm   the  sides  ara 

1  Rosellini,  M.  C.  tav.  lxxi. 

*  Rosellini,  M.  Civ.  2  469,  tav.  lxxxviii.  I,  2. 


FURNITURE. 


199 


occupied  with  emblematical  devices,  or  the  representation  of  cap- 
tives bound  beneath  the  throne  of  the  sovereign.  The  footstools 
and  seats  are  also  richly  carved  and  covered,  and  exhibit  the  ene- 
mies of  Egypt  in  the  same  humiliating  posture1.  When  the 
Egyptians  reclined  on  couches  which  had  no  back  or  scroll  at  the 
end  for  the  support  of  the  head,  its  place  was  supplied  by  a  semi- 
circle of  polished  wood  upon  a  stand,  on  which  the  head  was 
rested.  In  that  climate  the  contact  of  the  head  during  the  day 
with  a  soft  pillow  would  have  been  intolerable*,  and  this  substitute 
continues  to  be  used  among  the  Nubian  tribes.  Whatever  may  be 
said  of  the  stiffness  and  uniformity  of  Egyptian  style  when  em- 
ployed on  sacred  subjects,  the  artists  displayed  a  sense  of  beauty 
and  grace,  where  they  were  not  fettered  by  religious  or  conventional 
restrictions,  which  places  them  above  all  ancient  nations  except  the 
Greeks. 

The  Egyptians,  like  the  Greeks  in  Homer's  time  and  the  Israel- 
ites till  a  late  period  of  the  monarchy8,  sat  at  meat  instead  of 
reclining.  The  Greeks  sat  in  chairs,  but  the  Egyptians  on  the 
ground,-  with  the  legs  bent  beneath  them,  or  on  a  very  low  stool, 
sometimes  only  a  mat  or  a  carpet.  The  dishes  therefore  would  be 
placed  on  a  table  slightly  raised  above  the  floor,  as  now  practised 
in  the  East4,  or  served  round  to  each  guest.     Neither  knives  nor 

1  Rosellini,  M.  Civ.  tav.  lxxxviii-xcii. 

a  Rosellini,  M.  Civ.  2,  407,  tav.  xciL  It  is  called  in  hieroglyphics  oh,  an- 
swering to  the  Coptic  otitis,  to  recline. 

'  Amos  ii.  8,  is  the  earliest  passage  in  which  allusion  is  made  to  reclining, 
and  here  it  is  not  a  domestic  meal  which  is  spoken  of,  but  a  feast  in  an 
idol's  temple. 

4  In  the  tombs  we  sometimes  see  the  deceased,  with  his  wife  sitting  beside 
a  table,  on  which  are  meats,  bread,  vegetables  and  frmt.  In  the  great  pic- 
ture of  a  'banquet  (Rosellini,  M.  Civ.  tav.  Ixxix.)  wo  see  in  one  part  food 
placed  on  a  low  table,  before  a  person  sitting  on  a  low  seat;  in  another  on 
the  ground,  the  guests  sitting  on  their  heels.  Sometimes  each  couple  of 
guests  appear  to  have  had  a  tabic  between  them. 


200 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


forks  were  in  use,  but  spoons  for  eating  and  ladles  for  Lelping  have 
been  found.  At  entertainments,  the  guests,  who  were  of  both 
sexes,  were  anointed  by  the  attendants  befc  re  the  feast  began,  and 
flowers  were  placed  on  their  heads,  around  their  necks  and  in  their 
har.ds.  From  the  history  of  Joseph  we  learn  that  at  Pharaoh's 
court,  it  was  the  business  of  a  chief  of  the  culinary  department  to 
prepare  pastry  for  the  monarch's  table ;  and  the  monuments  prove 
that  it  was  made  with  great  care  and  fashioned  into  a  variety  of 
elegant  forms'.  Except  in  this  respect  the  Egyptian  cookery  ap- 
pears to  have  been  simple,  fish,  beef,  and  goose  being  the  chief 
articles  of  food.  Gazelles  and  kids  are  also  seen  in  the  hands  of 
the  cooks,  preparing  for  the  table.  The  wine  and  water  were 
placed  in  porous  jars,  and  the  process  of  evaporation  by  which  they 
were  cooled  was  promoted  by  their  being  fanned.  The  water  of 
the  Nile  was  purified  probably  by  mixing  paste  of  almonds  with 
it,  according  to  the  present  practice2.  Music  accompanied  the 
feast ;  and  the  Egyptians,  like  the  Greeks,  appear  to  have  amused 
themselves  with  gymnastic  performers  and  jugglers,  and  the  antics 
of  dwarfs  and  deformed  persons3.  With  what  religious  rites  their 
more  solemn  feasts  were  inaugurated  we  do  not  know;  in  the 
Ptolemaic  times  royal  banquets  appear  to  have  been  introduced  by 
prayers  for  the  welfare  of  the  king  and  the  prosperity  of  the  king- 
dom4. At  the  close  of  feasts  among  the  wealthier  classes,  according 
to  Herodotus6,  a  figure  of  a  mummy  elaborately  painted  and  gilded, 
a  cubit  in  length,  was  carried  round  by  an  attendant,  who  thus 
addressed  the  guests:  "Looking  on  this,  drink  and  enjoy  thyself; 
for  such  shalt  thou  be  when  thou  art  dead."  This  sounds  like  an 
Epicurean  exhortation  to  the  enjoyment  of  life ;  the  same  exhibition, 
however,  was  susceptible  of  a  moral  turn,  such  as  Plutarch6  gives 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  2,  464,  tav.  lxxxv.    Gen.  xL  17. 
*RoselIini,  M.  Civ.  2,  46V. 

1  R<w>lJi-«i.  M.  -iv  xttm  3,  4.    Xeti.  Symp.  cap.  2. 
*t*eph.  Antiq.  12,  2,  1L         2,  78.        e  Sep,  Sap.  Conv  v.  p.  148,  B. 


ourtu    OF  MA.NtKUB. 


it.  "  The  skeleton,"  says  be,  "  which  the  Egyptians  appropriately 
introduce  at  their  banquets,  exhorting  the  guests  to  remember  that 
they  shall  soon  be  like  him,  though  he  comes  as  an  unwelcome 
and  unseasonable  boon-companion,  is  nevertheless  in  a  certain  sense 
seasonable,  if  he  exhorts  them  not  to  drink  and  indulge  in  pleasure, 
but  te-eultivate  mutual  friendship  and  affection,  and  not  to  render 
life,  which  is  short  in  duration,  long  by  evil  deeds."  This  by  no 
means  implies  that  the  Egyptians  applied  it  to  such  a  purpose,  and 
he  elsewhere  speaks  of  the  custom,  like  Herodotus,  as  designed  to 
exhort  the  guests  to  the  enjoyment  of  life1. 

An  Egyptian  custom,  which  appeared  to  Herodotus5  very 
remarkable,  was  that  of  singing  a  song  in  honour  of  Maneros. 
As  he  introduces  the  mention  of  it  immediately  after  the  carrying 
round  of  the  image,  and  as  Plutarch  expressly  says  that  it  was 
used  at  their  banquets,  ii  is  probable  that  it  was  one  of  their  festive 
customs.  AVho  Maneros  was  is  variously  explained.  According 
to  Herodotus  he  was  the  only  son  of  the  first  king  of  Egypt  (by 
whom  perhaps  Ociris,  not  Menes,  was  originally  intended),  and  had 
died  an  untimely  death.  As  the  same  strain,  under  the  name  of 
Linus9,  was  sung  by  the  Greeks,  and  under  some  other  name  by 
the  Phoenicians  in  their  own  country  an.1,  in  Cyprus,  it  is  evident 
that  the  custom  of  singing  it  cannot  have  •  nginated  in  the  death 
of  the  only  son  of  Menes.  A  mythic  origin,  from  some  circum- 
stance which  was  equally  interesting  to  the  feelings  of  all  those 
nations,  is  much  more  probable.  Plutarch  says  Maneros  was  the 
son  of  the  king  of  Byblos,  involuntarily  killed  by  L>is4 ;  and  Linus 

1  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  357,  F.  1  2,  79, 

■ 

"O*  6r}t  oaoi  fiporoi  claiv  doiool  xai  KiLupiai  ai 
Tiavrtf  filw  Bpr\vov<Jiv  iv  ciXaTtVaij,  re  x°P  'S  * 

'Ap^fitVOl  6t  A.IVQV  KOi  Xfiyovrcs  KOkiOVCl. 

Gais£  F*-ag.  Hea.  1 
•  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  357,  E.    Some  said  that  Maue„oe  was  ti-<  in\  e:\tor  of 
music ;  some  that  it  was  not  a  name,  but  meant  alaiya  rctira  fsp&c. 

9* 


202 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


was  reputed  to  have  been  either  the  son  of  Apollo  killed  by  Her- 
cules, or  of  Urania  killed  by  Apollo.  Sappho1  conjoined  Adonis 
and  Linus  in  one  lamentation,  whence  it  is  probable  that  both  were 
personages  of  the  same  mythic  character.  The  mourning  rites 
which  made  a  part  of  all  the  ancient  religions  have  a  primary 
reference  to  autumn  and  winter,  when  the  sun  appears  to  decline 
in  vigor  and  be  preparing  for  extinction,  and  vegetative  power  to 
be  buried  in  the  earth2.  As  the  song  of  Maneros  was  the  most 
ancient  and  universal  among  the  Egyptians,  it  was  natural  that  its 
origin  should  be  referred  to  the  history  of  their  first  king3.  As 
the  Maneros  was  a  mournful  strain,  its  use  at  banquets  harmo- 
nized well  with  the  exhibition  of  the  skeleton  or  mummy — one 
reminding  the  guests  of  the  transitory  life  of  man,  and  the  other 
of  the  short-lived  beauty  of  the  external  world4. 

It  has  been  generally  thought  that  common  life  had  a  veiy  grave 
and  melancholy  aspect  among  the  Egyptians,  who  were  oppressed 
and  impoverished  by  the  predominance  of  the  priesthood.  The 
insight  which  we  have  gained  into  their  interior  life,  by  means  of 
the  monuments,  has  shown  that  this  was  by  no  means  the  case. 
It  is  true  that  they  had  no  theatre  like  the  Greeks,  no  circus  like 
the  Romans ;  and  that  their  public  religious  ceremonies  were  not 
diversified  by  exhibitiens  of  strength  and  skill,  of  musical  taste 

1  Pausan.  9,  29. 

7  Plut  Is.  ct  Os.  378,  F. 

8  According  to  Jul.  Pollux,  llcpi  aapanov  kOvinwv  (4^-64),  Maneros  was  the 
inventor  of  husbandry  and  a  pupil  of  the  Muses.  He  enumerates  several 
other  songs,  all  of  Lho  same  character,  and  apparently  the  same  or  nearly 
the  same  origin. 

4  Hue  vina  et  unguenta  et  nimium  brevis 

Flores  amcen  »a  forre  jube  rosse, 
Dum  res  et  cetas  et  sororum 

Fila  ti-ium  patiuntur  atra. — Hor.  Carm.  ii.  3. 
It  is  evident  from  other  passages  of  the  same  author,  thai  auch  contrast* 
Arere  supposed  to  give  a  zeat  to  festivity. 


SPORTS  AND  GAMES. 


203 


and  literary  ability  like  the  great  panegyries  of  Greece.  But  the 
life  of  the  people  was  not  so  monotonous  as  it  has  been  supposed 
to  be.  We  find  in  the  grottoes  of  Benihassan  not  only  representa- 
tions of  bodily  contests  which  were  probably  a  part  of  the  military 
training,  but  games  carried  on  both  by  men  and  women,  which 
are  evidently  the  amusement  of  the  people.  In  these  paintings 
we  see  women,  generally  distinguished  by  a  cap,  from  the  back 
part  of  which  two  or  three  strings  of  twisted  ribbon  depend1,  play- 
ing with  balls,  sometimes  as  many  as  six  at  once,  and  engaged  in 
trials  of  strength,  which  exhibit  flexibility  of  the  limbs  in  the  most 
extraordinary  degree.  They  make  an  arch  of  their  inverted 
bodies,  touching  the  ground  with  the  feet  and  the  back  of  the 
head,  or  stand  on  the  head  with  the  heels  in  the  air.  One  couple 
are  performing  an  evolution  which  is  still  common  with  children, 
locking  their  arms  together  behind  and  lifting  each  other,  or  rising 
from  the  ground,  by  bringing  the  feet  and  hands  to  meet.  In 
these  feats  the  women  are  dressed  in  tight  pantaloons.  Among 
other  exercises  and  contests  two  men  are  seen  playing  at  single- 
stick, their  left  arms  being  guarded  by  shields  of  wood  fastened 
with  straps  similar  to  those  which  are  worn  in  Italy  at  the  present 
day,  by  the  players  atpallone.  Another  game  is  exhibited  which  is 
still  in  use  ;  a  man  is  stretched  with  his  face  on  the  ground,  and 
two  others  kneeling  over  him  strike  him  with  their  fists ;  he  is 
required  to  guess  which  strikes  him,  and  if  he  names  the  right 
person,  the  st/iker  takes  his  place  upon  the  ground.  Others  appear 
to  be  trying  which  can  fling  a  pointed  knife,  so  as  to  enter  the 
most  deeply  into  a  block  of  wood,  or  raise  a  bag  of  sand  and 
sustain  it  the  longest  with  the  uplifted  arm.  "We  know  that  in 
later  times  it  was  a  common  recreation  of  the  Egyptians  to  go  in 
boats  upon  the  branches  of  the  Nile  in  the  Delta,  or  the  lakes 

1  This  kind  of  head-dress  indicates  females  of  the  menial  class.  In  the 
representation  of  a  female  banquet  or  assembly  (Ros.  M.  Civ.  lxxix.)  the 
attendants  have  caps  with  such  pendent  ornaments. 


204 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


which  it  forms  as  it  approaches  the  sea,  and  spend  the  day  h 
festivity  under  the  shade  of  the  Egyptian  bean,  which  grew  to  th« 
height  of  many  feet1.  Another  amusement  which  they  practised 
on  the  river  was  to  man  boats,  and  rowing  them  rapidly,  to  hurl 
or  thrust  javelins  without  points  against  each  other  as  they  passed. 
Such  a  scene  is  represented  in  one  of  the  oldest  monuments  of 
Egypt,  the  tomb  of  Imai  at  Gizeh9,  and  one  of  the  parties  has 
been  thrown  into  the  river  by  the  shock.  In  another  tomb  at 
Kum-el-Ahmar,  we  see  tables  with  refreshments  spread  upon 
them  for  the  use  of  the  parties  engaged  in  the  mimic  contest3. 
The  young  men  of  London  in  former  times  amused  themselves 
with  similar  encounters  on  the  Thames. 

Dice  have  been  found  at  Thebes,  marked  in  the  modern  manner 
but  their  age  is  uncertain4.  Their  use  must  have  been  common  in 
the  time  of  Herodotus,  since  the  priests  represented  Rhampsinitus 
as  playing  at  dice  with  Ceres ;  and  we  may  presume  that  they 
would  not  have  given  their  mythe  this  form,  had  they  known  that 
the  game  was  of  very  recent  introduction.  We  do  not,  however, 
find  any  representation  of  it  among  the  monuments.  The  account 
which  Plutarch  gives,  of  Mercury  playing  at  dice  with  the  moon 
and  winning  from  her  the  five  odd  days  of  the  year,  is  evidently 
a  fiction  of  later  times,  and  therefore  furnishes  no  evidence  of  an 
ancient  usage.  But  it  appears  from  the  monuments  that  a  game 
answering  to  our  draughts  was  in  use  in  very  remote  ages.  Plato 
attributes  the  invention  both  of  flice  and  playing-tables  to  the 
Egyptians*.  In  one  of  the  grottoes  of  Benihassan  two  men  appear 
seated  on  the  ground  with  a  low  table  between  them,  on  which 

1  Strabo,  17,  823.  1  Itosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  tav.  civ. 

•  Rosellini,  M.  C.  3,  114,  tav.  cv.       4  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  2,  424. 

*  Phffidr.  27-1  D.  Eust.  ad  IL  $'  308.  Ov  xcllktikt]  dXAa  <pi\6cro<pos  h  Aiywrria^ 
rcTTEta  \tyzTat.  The  game  was  that  which  the  Latins  called  duodecim 
scripta,  and  the  Egyptians  may  have  found  in  it  some  analogy  to  the  divi- 
sions of  the  ecliptic    Salm.  ad  Hist  Aug  Scrip.  2,  749. 


SPORTS  AND   GAMES.  20o 

are  arranged  six  green  and  six  yellow  pieces,  all  of  the  same  form, 
with  which  they  are  evidently  playing ;  in  one  instance  the  greens 
and  yellows  are  arranged  in  lines  before  the  respectire  players,  in 
the  other  they  are  intermixed  alternately  through  the  whole  length 
of  the  board1.  How  the  board  was  divided  is  not  shown  either 
here  or  in  the  palace  of  Rameses  IV.  at  Medinet  Aboo,  where  the 
king  appears  seated,  and  playing  at  this  game  with  a  female, 
probably  a  royal  concubine,  who  stands  before  him5.  The  game 
of  mora  played  by  the  ancient  Romans3,  and  with  such  passionate 
eagerness  by  the  modern  Italians,  was  pfactised  in  Egypt.  The 
tricks  of  the  juggler  also  afforded  them  amusement ;  we  see  two 
men  seated,  with  four  inverted  cups  placed  between  them,  and  it 
is  evident  that  the  game  consisted  in  guessing  beneath  which  of 
the  cups  some  object  was  concealed*. 

The  vast  difference  between  ancient  and  modern  times,  produced 
6y  language,  religion,  the  art  of  war,  the  improvements  in  me- 
chanics, cause  them  at  first  sight  to  seem  separated  by  a  gulf, 
in  which  all  transmission  of  manners  and  customs  is  lost.  This  is 
especially  the  case  in  regard  to  ancient  Egypt,  whose  peculiarities 
made  it,  even  to  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  a  world  apart  from  their 
own.  The  middle  ages  produced  a  similar  apparent  disruption 
between  the  Greek  and  Roman  world  and  ours.  The  discovery 
of  so  much  in  Egyptian  life,  as  revealed  by  the  monuments,  which 
closely  resembles  our  own,  restores  the  continuity  of  ages,  and 
shows  that  the  great  revolutions  which  change  the  opinions  and 
institutions  of  mankind  and  transfer  power  and  civilization  to  dis- 
tant regions,  leave  untouched  and  unchanged  a  great  mass  of  the 
human  race,  among  whom  the  customs  of  daily  life  are  perpetu- 
ated, and  by  whose  mediation  the  most  distant  times  and  coun- 
tries  are  united. 

1  Rosellini,  M.  Civ.  ciii.  f  Rosellini,  M.  R,  cxxil 

•  Cic,  Off.  3,  19.  Cum  fidem  alicujus  laudant,  dignum  esse  dicunt,  qui* 
«um  in  tenabris  mices.  *  Roaellini,  M.  Civ  civ. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


DRESS. 

The  ordinary  dress  of  the  Egyptians  consisted,  according  to  Hero- 
dotus, of  a  tunic  of  linen  fringed  at  the  legs,  which  he  calls  cala- 
siris,  and  a  loose  upper  garment  of  wool,  which  from  its  material 
being  impure,  was  neither  worn  within  a  temple  nor  buried  with 
the  wearer1.  This  does  not  correspond  with  the  representations 
on  the  monuments,  which  are  in  general  much  older  than  the 
days  of  the  historian  ;  we  rarely  find  in  them  either  the  fringed 
tunic  or  the  woollen  cloak.  The  lower  classes,  when  engaged  in 
their  operations,  are  very  lightly  clad,  the  whole  of  the  upper  part 
of  the  body  being  bare,  and  only  a  piece  of  cloth  fastened  around 
the  loins3.  Those  of  a  higher  class,  whose  employment  did  not 
require  that  their  limbs  should  be  so  much  at  liberty,  wore  a  simi- 
lar apron,  descending  to  the  knee,  the  midleg,  or  the  ankle.  In- 
stead of  a  girdle  round  the  waist  it*was  sometimes  supported  by  a 
strap,  crossing  the  shoulder.  Children  of  both  sexes,  even  among 
the  higher  classes,  appear  to  have  gone  without  clothing,  at  least 
in  the  house3.  Sometimes  a  short  pair  of  close  drawers  was  worn, 
reaching  to  the  middle  of  the  thigh4,  either  alone,  or  beneath  the 
covering  just  described.    A  calasiris  without  fringe,  with  sleeves 

1  Herod.  2,  81. 

3  Lumbare  vocatur  quod  Inmbis  religetur.  Hoc  in  JEgypto  et  Syria  noa 
tan  turn  femina;  sed  et  viri  utuntur.    Isidor.  19,  22,  25. 

•  See  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  tav.  lxviii.  The  children  here  represented 
appear  to  be  eight  or  ten  years  old. 

*  See  the  figure  of  Menephthah,  Birch,  PL  43,  fig.  163.  Exod.  xxviii.  A% 


HEAD-DRESSES. 


207 


tight  or  loose  descending  to  the  elbows,  was  frequently  worn  ;  it 
was  of  ample  dimensions1  and  formed  into  many  folds,  both  above 
and  below  the  waist,  where  it  was  gathered  with  a  girdle  or  tied 
by  a  sash  with  long  ends,  if  worn  by  women.  It  might  be  worn 
alone,  or  over  the  dress  before  described,  and  it  was  common  to 
both  sexes.  The  ordinary  dress  of  women,  however,  was  a  close- 
fitting  robe,  which  began  under  the  breast  and  descended  below 
the  knees,  being  held  up  by  two  straps  which  crossed  the  shoulders. 
That  these  garments  were  of  linen  is  evident  from  the  multitude 
and  minuteness  of  the  folds  ;  the  material  is  fine,  often  to  transpa- 
rency, and  the  color  varied  in  rich  and  elegant  patterns.  Light- 
ness was  the  general  characteristic  of  Egyptian  drapeiy,  even 
in  the  highest  rank ;  the  heavy  and  costly  stuffs  which  form  our 
robes  of  state,  or  those  of  Assyrian  monarchs,  would  have  been 
intolerable  in  that  climate. 

Dress  was  evidently  the  symbol  of  rank,  and  studiously  diversi- 
fied according  to  its  gradations.  When  Joseph  was  made  next  in 
authority  to  Pharaoh,  he  was  "  arrayed  in  vestures  of  fine  linen  and 
a  gold  chain  placed  about  his  neck."  The  king  is  not  only  dis- 
tinguished by  the  amplitude  of  his  robes  and  fineness  of  the 
material  of  which  they  are  composed,  but  by  the  peculiar  form  of 
the  short  garment  or  apron  worn  around  the  loins.  It  is  often 
gathered  into  a  point  projecting  in  front3,  and  a  broad  strip 
depended  from  the  centre  of  the  girdle  ornamented  with  the  royal 
serpent  or  urceus.  On  solemn  occasions  he  wore  a  crown  composed 
of  two  parts ;  the  inner  is  a  high  conical  cap,  terminating  in  a 
knob9,  supposed  to  be  the  special  emblem  of  Upper  Egypt,  which 
when  colors  are  used  is  painted  white;  the  outer,  painted  red, 

1  KaXcNTipts*  ytT(jiv  rr  \  arv  $'  ovrcos  Aiyv-rrTiot.     Suidas  ill  VOC 

1  See  Birch,  Egypt.  Ant.  PL  33,  fig.  133,  PI.  42,  fig.  160. 

*  To0$  0aoi\cTs  xprjcQai  riXotj  fiaKOug  errl  rov  it  t  p  a  r  o  s  6  p  <p  a  X  d  v  t^ovci  ica\ 

rtpit(T!T£ipa[ievot(  8<ptoiv  ovs  K^Xoiaiv  tixnr'iSar,  Diod.  8,  3.  The  Ethiopians  had 
borrowed  it  from  the  Egyptians,  not  vice  vcrsd,  as  he  supposed. 


208  ANCIENT  EGYPT. 

represents  Lower  Egypt1.  It  surrounded,  but  did  not  enclose  the 
head,  and  the  top  of  the  conical  cap  was  visible  above  it.  Each 
part,  however,  is  often  worn  separately.  The  king  also  wears  in 
battle,  and  sometimes  in  peace,  a  close-fitting  helmet  cap ;  and 
when  engaged  in  religious  rites,  sometimes  a  head-dress  resembling 
that  of  the  god  whom  he  is  worshipping.  Queens  have  very 
generally  on  their  heads  a  cap  or  bonnet  in  the  form  of  a  gallina- 
ceous bird  or  a  vulture,  the  emblem  of  the  goddess  Maut,  the  great 
Mother,  or  of  Isis,  who  wears  this  among  other  head-dresses2.  The 
princes  of  the  blood-royal  are  distinguished  by  a  single  plaited  lock 
of  hair,  left  on  the  head  which  is  elsewhere  shaven,  and  falling 
down  over  the  ear.  The  youthful  god  Horus  has  his  hair  arranged 
in  the  same  way,  to  indicate  his  relation  to  the  royal  pair,  Osiris 
and  Isis3.  The  kings*  heads  are  sometimes  covered  with  a  wig  of 
artificial  hair,  and  at  others  with  a  large  cap,  of  some  striped  mate- 
rial, which,  not  only  enveloped  the  whole  skull,  but  descended  on 
the  shoulders  and  breast*.  The  head  and  beard  were  universally 
shaven  by  the  Egyptians5  when  not  in  mourning,  but  they  com- 
monly used  some  artificial  covering,  a  wig  or  a  cap6,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  priests,  who  appear  with  naked  heads7,  unless  they 

1  The  crown  of  Upper  Egypt  was  called  ouabsh  (white),  that  of  Lower 
Egypt  teshr  (red),  and  both  united  Pschent,  a  name  preserved  in  the  Rosetta 
Inscription.    See  PL  iii.  D.  4. 

a  Horapollo,  1,  11,  12.  '  Birch,  pi.  19. 

4  See  the  statues  of  Rameses  the  Great  and  Menephthah  the  Third,  in  the 
British  Museum.  Birch,  pi.  39,  43.  Rameses  the  Third,  in  the  same  col- 
lection, has  his  cap  (called  klaft)  in  addition  to  the  double  crown  (Birch,  pi. 
40).    The  priests  often  wear  it. 

6  Herodotus  (3,  12)  attributes  to  this  practice  the  hardness  by  which  the 
Egyptian  cranium  could  be  distinguished  on  a  field  of  battle. 

•  See  a  large  collection  of  these  coverings  for  the  head  in  Wilkinson's  M. 
and  C.  3,  354. 

*  Her.  2,  86  ;  3,  12.    Is.  xviii.  2,  where  ft'lift  appears  to  signify  depilix 


ORNAMENTS. 


205 


wear  some  symbolical  head-dress.  An  ornament  resembling  a 
tuft  of  the  beard  plaited,  was  worn  beneath  the  chin,  being  fas- 
tened by  a  strap  ;  its  size  and  form  discriminating  the  ordinary 
mortal,  the  king,  and  the  god1.  "Women  wore  their  hair  long, 
and  arranged  in  elaborate  curls.  Gloves  were  unknown  among 
the  Egyptians,  and  in  the  monuments  are  the  characteristics  of 
nations  belonging  to  the  northern  climates.  Persons  of  all  ranks 
frequently  appear  walking  barefoot;  the  sandal  was  commonly 
made  of  papyrus,  and  fastened  over  the  instep  and  between  the 
toes ;  those  worn  on  solemn  occasions  were  turned  up  in  front  like 
a  skate.  Leather,  however,  was  also  employed,  and  the  manufac- 
ture of  sandals  from  this  material  is  one  of  the  operations  repre- 
sented in  the  tombs  of  Benihacs^n3.  A  long  staff  carried  in  the 
hand  appears  to  have  marked  the  class  above  the  necessity  of 
manual  lab  jr. 

The  drc-if  of  the  Egyptians  was  usually  of  an  uncostly  material, 
wealth  and  luxury  displaying  themselves  rather  in  the  ornaments 
with^which  the  person  was  decorated ;  our  museums  abound  with 
them  in  every  variety  of  form  and  costliness.  The  collars  or  neck- 
laces worn  by  the  kings  were  of  great  size,  covering  the  upper  part 
of  the  breast,  made  of  gold,  and  enriched  with  precious  stones  and 
enamel.  That  of  Thothmes  Y.,  rspresentod  in  his  tomb,  appears 
from  its  form  to  have  been  designed  to  hang  on  th  3  breast  instead 
of  being  fastened  round  the  neck ;  it  resembles  an  elongated  horse- 
shoe, and  at  the  lower  end  are  two  lions  with  the  shield  of  the 
king  between  them,  and  a  disc  with  t  wo  urcei9.  Putting  on  the 
collar  of  office  appears  to  have  been  the  principal  ceremony  of 
investiture4,  and  one  who  was  especially  honored  wore  several  at 

1  The  end  of  the  beard  in  gods  was  slightly  turned  up.    See  Birch,  pi.  1, 

fig.  2;  pi.  6,  fig.  13. 

*  R  >sellini,  M.  Civ.  tav.  Ixv.  •  Rosellini,  M.  Civ.  tav.  ixxx 

4  "Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  pL  80.   Purpura  ille  et  aurum  eervicis  ornamentum 

apud  iEgyptios  etBahylonioa  insignia  erant  dignitatis  (Tertul).  Idol.  18). 


210 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


once.  Neck  ornaments  of  less  costly  materials  and  smaller  size 
were  worn  by  women  of  almost  all  ranks,  beads  of  gold  and  silver, 
precious  stones,  glass  and  enamel  being  strung  together,  and  sym- 
bolical figures,  serving  probably  as  amulets  hung  to  them,  such  as 
the  scarabseus  and  the  vulture,  the  sacred  eye  of  Osiris,  or  small 
images  of  the  gods  themselves.  Rosellini  has  found  cowrie  shells 
strung  together  in  a  necklace1.  Armlets  worn  above  the  elbows 
and  bracelets  at  the  wrists  with  a  similar  ornamenT  for  the  ankles 
were  common  to  both  sexes ;  the  wearing  of  earrings  appears  to 
have  been  confined  to  women.  Rings  were  worn  by  both  sexes, 
and  by  all  ranks;  the  signet-rings  of  Thothmes  III.  and  Amunoph 
III.,  one  of  gold,  the  other  of  silver,  have  been  preserved, 
bearing  their  shield ;  rings  were  also  placed  on  the  fingers  of  the 
mummies.  According  to  the  wealth  of  the  wearer  they  were  of 
the  most  various  materials,  most  frequently  gold,  sometimes  silver 
and  brass,  gems,  corneiian,  ivory,  and  a  blue  glass  or* porcelain9. 
They  bear  either  on  the  metal,  or  on  the  stone  which  is  set  in  it, 
the  names  and  images  of  the  gods,  especially  the  great  gods  of 
Upper  and  Lower  Egypt,  Ammon  and  Ptah,  a  sphinx,  a  lion,  or  a 
sacred  serpent,  and  various  ornamental  or  symbolical  devices. 
They  sometimes  consisted  of  a  scarabaeus  of  stone  or  porcelain, 
hooped  with  metal,  and  bearing  the  name  of  the  wearer  and  some 
mystical  characters  ;  others  have  been  found  (but  of  uncertain  age) 
with  a  small  square  box,  instead  of  a  stone,  appaiently  intended  for 
holding  a  concentrated  perfume8. 

The  custom  of  burying  in  the  tombs  the  favorite  objects  of  use 
during  life  has  preserved  to  us  many  articles  of  female  ornament, 
pins,  combs,  and  brooches  of  wood  or  metal,  and  especially  mirrors. 

1  Mon.  Civ.  tav.  lxxxi.  24. 

*  "Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  3,  pp.  8*74,  377. 

8  Rosellini,  M.  Civ.  tav.  lxxxi.  3.  The  "  Canntirum  vindex  et  tanti  san 
guinis  ultor  Annulus,"  in  which  Hannibal  carried  poison,  must  have  beer 
of  this  construction. 


USE  OF  STIBIUM  AND  HENNEH. 


211 


When  represented  in  painting,  the  mirrors  are  colored  red- brown, 
the  usual  color  of  bronze,  and  such  is  the  material  of  which  they 
are  generally  composed.  The  handle  was  most  commonly  of  wood, 
and  has  perished.  In  one  remarkable  instance  it  was  preserved 
entire.  Rosellini,  in  exploring  the  tomb  of  the  nurse  of  a  daughter 
of  Tirhakah  at  Thebes,  found  beside  the  mummy  in  a  case  of 
wood  a  bronze  mirror,  with  a  cover  which  protected  it  from  the  air 
and  turned  aside  on  a  pin  to  allow  of  its  being  used.  The  polished 
surfaces  of  the  mirror  retained  enough  of  their  brightness  when  dis- 
covered to  refect  the  face1. 

In  the  tombs  are  also  found  many  of  the  little  cases  which  the 
Egyptian  women  used  for  the  purpose  of  holding  the  stibium,  with 
which  according  to  Oriental  custom  they  darkened  their  eyebrows 
and  eyelashes,  increasing  the  brilliancy  and  apparent  size  of  the 
eye.  They  are  sometimes  made  of  stone,  sometimes  of  wood,  most 
frequently  of  the  hollow  of  a  reed,  are  of  a  tubular  form  and  are 
accompanied  with  a  little  pencil,  shaped  like  a  pestle  at  one  end, 
for  the  purpose  of  laevigating  the  stibium,  and  small  at  the  other 
for  its  introduction  under  the  eyelid2.  Men  as  well  as  women 
appear  to  have  used  it3,  and  it  was  not  only  placed  under  the  eye- 
lids, but  a  long  streak  was  drawn  with  it  from  the  corner  of  the 
eye  towards  the  temple,  as  seen  in  many  painted  heads.  The  nails, 
and  even  the  hands  and  feet  of  the  mummies,  are  sometimes 
colored  with  henneh,  which  was  therefore  probably  used  by  tho 
Egyptians  to  give  these  parts  an  orange  hue. 

1  The  mirror,  when  represented  in  painting,  is  sometimes  preceded  by  a 
group  of  characters  which  signify  "revealer  of  the  face."  Rosellini,  M. 
Civ.  2,  429,  tav.  lxxxi.  fig.  37. 

'  It  is  written  in  hieroglyphics  stm  with  an  eye.  Stetn  is  the  Coptic 
name  for  it,  from  which  ari^i^  stibium,  have  evidently  been  derived.  It  ia 
prepared  from  various  substances,  chiefly  plumbago. 

3  Rosellini,  2,  431. 


CHAPTER  XVL 


ARCHITECTURE. 


The  remains  of  Egyptian  architecture,  if  we  except  the  Pyramids, 
are  chiefly  temples  or  palaces,  whose  style  differs  little  from  that 
of  temples.  The  scarcity  of  timber  in  Egypt,  and  the  abundance 
of  easily  wrought  quarries  of  limestone  and  sandstone,  for  which 
the  Nile  afforded  the  means  of  ready  conveyance,  caused  the  em- 
ployment of  stone  for  architectural  purposes  from  the  earliest  times. 
Nothing  indicates  that  the  different  members  and  ornaments  of 
Egyptian  architecture  originated,  like  those  of  the  Greek,  from 
structures  of  wood.  Since  the  names  of  the  monarchs  who  had 
inscribed  themselves  on  the  monuments  have  been  deciphered,  we 
nave  been  able  to  form  a  chronology  of  Egyptian  architecture  aud 
discriminate  its  styles  on  certain  grounds.  The  temples  and  pa- 
laces of  Meroe,  which  was  once  regarded  as  the  cradle  of  Egyptian 
art,  we  have  seen  to  be  of  the  late  Ptolemaic  and  Roman  times. 
With  few  exceptions  the  great  temples  of  Nubia  are  excavations, 
in  which  the  characteristics  of  architectural  style  are  not  so  clearly 
marked  as  in  buildings.  There  is,  however,  no  reason  to  suppose 
that  excavation  preceded  construction  in  the  history  of  Egyptian 
art ;  a  notion  which  appears  to  have  originated  in  the  belief,  that 
the  primitive  population  of  the  valley  of  the  Nile  were  Troglodytes. 
On  the  contrary,  there  is  an  evident  imitation  of  architectural  forms 
in  the  grottoes  of  Benihassan,  which  are  older  than  any  of  the 
Nubian  excavated  temples.  Their  columns,  architraves  and  vaults- 
are  unnecessary  in  excavations,  and  can  only  have  been  adopted 
in  order  to  please  the  eye  which  had  already  become  accustomed 


COLUMNS. 


213 


to  them  in  building.  Temples  have  stood  in  front  of  the  Pyramids, 
and  from  the  use  to  which  they  were  destined,  we  may  presume 
that  they  are  of  equal  antiquity  with  those  monuments  themselves. 
As  they  have  disappeared  to  their  foundations,  and  the  edifices  of 
Memphis  have  even  more  completely  perished,  we  are  left  to  infer 
the  character  of  the  earliest  Egyptian  architecture  from  the  fronts 
of  the  grottoes  of  Benihassan,  and  Kalabsche  in  Nubia1.  The 
columns  which  form  the  exterior  facade  are  cut  out  of  the  face  of 
the  rock,  and  consequently  are  of  one  piece,  not  composed  of  assizes. 
The  shaft  is  always  polygonal,  with  eight  or  sixteen  facets,  or  sixteen 
slight  flutings,  or  a  mixture  of  both.  It  either  rises  immediately 
from  the  ground  or  rests  on  a  round  base  of  small  elevation. 
There  is  no  capital,  properly  so  called,  no  cord  round  the  neck,  but 
a  slight  diminution  towards  the  top.  A  simple  square  abacus  rests 
on  the  top  of  the  column,  connected  with  the  architrave,  and  pro- 
jects just  as  much  from  the  summit  as  is  equal  to  the  diminution. 
The  proportions  vary  from  five  diameters  at  Benihassan  to  two  and 
a  half  at  Kalabsche.  The  columns  of  this  order  appear  to  have 
originated  from  pillars;  the  four  angles  being  cut,  an  octagon 
would  be  produced,  and  by  a  further  cutting  a  column  of  sixteen 
facets5.  They  approach  nearly  to  the  early  Doric,  and  probably 
gave  rise  to  it.  The  only  specimen  of  an  erection  in  this  earliest 
style  is  in  the  oldest  portion  of  the  temple  of  Karnak,  of  the  age  of 
Sesortasen,  built  into  a  subsequent  construction8. 

Of  constructed  temples,  Soleb  in  Nubia  and  Thebes  present  the 
earliest  specimens  from  which  any  inference  as  to  style  can  be 
drawn.  They  are  of  the  sixteenth  century  before  Christ,  and  from 
this  time  to  the  termination  of  the  twenty-first  dynasty,  a  space  of 
four  centuries  and  a  half,  we  have  a  succession  of  monuments, 
which  though  broken  in  many  places  still  enables  us  to  trace  the 

•  Champollion,  Lettres  d'Egypte,  p.  75 ;  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes, 
2,  250. 

"  Lepsius,  Annali  dell'  Istituto,  9,  67.    1887.  '  Wilkinson,  t*.  & 


214 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


progress  of  the  art.  Two  species  of  column  chiefly  prevail.  In  one, 
which  is  the  older,  the  capital  appears  to  have  been  imitated  from 
a  flower-bud  not  vet  expanded,  and  narrower  at  the  top  than  on 
the  sides.  The  sides  of  the  capital  are  sometimes  divided  into 
separate  faces,  by  deep  indentations,  or  striated  with  a  continuation 
of  the  lines  which  mark  the  sides  of  the  shaft.  In  the  second  the 
capital  is  shaped  like  a  bell  with  its  mouth  upwards,  the  reflexed 
edge  being  an  imitation  of  the  opened  flower  of  the  lotus,  or  of  the 
head  of  the  papyrus,  and  the  sides  formed  of  the  leaves  and  flowers 
of  plants  and  trees  indigenous  to  the  country.  The  abacus  in 
columns  of  the  first  form  projects  boldly  beyond  the  capital,  and 
often  bears  the  shield  of  the  monarch  by  whom  the  building  was 
erected ;  in  those  of  the  second  it  is  nearly  hidden  by  the  expanded 
upper  edge.  There  is  a  third  form  of  capital  in  which  aparallelopiped, 
or  sometimes  a  solid  of  the  favorite  converging  form,  is  interposed 
between  the  top  of  the  column  and  the  architrave,  as  at  Denderah, 
exhibiting  the  face  of  a  divinity  or  the  representation  of  a  shrine. 
To  this  class  belong  the  columns  of  what  have  been  called  Tyjihonia. 
The  solid  before  spoken  of  exhibits  the  figure  of  a  dwarfish  god, 
with  gaping  mouth  and  enormously  disproportioned  head.  It  is 
generally  found  in  the  small  dependent  temples,  mamisi1,  which, 
according  to  Champollion,  were  the  birthplace  of  the  offspring  of 
the  god  and  goddess  to  whom  the  larger  adjacent  temple  was 
dedicated.  Possibly  the  motive  for  placing  so  unsightly  an  object 
in  so  prominent  a  position  was  to  frighten  away  anything  inauspi- 
cious to  the  birth  of  the  youthful  god.  In  the  temples  of  the  Ptole- 
maic age,  as  at  Apollinopolis  Magna  and  Latopohs,  we  find  a  great 
variety  of  capitals,  combining  parts  of  the  lotus,  the  papyrus  and 
the  palm ;  but  rich  and  graceful  as  they  are,  they  are  far  from 
producing  the  same  impression  as  the  severe  simplicity  and  uni- 
formity of  the  Pharaonic  architecture.  As  the  columns  of  Beni« 
hassan  gave  rise  to  the  Doric,  so  those  which  imitate  plants  and 
xFrom  the  Coptic  ma,  locus,  and  misi,  puerperium. 


COLUMNS. 


215 


flowers  appear  to  be  the  origin  of  the  Corinthian.  The  Ionian 
volute  is  found  in  the  columns  of  Persepolis1,  but  in  no  Egyptian 
monument.  It  was  probably  of  Assyrian  origin,  as  it  has  been 
found  in  the  remains  of  Nineveh. 

The  shaft  bears  in  Egyptian  architecture  no  definite  proportion 
to  the  capital ;  nor  the  height  to  the  diameter ;  five  to  six  is  the 
usual  number  of  diameters  in  the  height.  It  is  commonly  of  the 
same  thickness  throughout,  though  occasionally  with  a  slight  dimi- 
nution. The  weight  to  be  sustained  required  massive  proportions, 
and  architects  seem  slowly  to  have  arrived  at  the  knowledge  of  the 
load  which  a  perpendicular  column  will  support :  hence  in  all  coun- 
tries heaviness  is  the  characteristic  of  the  earliest  style  of  public 
building.  With  the  exception  of  the  very  early  style  already  men- 
tioned, Egyptian  columns  are  not  fluted ;  but  their  massiveness  is 
relieved  by  being  striated,  and  the  appearance  thus  given  to  them 
of  being  composed  of  united  stems  is  increased,  by  the  horizontal 
bands  which  tie  them  together  under  the  capital  and  in  the  middle. 
The  shaft  generally  stands  on  a  round  or  square  plinth  of  little 
depth ;  just  above  the  plinth  the  base  of  the  shaft  itself  is  some- 
times rounded  "nd  adorned  with  leaves,  so  as  to  give  it  the  appear- 
ance of  growing  up  from  the  plinth.  If  the  surface  of  the  shaft  was 
plain  it  was  often  covered  with  hieroglyphics,  especially  in  the 
Ptolemaic  times. 

On  the  abacus  rested  a  broad  but  simple  architrave,  generally 
sculptured  with  hieroglyphics ;  and  upon  that,  without  the  inter- 
vention of  a  frieze,  a  cornice  of  deep  curve  without  fascice,  equal  in 
height  to  one-eighth  or  one-ninth  of  the  whole  building.  The 
upper  edge  is  often  occupied  by  a  row  of  the  sacred  serpent,  urceus. 
A  triglyph  after  the  Grecian  pattern  is  only  found  in  Roman  and 
Ptolemaic  buildings,  but  something  resembling  it,  consisting  of 
parallel  striae  at  intervals,  is  seen  in  works  of  the  Pharaonic  age. 
The  boldness  of  this  member,  the  cornice,  in  some  measure  supplies 
1  Juebahr,  Voyage,  2,  110. 


216 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


the  want  of  a  pediment,  which  is  never  found  in  Egyptian  archb 
tecture,  flat  roofe  being  naturally  used  in  a  country  where  rain  is  a 
prodigy  and  snow  unknown.  The  portico  was  composed  of  a 
double  or  even  triple  row  of  columns ;  but  the  Egyptians,  in  Pha- 
raonic  times,  never  placed  them,  as  the  Greeks  did,  around  their 
temples,  and  seldom  even  continued  them  to  the  extreme  ends  of 
the  front,  which  were  occupied  by  a  return  of  the  side-wall.  Some- 
times, as  at  Denderah,  a  wall  of  half  the  height  of  the  columns 
closed  up  the  space  between  them,  and  was  covered  with  hiero- 
glyphics. No  extant  temple  of  the  Pharaonic  times  has  this 
appendage,  and  should  it  appear  on  further  examination  that  it  has 
never  existed,  it  will  be  probable  that  it  was  added  after  Egypt 
became  subject  to  the  Greeks,  in  order  to  conceal  the  rites  of  reli- 
gion from  the  curious  and  hostile  observation  of  foreigners1. 

No  rule  appears  to  have  been  observed  in  regard  to  the  width 
of  the  intercolumniation ;  but  the  columns  are  generally  placed 
nearer  to  each  other  than  in  Greek  and  Roman  buildings.  The 
great  weight  of  the  entablature  required  a  solid  support  below,  and 
the  desire  to  preserve  the  massive  character  of  their  buildings 
appears  to  have  led  the  Egyptian  architects  to  crowd  their  columns 
more  closely  than  was  necessary  for  security.  The  rules  of  classic 
architecture  required  that  each  portion  of  a  building  should  exhibit 
only  columns  of  the  same  order.  The  Egyptian  architect  allowed 
himself  more  variety,  at  least  in  the  capitals.  Siill  symmetry  was 
not  neglected,  the  columns  on  opposite  sides  corresponding,  and  the 
same  form  being  repeated  at  regular  intervals  in  the  line  of  the 
colonnade.  In  the  hypostyle  halls  no  uniformity  is  observed  in  the 
row  which  stretches  away  in  perspective  from  the  eye,  while  the 
side-rows,  which  are  perpendicular  to  the  central  one,  usually  exhi- 
bit a  correspondence  among  the  pillars  of  which  they  are  com- 
posed. For  columns  are  sometimes  substituted  on  the  front  of 
walls  colossal  figures  of  Osiris,  or  of  sovereigns  with  the  attributes 
1  ThU  is  the  conjecture  of  an  able  Fgyptologist,  Mr.  S.  Sharpe. 


ANTIQUITY  Of  THE  ARCH. 


'217 


of  Osiris,  the  pedum  and  scourge.  They  resemble  in  appearance 
the  Atlantes  and  Caryatides  of  Greek  architecture,  but,  unlike 
them,  do  not  bear  any  portion  of  the  superincumbent  weight 
Such  was  no  doubt  the  Hall  of  Apis1,  built  by  Psammitichus 
at  Memphis,  in  front  of  the  propylsea  of  the  temple  of  Vulcan2. 
Colossal  figures  of  this  kind  are  found  at  the  Rameseion  at  Thebes, 
and  within  the  grotto-temple  of  Aboosimbel. 

The  walls  of  the  Egyptian  temples  and  of  their  edifices  generally 
are  perpendicular  on  the  inside,  but  sloping  on  the  outside ;  and  as 
the  gateways  and  other  openings  follow  the  same  principle,  there 
is  a  general  convergence  of  the  upward  lines  of  the  architecture,  ae 
if  the  pyramid  had  been  its  type.-  This  gives  to  the  temple  or 
palace  that  expression  of  self-reposing  and  immoveable  stability, 
which  belongs  to  the  pyramidal  form.  A  spurious  species  of  arch, 
produced  by  the  overlapping  of  stones,  is  found  in  buildings  of 
great  antiquity  in  Egypt,  but  the  oldest  true  arch  of  stone  is  found 
in  a  tomb  at  Saccara,  of  the  age  of  Psammitichus'.  It  appears, 
however,  that  the  principle  of  the  arch  with  a  keystone  was  known 
to  the  Egyptians  when  the  buildings  of  Thebes  were  erected,  brick 
arches  being  found  there*. 

It  is  hardly  possible  that  architecture,  when  its  scale  is  colossal, 
should  not  be  sublime,  unless  it  has  destroyed  the  effect  of  its  own 
masses  by  injudicious  subdivision  or  the  undue  prominence  of  art. 
The  temples  of  India  and  Mexico,  even  the  simple  structure  of 
Stonehenge,  bear  an  impress  of  power,  which,  independently  of  ah 
association  of  time  and  religion,  at  once  subdues  and  elevates  the 

1  Her.  2,  153.  A.i\r)v  rw  "A^t  oiKoSSjiTttre,  Ivavriwv  tuv  nf)OTrv\aicjv,  rcdcav  ri 
ntp'ioroXov  eowov,  xai  rviruiv  ir\er)V  dvri  61  Kt6vo)Pvir£aTa(Ti  ko\oooo\ 
SvcoScKanfjxsts   ry  a  v  X  j. 

5  See  a  restoration  of  such  a  building  in  the  frontispiece  to  "Wilkinson, 
Manners  and  Customs,  vol.  i  The  Rameseion  at  Thebes,  p.  137  of  the  pr* 
sent  volume. 

'  Vyse  on  the  Pyramids,  I,  218. 

*  Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  2,  117.    P.  132  of  the  present  volume 

10 


218 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


mind.  This  feeling  is  pre-eminently  produced  by  Egyptian  arch* 
tecture,  the  scale  of  which  is  so  vast,  that  the  sculptures  by  which 
the  walls,  columns,  and  entablatures  are  covered,  do  not  interfere 
with  the  grandeur  of  the  whole  effect.  The  heaviness  which  its 
massive  proportions  might  have  been  expected  to  produce,  disap- 
pears, according  to  the  testimony  of  travellers,  when  it  is  seen 
through  an  Egyptian  atmosphere,  with  the  contrast  of  deep  shade 
and  brilliant  light1.  Yet  when  we  compare  it  with  the  Greek,  its 
probable  offspring,  we  see  the  difference  between  the  art  which  has 
developed  itself  from  instinctive  feeling,  and  that  which  has  received 
its  laws  from  the  reflecting  intellect.  The  Greeks  were  not  infe- 
rior to  any  nation  that  has  cultivated  art  in  liveliness  of  feeling; 
but  their  intuitive  perception  of  grandeur  and  beauty  was  regulated 
by  philosophy,  which  from  the  principles  of  the  human  mind  de- 
duced the  laws  of  unity,  harmony  and  proportion.  We  shall  be 
sensible  of  their  superiority,  if  we  compare  the  Parthenon,  for  ex- 
ample, with  an  Egyptian  building  of  the  same  magnitude ;  the 
union  of  perfect  beauty  in  the  Attic  temple  heightens  instead  of 
impairing  the  effect  of  its  majestic  proportions.  Hence  a  taste 
formed  wholly  on  Greek  models  could  not  relish  Egyptian  archi- 
tecture. Ilerodotus  was  too  simple  and  natural  to  be  fastidious ; 
but  Strabo  in  the  Augustan  age,  speaking  of  one  of  the  grand  hy- 
postyle  halls  of  Memphis,  says  that  it  had  nothing  graceful  or  pic- 
turesque, but  betrayed  an  idle  waste  of  labor2.  In  the  Greek  tem- 
ples the  aesthetic,  in  the  Egyptian  the  religious  feeling  predominated, 
all  the  subordinate  and  accessory  parts  being  calculated  to  bring 
the  worshipper  into  the  immediate  presence  of  the  god,  with  an 
increasing  impression  of  awe8.    The  approach  was  frequently  by  a 

1  Descr.  de  l'Egypte,  2,  586. 

*  Strabo,  1*7,  806.  Ovdev  c^et  x*Puv  YPa<PLKdv  ^aiovoviav  ift^aivsi 
uaWov. 

*  Description  de  l'Egypte,  2,  5*70  foil.,  which  contains  a  commentary  or 
the  words  of  Diodorns  and  Strabo. 


ARRANGEMENT  OF  TEMPLES. 


219 


dromos  or  double  row  of  sphinxes,  mysterious  compounds  of  the 
human  form  with  a  lion  or  a  ram,  denoting  the  union  of  strength 
and  intellect  in  gods  and  kings.  Colossal  figures,  in  attitudes  of 
profound  repose  and  with  a  grave  and  serious  aspect,  or  obelisks 
of  granite  placed  in  pairs,  stood  before  the  entrance.  The  sacred 
enclosure  was  approached  through  a  lofty  gateway  or  pylon,  on 
each  side  of  which  was  awing  (pteron)  of  pyramidal  structure,  the 
residence  of  the  porters  or  the  priests.  Through  this  gateway,  on 
which  the  emblem  of  the  Good  Genius,  Horhat,  a  sun  supported 
by  two  asps  with  outspread  wings,  was  inscribed,  entrance  was 
gained  to  a  spacious  court  open  to  the  sky  and  surrounded  by 
colonnades ;  and  on  the  opposite  side  a  second  gateway  admitted 
to  a  second  hypaethral  court ;  or  to  a  hall,  lighted  by  small  open- 
ings near  the  top  of  the  walls,  the  roof  of  which  was  supported  by 
thickly  placed  columns.  In  this  court  or  hall,  the  naos,  probably 
the  great  body  of  the  worshippers  assembled  on  occasions  of  great 
solemnity:  beyond  it  lay  the  proper  temple,  cell,  or  sekos,  ap- 
proached by  a  portico,  enclosed  in  walls  without  colonnades,  and 
sometimes  divided  into  several  small  apartments,  in  the  remotest 
of  which,  behind  a  curtain1,  appeared  the  image  of  the  god  in  his 
monolithal  shrine,  or  the  sacred  animal  which  represented  him  on 
earth.  An  artifice  was  employed  to  increase  the  apparent  distance 
of  the  adytum,  the  doorways  being  made  to  diminish  in  height  as 
if  by  the  effect  of  a  lengthened  perspective.  Even  the  exterior 
walls  were  covered  with  hieroglyphical  sculpture.  Such  were  the 
larger  temples ;  others  had  a  more  simple  arrangement.  Those 
which  have  been  called  Typhonia,  of  which  an  example  is  seen  in 
the  island  of  Philae,  are  simple  rectangular  buildings  having  the 
entrance  on  the  shorter  side,  without  interior  columns,  but  with  a 
colonnade  on  all  sides  of  the  exterior,  like  the  Greek  peripteral 
temples,  only  not  continued  round  the  angles.    This  of  course  pre- 


Clem.  Alex.  Pacing.  3,  2. 


220 


ANCIENT  EGYPT 


eludes  the  inward  slope  of  the  walls,  which  is  seen  in  the  largei 
temples. 

Like  the  Greeks,  the  Egyptians  applied  color  to  their  architec- 
ture, to  the  different  portions  of  the  columns  and  to  the  intaglios 
of  the  obelisks.  In  coloring  those  » objects  which  have  an  original 
in  nature,  they  by  no  means  aimed  at  exact  imitation,  but  sacrificed 
correctness  to  the  richness  and  harmony  of  the  general  effect.  Th« 
transparent  atmosphere  and  cloudless  sky  of  Egypt  give  brilliancy 
to  all  the  colors  of  nature,  and  seem  to  have  influenced  the  tasta 
of  the  inhabitants,  as  in  other  southern  countries,  leading  them  to 
delight  in  a  brightness  which  we  think  glaring,  and  contrasts  which 
to  us  seem  harsh. 


CHAPTER  XVn. 


SCULPTURE  AND  PAINTING 

Sculpture  had  arrived  among  the  Egyptians  at  a  high  degree  oi 
mechanical  perfection.  The  hardest  materials,  granite,  serpentine 
breccia,  and  basalt1,  were  wrought  by  them  with  a  precision  and 
finish  which  the  modern  artist  admires  without  being  able  tc 
explain.  This  branch  of  the  art  had  already  been  perfected  at  the 
early  period  of  the  erection  of  the  Pyramids,  the  sarcophagi  which 
they  contain  being  of  granite  or  basalt  elaborately  polished.  The 
earliest  obelisks,  at  Heliopolis  and  in  the  Fyoum,  though  their 
figures  are  neither  so  deeply  engraved  nor  so  accurately  drawn  as 
those  of  the  age  of  Thothmes  and  the  Rameses,  show  an  art  already 
far  advanced.  The  characters  which  are  sculptured  upon  them, 
consisting  of  minute  objects  of  nature  or  art,  detached  portions  of 
the  human  figure,  or  conventional  figures,  do  not  betray  that  imper- 
fection of  design  which  is  so  obvious  in  the  Egyptian  painting  and 
statuary,  and  their  sculpture  on  a  larger  scale.  Everywhere  the 
infancy  of  art  is  characterized  by  the  rudeness  of  the  attempt  to 
delineate  the  human  form,  the  want  of  life  and  movement,  the  stiff- 
ness and  deficiency  of  grace  in  draperies,  and  the  absence  of 
character  and  expression  in  the  countenance    But  it  was  the  necu- 

1  What  is  called  basalt  by  writers  on  Egyptian  art,  is  not,  however,  com- 
monly the  igneous  rock  which  mineralogists  so  denominate.  It  is  of  a  dark, 
dull  green  color,  with  large  specks  of  white  feldspar,  and  is  more  easily 
worked  and  polished.  The  greater  part  of  the  monuments  of  the  age  of  the 
Psammitichi  and  the  Roman  imitations  are  almost  wholly  of  this  material 
See  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  2,  153. 


222 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


liarity  of  Egyptian  art,  that  these  characteristics  of  its  infancy  were 
perpetuated  through  all  the  stages  of  its  existence.  The  artists 
were  fettered  by  strict  rules  and  forbidden  to  indulge  their  inven- 
tive genius,  and  hence  art  became  unduly  mechanical.  Diodorus 
rfays1  that  they  did  not,  like  the  Greeks,  judge  of  the  proportion  of 
statues  by  the  eye,  but  divided  the  whole  body  into  21£  parts. 
Thus  the  relation  of  every  part  to  the  whole  was  fixed,  and  when 
it  was  once  determined  what  should  be  the  size  of  the  whole,  the 
size  of  each  part  was  known,  and  the  artists  working  separately, 
their  labors  might  afterwards  be  combined  into  one  statue.  The 
remains  of  Egyptian  sculpture  exhibit  no  marks  of  this  mode  of 
putting  statues  together,  as  even  the  largest  are  commonly  of  a 
single  piece;  but  it  is  probable  that  such  a  canon  may  have  been 
employed  in  fixing  their  proportions.  Plato  praises  the  wisdom 
of  the  Egyptians  who  had  established  a  standard  in  ancient  times 
for  the  forms  which  painters  and  other  artists  were  to  use,  and 'for- 
bade all  innovation  upon  them  ;  in  consequence  of  which,  through 
a  period  of  ten  thousand  years,  the  merit  of  the  works  of  art  had 
never  varied2.  When  the  remains  of  Egyptian  sculpture  and  paint- 
ing are  chronologically  studied,  this  appears  not  to  be  strictly  true. 
The  tombs  near  the  Pyramids  contain  some  of  the  oldest  and  some 
of  the  most  recent  works  executed  under  the  independent  dominion 
of  the  Pharaohs,  and  the  difference  is  very  perceptible  to  a  prac- 
tised eye.  Yet  it  is  a  difference  in  execution  and  style,  not  in  the 
forms  of  art,  which  were  nearly  the  same  in  the  reign  of  Psammi- 
tichus  as  in  that  of  Cheops. 

The  regulations  to  which  artists  were  subject  had  their  origin,  no 

1  Diod  1,  98. 

*  Leg.  2,  p.  656.  Ua\ai  6>i~t>T6  iyvcoaOn  Trapa  rots  Aiyvnriotf  Sri  KaXa  piv 
vyr\\iara  *aXa  hi  p't\r\  Set  per a%ci p'igeaQ at  ro$$  tv  rai{  v6\tai  viovf>  T^a^dptvot  61 
ravra  arra  tart  *al  ottoi'  arra  d-ctyyvav  iv  roTj  up  us  Kol  vapa  tuvt  ovk  ififv  oimt 
£wypd0oc?  ovr'  flAAoij  oaoi  a^fifiara  antpy'ifyvnu  icaivoTOpeTvt  ot>8'  lirivotXv  d\\'  irra  | 
ru  rtirpta. 


CHARACTERS  OF  EGYPTIAN  ART. 


223 


doubt,  as  Plato  intimates,  in  the  connexion  of  art  with  religion,  whose 
symbolical  forms  could  not  be  varied  without  introducing  uncertainty 
and  doubt  into  the  minds  of  the  worshippers;  and  their  influence 
extended  to  every  other  branch  of  art.  Religion  also  impeded  taste, 
by  prescribing  many  incongruous  combinations  of  human  and  bes- 
tial forms,  and  dresses  and  costumes  repugnant  to  the  natural  sense 
of  grace  and  beauty.  In  the  representations  of  animals,  with  which 
religion  did  not  interfere,  they  showed  that  they  could  at  once  copy 
and  embellish  nature,  and  some  of  their  lions  in  particular  are 
admirable  for  their  spirit1.  Their  statues  are  chiefly  of  gods  and 
kings,  to  whom  a  sitting  posture,  or  at  least  one  of  perfect  rest,  was 
considered  appropriate.  They  are  hardly  in  any  instance  detached 
and  free,  but  either  are  fixed  to  a  wall  or  pillar,  or  else  retain  the 
traces  of  such  a  destination  in  the  square  slab  which  forms  the  back. 
The  faces  are  of  monumental  gravity,  neither  enlightened  by  intel- 
lect nor  animated  by  passion,  nor  varied  by  the  expression  of  cha- 
racter; the  limbs  are  ill-fashioned  and  stiffly  placed,  with  little 
attempt  to  indicate  the  action  of  the  muscles,  and  the  hands  are 
executed  with  entire  disregard  of  nature.  It  appears  to  have  been 
a  rule  of  courtly  art,  that  a  Pharaoh  should  never  be  represented 
with  any  mark  of  age;  indeed  an  old  man  is  hardly  to  hi  found 
in  all  the  remains  of  Egyptian  art.  The.  type  of  the  race,  which 
gods  and  mortals  equally  exhibit,  deviated  widely  from  the  standard 
of  Grecian  beauty.  The  forehead  is  low  and  retiring ;  the  ears  are 
placed  too  high  up  in  the  skull ;  the  nose  is  broad  and  round :  the 
cheek-bones  strongly  prominent ;  the  eyes  long,  with  a  slight  obli- 
quity. The  lips  are  full,  with  an  approach  to  the  negro  expression 
of  a  predominance  of  the  sensual  over  the  intellectual  element3. 
Yet  notwithstanding  these  imperfections,  there  is  an  impressive 

1  Description  de  l'Egypte.  Ant  2,  108.  Winckelmann,  Hist,  de  l'Art,  1, 
83,  note.  His  observations  on  Egyptian  art  were  made  at  a  time  when  it* 
true  chronology  was  not  understood. 

"  Schnaaae,  Geschichte  der  bildenden  Kiinste,  1,  484 


224 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


harmory,  between  tbe  character  of  Egyptiat  .culpture  and  tbat  of 
tne  people,  at  once  the  oldest  and  tbe  most  unchangeable  in  his- 
tory ;  and  in  looking  on  its  remains  we  are  conscious  of  feelings 
which  are  not  excited  bv  the  most  perfect  specimens  of  imitative  or 
ideal  art. 

The  fondness  which  the  Egyptians  display  for  the  colossal  in 
sculpture  is  characteristic  of  a  people  who  possessed  an  unlimited 
command  of  material  and  labor,  but  were  ignorant  of  the  source 
from  which  sublimity  in  art  arises.  As  they  placed  their  figures  on 
a  level  with  the  eye,  they  gave  full  effect  to  their  gigantic  size ;  but 
the  effect  thus  produced  is  akin  to  that  of  exaggeration  in  style. 
The  sense  is  astonished  by  a  statue  forty  feet  high  ;  but  after  the 
first  startling  impression  has  subsided,  its  incongruity  with  all 
around  it  is  forced  upon  the  mind,  and  the  effect  is  lessened  by 
repetition.  This  applies  more  to  colossal  statues,  forming  a  portion 
?r  an  appendage  of  buildings,  than  to  those  which  are  detached. 
The  statues  of  Amenophis,  standing  alone  on  the  plain  of  Thebes, 
or  the  Sphinx  on  the  solitary  hill  of  the  Pyramids,  seem  in  har- 
mony with  their  adjuncts,  and  never  cease  to  be  sublime. 

It  is  natural  to  suppose  that  carving  in  wood,  from  its  facility, 
must  have  preceded  carving  in  stone,  or  the  hammering  and  cast- 
ing of  metals  to  represent  the  human  form.  It  was  certainly  of 
high  antiquity  in  Egypt.  Herodotus1  relates  that  he  was  shown 
the  wooden  statues  of  345  high -priests,  who  had  succeeded  each 
other  by  lineal  descent  He  also  saw  at  Sais  a  number  of  similar 
statues,  said  to  represent  the  harem  of  Mycerinus,  the  builder  of 
the  Third  Pyramid.  They  were  of  such  antiquity  that  the  hands 
haa  decayed  and  dropped  off.  Amasis  sent  two  wooden  images 
of  himself  to  the  temple  of  Juno  at  Samos.  Hardly  any  large 
statues  in  wood  have  been  preserved ;  the  largest  which  Rosellini 
had  seen  was  only  half  the  size  of  life ;  but  small  images  of  syca- 
more and  other  woods  are  very  common.  They  usually  represent 
1  Herod.  2,  180,  143,  182. 


INACCURACY  OF  DRAWING. 


225 


funereal  subjects  and  accompany  the  mummies.  Their  execution 
varies  ;  some  are  painted  and  gilt  with  care,  but  in  general  they 
are  coarse  and  rude1.  Other  figures  of  wood  appear  to  have 
been  memorials  of  persons  deceased,  and  preserved  in  their 
dwellings. 

Had  the  Egyptians  possessed  a  varied,  poetic  and  anthropo- 
morphic mythology,  its  influence  must  have  been  perceived  in 
sacred  art,  which  among  the  Greeks,  as  in  Christian  Europe,  has 
called  forth  the  highest  powers  of  painting  and  sculpture.  But  the 
genius  of  the  Egyptian  religion  was  adverse  to  such  a  free  exer- 
cise of  the  fancy  on  religious  subjects ;  art  was  the  handmaid  of 
theology,  not  of  poetry.  The  highest  powers  of  the  Egyptian 
artists  were  put  forth  in  the  historical  sculptures  and  paintings  with 
which  the  walls  of  the  temples  and  palaces  are  decorated  and  the 
scenes  of  common  life  represented  in  the  sepulchral  chambers. 
The  temples  of  Nubia  and  Thebes  contain  battle-pieces  of  the 
reigns  of  Thothmes,  Amenophis  and  the  Rameses,  in  which  com- 
bats of  infantry  and  cavalry,  naval  engagements  and  sieges  are 
represented  with  great  spirit  and  variety1.  These  qualities, 
no  doubt,  abundantly  compensated  to  the  Egyptians  for  the 
defects  which  an  eye  trained  by  the  rules  of  modern  art  per- 
ceives in  them.  The  superior  dignity  of  the  king  or  victorious 
general  is  indicated  by  proportions  many  times  exceeding  those  of 
the  other  warriors ;  and  his  actions  are  as  much  exaggerated  as 
his  stature — grasping  a  whole  detachment  of  his  enemies  by  the 
hair,  and  crushing  them  under  his  feet  or  his  chariot-wheels. 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  2,  155.    Gallery  of  Brit  Mus.  pL  46,  47,  58. 

a  See  what  the  French  Commission  say,  Ant  2,  110,  of  a  figure  of  Rameses 
in  a  battle-piece : — "  On  ne  trouve  plus  ici  cette  pose  immobile  et  sans  action 
qui  parait  aToir  6te"  <le  rigueur  dans  les  bas-reliefs  sacres ;  toute  ia  figure 
est  anim6e  et  pleine  de  mouveraent ;  son  action  est  bien  sentie :  elle  est 
aux  sculptures  egyptiennes  oe  que  l'Apollon  du  Belveddre  est  aux  statues 
Grecquea." 

10* 


226 


ANCIENT  EOYl'T. 


There  is  no  unity  of  time  or  action  in  the  scenes  represented; 
no  observance  of  perspective  or  even  the  simplest  laws  of  vision, 
distant  objects  being  lifted  up  that  they  may  not  be  hidden  by  the 
interposition  of  the  nearer ;  by  which  means,  however,  the  artist 
avoided  the  too  severe  simplicity  which  limitation  to  a  single  line 
of  objects  has  produced  in  the  Greek  bas-reliefs  and  paintings. 
Two  right  or  left  hands  are  sometimes  given  to  the  same  figure. 
On  the  propyla  of  the  temples  and  palaces  kings  and  warriors  are 
represented  in  corresponding  postures  and  actions  on  either  side, 
and  consequently  left-handed  on  the  right  side.  To  give  an  idea 
of  a  canal,  planted  on  each  side  with  palms,  the  canal  is  raised 
up  and  its  surface  turned  perpendicularly  towards  the  spectator. 
Yet  even  in  this  strange  mode  of  representing  a  horizontal  sur- 
face, the  painter  has  not  forgotten  to  diminish  the  size  of  the 
trees  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  canal1.  Even  in  the  representa- 
tion of  single  figures,  the  laws  of  vision  are  sometimes  neglected. 
Though  presented  in  profile,  the  eyes  and  shoulders  are  given  with 
tne  fulness  of  a  front  view,  and  objects  which  must  necessarily 
have  intervened  between  the  spectator  and  the  principal  figure  are 
thrown  behind,  that  the  view  of  him  might  not  be  broken  by  auy 
crossing  line.  In  the  scenes  of  common  life  portrayed  in  the 
grottoes,  though  the  drawing  is  generally  incorrect  and  the  laws 
of  perspective  neglected,  there  is  a  freedom  and  even  playfulness 
which  we  should  not  otherwise  have  known  to  belong  to  the  Egyp- 
tian character.  Their  humor  even  runs  into  caricature.  In  one 
of  the  royal  sepulchres  at  Thebes  we  see  an  ass  and  a  lion  singing, 
and  accompanying  themselves  on  the  phorminx  and  the  harp. 
Another  is  a  burlesque  of  a  battle-piece.  A  fortress  is  attacked 
by  rats  and  defended  by  cats  who  are  mounted  on  the  battlements. 
The  rats  bring  a  ladder  to  the  walls  and  prepare  to  scale  them, 
while  a  body  armed  with  spear,  shield  and  bow  protect  the  assail- 
ants, and  a  rat  of  gigantic  size,  in  a  chariot  drawn  by  dogs,  haa 
1  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  2,  145. 


PAINTING. 


227 


pierced  the  cats  with  his  arrows  and  swings  round  his  axe  in  exact 
imitation  of  Barneses  dealing  destruction  on  his  enemies.  In  a 
papyrus  of  the  Museum  of  Turin,  a  cat  is  seen  with  a  shepherd's 
crook  watching  a  flock  of  geese,  and  a  cynocephalus  playing  on 
the  flute1. 

We  see  from  the  monuments  that  the  Egyptians  painted  on 
wood,  but  except  the  hieroglyphics  of  mummy-cases,  we  have 
scarcely  any  other  remains  of  their  painting  than  the  coloring  of 
sculpture  or  on  walls.  The  porous  sandstone  or  fossiliferous  lime- 
stone in  which  the  tombs  were  excavated  was  covered  with  stucco2, 
previous  to  its  being  painted,  and  even  works  in  granite  and  other 
hard  stone  were  treated  in  the  same  manner.  Their  colors  were 
few — red,  green,  blue,  yellow,  and  black,  but  being  chiefly  com- 
posed of  metallic  oxides,  they  were  brilliant  and  durable3.  They 
were  laid  on  without  intermixture  or  degradation ;  without  any 
attempt,  by  light  and  shade,  to  give  the  roundness  of  nature  to  a 
plane  surface.  It  could  hardly  be  otherwise  when  the  chief  use 
of  painting  was  to  color  the  outlines  of  sculpture.  Even  in  this 
branch  of  art,  religion  interfered  to  limit  the  taste  and  fancy  of 
the  painter,  certain  colors  being  prescriptively  used  for  the  bodies 
or  draperies  of  the  gods. 

The  mechanical  process  of  painting  among  the  Egyptians  did 
not  differ  much  from  the  modern  practice  of  distemper.  The  wall 
or  board  destined  to  receive  the  picture,  if  its  own  surface  was 
rough  and  coarse,  was  covered  with  a  coating  of  lime  or  gypsum- 
plaster.  The  outline  was  then  sketched  in  with  red  chalk,  and 
afterwards  corrected  and  filled  up  with  black.  The  same  mode 
was  adopted  preparatory  to  sculpture.  The  painter  laevigated  his 
colors  and  mixed  them  with  water,  then  placed  them  on  a  pallet 
hung  from  his  wrist  and  applied  them  to  the  surface  on  which  he 
was  at  work.    Fresco  painting,  in  which  the  colors  are  laid  upon 

1  Champollion-Figeac,  L'Egypte,  pi  34 

•  Descr  de  l'Egypte,  3,  45.  Rosellmi,  Mon.  Civ  2,  188. 


228 


A  NCIKNT  EGYPT. 


the  plaster  before  it  dries,  was  not  practised  by  the  Egyptian* 
Some  traces  are  thought  to  have  been  found  of  encaustic  painting; 
by  means  of  wax  dissolved  in  naphtha1,  but  it  is  doubtful  if  they 
belong  to  the  Pharaonic  times. 

The  knowledge  of  anatomy  among  the  Egyptians  was  confined 
to  the  results  of  the  practice  of  embalming.  Neither  they  nor  the 
Greeks,  who  carried  the  design  of  the  human  figure  to  perfection, 
and  imitated  with  exquisite  skill  the  varied  action  of  the  muscles, 
ever  traced  them  beneath  the  skin  to  their  connexion  with  the 
skeleton.  The  Egyptians  did  not  enjoy  the  same  advantage  as  the 
Greeks  for  the  study  of  the  naked  figure ;  they  had  neither  the 
exercises  of  the  palaestra2  nor  annual  public  games.  But  they  were 
not  strangers  to  a  simpler  kind  of  gymnastics.  In  the  tombs  of 
Benihassan  entire  walls  are  covered  with  representations  of  pairs  of 
combatants  engaged  in  wrestling  and  locked  together  in  eveiy  pos- 
sible variety  of  attitude.  There  is  not  perfect  accuracy  in  the 
design,  but  in  general  the  character  of  each  action  is  justly  discri- 
minated. 

The  profusion  with  which  the  Egyptians  employed  sculpture  and 
painting  in  their  temples,  palaces  and  tombs,  has  no  parallel  in 
the  history  of  art.  Elsewhere  they  were  subsidiary  to  architecture , 
in  Egypt  they  were  a  part  of  it.  The  pylon,  the  column,  the  ceiling, 
the  external  and  internal  wall,  were  covered  with  sculpture.  Had 
this,  like  the  bas-relief  of  the  Greeks,  projected  from  the  surface 
and  cast  a  shadow  over  it,  the  continuity  of  the  architectural  lines 
must  have  been  broken  and  their  effect  destroyed.  But  the 
Egyptian  bas-reliefs  unite  the  qualities  of  a  cameo  and  an  intaglio3 ; 
they  rise  from  within  the  hollow  traced  for  the  outline  of  the  figure, 
but  this  rise  is  given  by  cutting  into  the  stone  of  the  pillar  or  the 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  2,  205.  Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  3,  812. 
1  Herod.  2,  91.    Diod.  1,  81. 

•  Wilkinson,  Manrers  and  Customs,  8,  803.  Schnaase,  Geschichte  flei 
bildenden  Kunste,  7  430. 


HISTORY  07  ART. 


22$ 


wall,  not  by  cutting  away  its  surface.  Thus  nothing  projects ;  the 
figure  is  protected  from  injury,  and  the  shadow  of  the  prominent 
part  falls  within  the  hollow.  The  colors,  which  if  laid  on  figures 
in  real  relief  would  have  been  too  glaring,  are  softened  by  their 
retiring  below  the  surface,  and  indeed  become  necessary  to  bring 
them  forward  to  the  eye.  Real  bas-reliefs  are  also  found,  but 
rarely  in  the  older  style. 

The  progress  of  the  fine  arts  in  Egypt  appears  to  have  followed 
very  exactly  that  of  civilization  and  power,  during  the  period  of 
its  independence.  The  Pyramids  themselves,  while  they  bear 
ample  testimony  to  the  mechanical  skill  with  which  their  materials 
were  wrought  and  put  together,  throw  no  light  on  the  state  of  the 
arts  of  design  and  coloring.  Tombs  near  the  Pyramids,  however, 
which  must  be  of  nearly  the  same  age  with  the  First  and  Second, 
as  the  names  of  the  same  kings  occur  in  them,  contain  sculptures 
and  paintings  representing  the  ordinary  occupations  of  the  people, 
in  which  the  inferiority  of  execution  to  similar  delineations  at  Beni- 
hassan  of  the  age  of  Sesortasen,  and  still  more  those  of  the  18th 
dynasty  at  Thebes,  is  very  manifest.  In  the  age  of  the  erection  of 
the  pyramids,  Egypt  bears  no  traces  of  extensive  dominion  or  foreign 
conquest ;  the  shields  of  their  builders  have  not  been  found  in  Ethi- 
opia. But  in  the  age  of  Sesortasen,  from  causes  lost  to  us,  through 
the  want  of  continuity  in  Egyptian  history,  we  find  the  monarchy 
in  a  much  higher  state  of  splendor  and  power,  his  conquests  over  the 
Ethiopian  nations  being  commemorated  in  the  temple  of  Semneh1. 
The  dynasties  of  the  sovereigns  who  took  refuge  in  the  Thebaid 
during  the  invasion  of  the  Shepherds,  have  left  no  memorials  in 
works  of  art ;  but  it  immediately  revived  after  their  expulsion. 
The  reigns  of  the  three  Thothmes  exhibit  the  power  of  Egypt  gra- 
dually rising,  as  manifested  in  the  extent  of  country  occupied  by 
their  arms,  and  the  great  works  which  they  undertook.  The 


See  page  18  of  this  vol  ame* 


230  ANCIENT  EGYPT. 

obelisk  of  St.  John  Lateran  remains  as  a  proof  of  the  high  perfec- 
tion to  which  both  sculpture  and  design  had  arrived  under  the 
third  sovereign  of  that  name.  In  the  reign  of  Rameses-Sesostris 
the  power  of  the  monarchy  had  risen  to  its  greatest  height,  and  this 
is  also  the  point  of  culmination  of  Egyptian  art,  as  attested  by  the 
obelisks  of  Luxor,  the  palace  of  the  Memnonium,  the  excavated 
temple  of  Aboosimbel,  and  numerous  remains  of  sculpture.  It 
remained  without  any  marked  change  through  the  reign  of  his 
successor,  but  after  this  we  have  little  means,  except  the  royal  tombs 
of  the  18th  and  19th  dynasties,  of  judging  what  was  the  state  of 
art.  Under  the  20th  and  21st  even  this  fails;  but  the  spirit  of 
conquest  revived  under  Sheshonk  in  the  22nd,  and  his  victories  are 
commemorated  on  the  wails  of  Karnak.  There  does  not,  however, 
remain  enough  to  characterize  the  state  of  art.  The  sceptre  was 
lost  by  the  dynasties  of  Thebes,  and  fell  into  the  hands  of  families 
of  Lower  Egypt.  Civil  dissensions,  the  Ethiopian  conquest,  and 
the  usurpation  of  Sethoe  followed ;  and  it  was  not  till  the  power 
of  the  monarchy  was  agaii'  consolidated  under  Psammitichus,  that 
art  revived.  The  great  works  which  he  and  his  successors  executed 
at  Sais  have  perished,  or  are  buried  under  its  ruins;  but  the  obelisk 
of  Monte  Citorio  at  Rome,  and  many  smaller  works,  dispersed 
tli rough  the  museums  of  Europe,  show  that  neither  skill  nor  taste 
had  greatly  degenerated.  The  obelisk  is  of  such  excellent  work- 
manship, that  Zoega  had  referred  it  to  the  age  of  Sesostris1 ;  but 
when  compared  with  ascertained  works  of  the  18tfc  dynasty,  its 
inferiority  in  boldness  of  execution  is  evident2;  and  that  of  Apries, 
in  the  Piazza  of  the  Minerva  at  Rome,  falls  still  more  below  the 
standard  of  the  age  of  the  Rameses.    There  are  few  remnants  of 

1  De  Obeli&cis,  p.  642.  The  inscription  placed  on  it  by  Pope  Pius  VI., 
who  set  it  up,  calls  it  Obeliscum  Sesostridis. 

*  A  frieze  in  the  British  Museum,  figured  in  the  Hieroglyphics  of  the 
Egyptian  Socifty,  pi  7,  is  of  the  age  of  Psammitichus,  and  in  a  very  good 
■iyle. 


KARNAK. 


231 


the  splendid  works  with  which  Amasis  adorned  Memphis  and  the 
rryal  residence  of  Sais;  but  the  prosperity  of  Egypt  and  the  gene- 
ral diffusion  of  the  elegances  and  luxuries  of  art  is  attested  by  the 
tombs  of  piavate  individuals,  which  in  their  costliness  and  extent 
rival  the  royal  sepulchres  of  earlier  times1. 

With  Amasis  the  period  of  the  native  cultivation  of  art  in  Egypt 
ceases.  The  invasion  of  the  Persians  soon  followed.  Cambyses 
destroyed  the  temples  of  Thebes,  Memphis,  Heliopolis  and  Sais 
with  fire,  carried  off  their  treasures  to  Persia,  and  transported 
thither  the  most  skilful  of  the  Egyptian  artificers  to  adorn  Per- 
sepolis  and  Susa.  During  the  continuance  of  the  Persian  rule,  the 
country  was  disturbed  by  frequent  insurrections,  very  unfavorable 
to  the  cultivation  of  art.  But  every  short  interval  of  independence 
appears  to  have  been  marked  by  the  erection  or  repair  of  monu- 
ments. Some  remain  of  Amyrtaeus,  under  whom  a  native  govern- 
ment was  re-established  for  six  years  ;  more  of  Nectanebus,  whc 
maintained  himself  for  eighteen  years,  and  was  Jthe  last  sovereign 
of  independent  Egypt.  It  was  not  long  before  it  passed  under  the 
power  of  the  Ptolemies.  Without  renouncing  their  own  religion, 
they  constituted  themselves  patrons  of  the  faith  of  their  subjects, 
and  renewed  the  temples  which  had  suffered  from  age  and  Persian 
bigotry.  If  the  works  of  architecture  executed  by  them  did  not 
rival  in  magnitude  those  of  the  Pharaohs,  they  were  so  entirely 
Egyptian  in  their  character  as  to  have  been  long  attributed  to  the 
ancient  monarchs  of  tire  country.  The  discovery  of  fcibe  inscription^ 
in  Greek,  or  phonetic  hieroglyphics,  has  enabled  us  to  assign  to 
each  building  or  portion  of  a  building  its  true  age.  The  erections 
under  the  Ptolemies,  as  those  of  Hermopolis,  Esneh  and  Edfu,  were 
of  great  extent  and  magnificence ;  but  they  betray  no  influence  of 
Greek  art,  and  their  architecture  and  sculpture  is  only  a  new 
development  of  Egyptian  style.  There  is  greater  variety  and  per- 
haps more  elegance  in  the  capitals  of  the  columns ;  the  inferiority 
1  Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  vol.  8,  806. 


232 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


of  Ptolemaic  art  is  chiefly  seen  in  the  sculpture,  which  is  less  p:i*c 
in  design  and  elaborate  in  execution ;  and  as  we  approach  th« 
Roman  times  becomes  coarse  an£  careless.  The  emperors  con- 
tinued to  build  and  repair  in  Egypt,  and  the  architecture  of  Den- 
derail,  though  florid  and  overloaded  with  ornament,  retains  the 
genuine  characters  of  Egyptian  style.  One  of  the  latest  erections, 
a  temple  to  Cnuphis,  Sate  and  Anouke,  the  divinities  of  the  Cata- 
racts, at  Syene,  built  in  the  reign  of  Nerva,  shows  the  extreme  of 
the  declension  of  art.  The  name  of  Geta1  is  the  last  that  is  read 
in  hieroglyphics  on  an  Egyptian  monument ;  it  can  still  be  traced 
on  the  pronaos  of  Esneh,  notwithstanding  its  erasure  by  his  brother 
Caracalla2. 

1  Champollion,  Lettres  d'Egypte,  p.  200. 

3  The  progress  and  decay  of  Egyptian  art  may  be  studied  in  the  obelisks 
of  Rome.  Those  of  St  John  Lateran  and  the  Piazza  del  Popolo  exhibit  its 
perfection ;  those  of  Monte  Citorio  and  the  Min  erva,  its  intermediate  state  ; 
those  of  the  Piazza  Navona  and  Monte  Pin;io,  its  extreme  decline,  in  the 
reigns  of  Domitiau  and  Hadrian. 


CHAPTER  XVILL 


MUSIC. 

The  influence  of  music  on  the  character  was  considered  so  impor- 
tant even  in  Greece  as  to  be  the  subject  of  legislation  and  the 
grave  discussions  of  philosophers.1  It  is  not  wonderful  that  it 
should  not  have  been  left  free  to  change  with  taste  and  fashion  in 
Egypt,  where  law  extended  its  control  over  all  the  habits  of  life. 
According  to  Plato,  the  Egyptians,  having  perceived  that  melody, 
as  well  as  the  plastic  arts,  was  capable  of  exercising  a  powerful 
moral  effect  upon  the  young,  and  that  there  was  great  danger  in 
allowing  individual  caprice  and  fancy  an  influence,  established  in 
very  early  times  such  music  as  was  favorable  to  virtue,  and  allowed 
no  innovation  to  be  made  upon  it,  through  love  of  variety.  He 
adds,  that  to  his  own  time  this  law  continued  in  force8.  It  ap- 
pears from  his  language,  however,  that  it  was  to  religious  music 
that  it  applied.  Isis  was  the  reputed  author  of  these  sacred  strains. 
Music  formed  no  part  of  the  general  education  of  the  Egyptian 
youth,  any  more  than  the  exercises  of  the  palaestra;  one  being 
considered  as  rendering  the  mind  effeminate,  the  other  as  procur- 
ing a  transient  strength  at  the  expense  of  permanent  weakness'. 
This  remarkable  contrast  to  Greek  manners  may  explain  the  little 
notice  of  Egyptian  music  which  occurs  in  the  Greek  authors.  Most 

1  Arist  PoL  8,  4. 

3  Leg.  2,  tom.  iL  p.  657.  'E«i  <paal  tcl  tov  iro\vv  tovtov  ataua^iva  yjp&vov  pi^ 
P4S  "laiSos  xotfytara  ytyovivau      lie  calls  them  in  the  context,  t))v  KaOapaSsTatt 

•  Diod  1,  81. 


234 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


of  the  persons  who  appear  in  the  monuments,  either  singing  01 
playing,  were  evidently  hired  performers  or  slaves. 

No  musical  notation  has  been  found  on  the  Egyptian  monuments. 
As  Pythagoras,  who  had  long  resided  in  Egypt,  entered  deeply 
into  the  science  of  music  and  its  mathematical  relations,  -t  ^as 
been  concluded  that  his  knowledge  was  derived  from  the  Eo-y.Hian 
priests ;  but  what  is  true  of  geometry  may  be  applied  to  the  ma- 
thematical principles  of  music,  that  if  the  facts  were  known  to  th<> 
Egyptians,  the  theory  has  probably  been  discovered  by  the  Greek 
philosopher. 

The  variety  of  instruments  of  which  we  find  representations,  and 
the  uses  to  which  they  are  applied,  show  that  the  Egyptian  music 
must  have  been  a  much  more  comprehensive  art  than  the  accounts 
of  the  ancients  would  have  led  us  to  suppose.  As  instruments  of 
different  kinds  are  employed  in  one  concert,  they  must  have  under- 
stood the  laws  of  harmony.  Time  was  kept  by  beating  the  hands. 
In  the  mechanism  of  the  art  they  far  exceeded  all  other  nations  of 
antiquity.  Their  harps  were  furnished  with  numerous  strings  of 
catgut,  from  three  to  thirteen,  and  in  one  instance,  mentioned  by 
Eosellini1,  even  twenty-two.  The  lyre  also,  of  which  the  Greeks 
attributed  the  invention  to  their  own  divinities,  and  the  improve- 
ment to  Orpheus  or  Amphion,  had  been  in  use  in  Egypt  for  cen- 
turies prior  to  the  commencement  of  Greek  civilization,  and  along 
with  it  a  multitude  of  other  stringed  instruments  of  various  power 
and  tone.  The  guitar  appears  in  early  monuments2.  Its  construc- 
tion is  a  proof  of  the  musical  knowledge  of  the  Egyptians,  as  from 
its  three  cords  a  perfect  melody  could  be  educed,  by  the  application 
of  the  fingers  to  shorten  the  strings3.  The  use  of  a  plectrum  to 
touch  the  cords  is  rare,  and  is  found  chiefly  in  connection  with 

1  Mon.  Civ.  3,  13.  *  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  tav.  xciv-xcix. 

8  See  the  representations  in  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  2,  299  foil.  This  supe- 
riority of  the  Egyptian  stringed  instruments  over  the  Greek  lyre,  was  ob 
served  by  Dr.  Burney,  Hist  of  Music,  vol.  1,  p.  19*7 


MUSIC. 


235 


the  guitar.  Of  wind  instruments,  the  single,  double,  and  oblique 
flute  were  employed  for  festive,  sacred  and  funereal  purposes ;  the 
noisy  music  of  the  cymbals,  castagnettes  and  tambourine,  was 
chiefly  used  in  festivity,  or  to  excite  the  fanaticism  of  the  votaries 
when  they  flocked  in  myriads  to  the  temple  of  some  popular  divi- 
nity1, or  went  through  the  villages  with  bacchanalian  processions. 
The  sistrum,  so  much  used  in  the  worship  of  Isis  or  Atnor,  can 
hardly  be  called  a  musical  instrument ;  but  the  rattling  of  its  wires 
appears  to  have  served,  like  the  sound  of  the  cymbals,  to  excite  the 
feelings  of  the  worshipper.  Another  instrument  of  the  same 
unmusical  kind  was  in  use — two  sticks  of  metal,  which  were  struck 
against  each  other.  The  drum,  which  was  used  in  ceremonies  and 
festivities,  was  also  the  principal  instrument  of  warlike  music 
among  the  Egyptians,  and  appears  in  monuments  of  a  very  early 
age2.  It  was  of  a  more  oblong  form  than  ours,  and  was  struck 
only  with  the  hand.  The  metallic  sticks  before  mentioned  were 
also  a  part  of  the  military  band  ;  and  the  trumpet,  which  was  of 
comparatively  late  introduction  among  the  Greeks3,  is  found  in  the 
earliest  representations  of  Egyptian  campaigns. 

Great  care  was  bestowed  on  the  embellishment  of  their  musical 
instruments  by  the  Egyptians.  Some  have  been  found  made  of  a 
wood  brought  from  India  or  Senegal ;  others  are  painted,  inlaid, 
or  covered  with  colored  leather.  Two  of  the  most  remarkable 
representations  of  harps  are  found  in  the  chambers  of  the  tomb  of 
Rameses  IV.  at  Thebes'1 ;  one  of  them  has  thirteen,  the  other 
eleven  cords  ;  they  are  covered  with  painting  of  the  richest  colors 
and  graceful  patterns :  on  the  lower  extremity  is  figured  a  human 
head  with  the  uraeus  on  the  forehead  and  the  two  parts  of  the 

1  Herod.  2,  48,  60. 

•  See  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  2,  269-304. 

'  Homer  alludes  to  it,  II.  c-',  219,  but*  as  the  Scholiast  observe*,  «rar« 
»p<J>jji//ii/.    Feithius,  Ant  Horn.  619. 

*  See  p.  143  of  this  volume. 


230 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


psc?  ent,  the  emblem  of  royalty1.  The  shaved  heads  of  the  perfor- 
mers show  that  they  are  priests3,  and  they  appear  to  be  performing 
in  honor  of  two  funereal  divinities  who  are  seated  near.  The  larger 
instruments  are  rested  on  the  ground,  or  on  a  stand ;  the  smaller 
are  borne  in  the  hand  or  suspended  by  a  band  from  the  neck  like 
the  phorminx  of  the  Greeks. 

Music  appears  to  have  been  used  in  Egypt,  not  only  on  solemn 
and  festive  occasions,  but  as  a  recreation  in  the  labors  of  domestic 
life3.  Champollion  thinks  that  he  has  discovered,  in  the  tomb  of 
a  high-priest  at  Eilithya,  the  song  which  the  peasants  used  while 
the  oxen  were  treading  out  the  corn4. 

*  The  dance,  as  far  as  it  formed  a  part  of  religious  worship,  was 
subject  to  the  same  strict  law  of  adherence  to  ancient  forms  as 
music  and  the  arts  of  design6.  More  freedom  may  have  found  a 
place  in  the  pilgrimages  to  the  temples  or  the  festivities  which  fol- 
lowed the  sacrifices.  It  was  a  frequent  accompaniment  of  fune- 
real rites,  and  a  favorite  amusement  at  feasts.  The  postures  of 
the  dancers  are  varied,  and  often  closely  resemble  those  of  the 
modern  art6.  Both  sexes  are  engaged,  sometimes  separately,  some- 
times together.  Besides  the  more  refined  and  graceful  dance,  the 
motus  incomjiositi  of  the  lower  classes  are  also  represented  in  the 
monuments ;  but  they  do  not  exhibit  those  voluptuous  and 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  tav.  xcvii.  See  also  the  Frontispiece  to  Wilkinson 
M.  and  C.  vol. '2. 

*  "We  find  in  the  sepulchres  the  title  of  "Musician  to  the  King"  (Ros. 
Mon.  Civ.  3,  83,  Birch,  Gallery  of  Ant.  171)  and  "Minstrel  of  the  Hall  of 
Amun." 

*  Rosellini,  M.  Civ.  2,  416. 

*  Champollion,  Lettrea  dTgypte,  pt  148,  196.  He  givei  the««  u  th« 
words  of  the  song — 

"  Battez  pour  vous  (ftti),  0  bceufs ;  battez  pour  vom  (bit) 
Des  boisseaux  pour  vos  maltree.* 

*  Plato,  Legg.  %  ii.  656.  *  Roaellini,  M.  C.  toy.  xcIt-tuL 


MUSIC. 


237 


licentious  performances  which  the  Asiatics  practised,  and  which 
disgust  travellers  in  modern  Egypt1.  We  may  regret  that  the 
restrictions  placed  by  religion  upon  the  fine  arts,  should  have 
checked  their  free  development,  among  the  ancient  Egyptians,  but 
the  same  cause  prevented  their  perversion  into  the  instruments  of 
moral  corruption. 

1  Rowllini,  Mon.  Civ  P.  2,  t  8,  p.  94* 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


ART  OF  WRITING. 

The  monuments  and  other  antiquities  of  the  Egyptians  show  that 
the  art  of  writing  was  practised  by  them  more  extensively  than  by 
any  contemporary  nation.  They  seldom  raised  an  edifice  without 
covering  it  with  inscriptions ;  there  remain  obelisks,  statues,  fune- 
real tablets  in  great  numbers,  which  appear  never,  except  through 
accident,  to  have  been  left  uninscribed :  even  articles  of  domestic 
and  personal  use  frequently  have  characters  impressed  or  engraved 
upon  them.  The  workman's  tools,  when  buried  with  him,  are  found 
to  bear  his  name ;  cattle  were  numbered  and  marked  with  the  name 
of  the  owner ;  garments  are  described  having  one  or  two  hieroglyphic 
characters  woven  or  worked  with  a  needle  into  the  border  after  the 
manner  of  modern  housewives1.  Fragments  of  manuscripts  on 
papyrus  exist  of  the  earliest  Theban  dynasties,  perhaps  even  of  the 
times  preceding  the  invasion  of  the  Shepherds.  Although  the 
pyramids  externally  no  longer  exhibit  any  inscriptions,  the  stones  of 
the  interior  have  hieroglyphics  traced  on  them,  and  that  too  in  a 
linear  form,  which  shows  that  their  origin  was  not  recent.  Even 
if  we  had  not  these  tangible  and  extant  evidences  of  the  preva- 
lence of  the  art  of  writing  from  near  the  commencement  of  history, 
it  would  be  sufficiently  attested  by  the  pictures  of  Egyptian  life  and 
manners  which  the  tombs  preserve.  We  not  only  find  sacred  func- 
tionaries, who  from  a  written  roll  rehearse  the  praise  of  the  god, 
or  direct  the  ceremonial  of  a  coronation;  or  see  the  fate  of  the 

1  Roaellini,  M.  Civ.  %  241. 


ART  OF  WRITING. 


239 


deceased  in  the  funeral  judgment  recorded  with  the  pen ;  but  the 
same  instrument  is  perpetually  in  use  in  the  ordinary  transactions 
of  life.  Scribes  are  employed  in  noting  down  the  quantity  of  grain 
deposited  in  a  granary,  numbering  the  cattle  on  a  farm,  or  record- 
ing the  weight  which  has  been  ascertained  by  the  public  scales'. 

From  all  this,  however,  it  would  be  hasty  to  infer  anything  like 
a  general  diffusion  of  the  art  of  writing  in  the  times  of  the  Pha- 
raohs. Those  who  are  employed  in  the  offices  above  described  have 
the  air  of  being  professional  scribes,  such  as  even  now  supply  in  the 
South  of  Europe  and  the  East,  the  want  of  education  among  the 
people  at  large.  Xo  books  ever  appear  among  the  furniture  of  a 
house ;  no  one  is  ever  represented  reading,  except  in  some  func- 
tion ;  no  female  is  ever  seen  reading  or  writing.  The  inscriptions 
relating  to  religion,  which  are  beyond  comparison  the  most  nume- 
rous, would  be  explained,  as  far  as  their  explanation  wa?  deemed 
expedient,  by  the  priests  and  ministers  of  the  temples  to  the  people ; 
and  those  which  accompany  the  paintings  and  sculptures  which 
record  the  exploits  of  the  kings,  by  persons  of  the  same  order*. 
The  composition  and  preservation  of  the  sacerdotal  and  royal  gene- 
alogies and  annals  belonged  also  to  the  priesthood.  All  the  books 
■which  Clemens  Alexandrinus3  enumerates  were  either  sacred  or 
scientific,  and  as  such  would  not  only  be  in  the  custody  of  the 
priests,  but  would  receive  their  interpretation  from  them.  It  seems 
indeed  from  his  account  as  if  the  knowledge  of  the  system  of  hiero- 
glyphics belonged  not  to  the  entire  priesthood,  but  only  to  the 
hierogrammateus.  There  was  a  time  when  in  Europe  the  know- 
ledge of  theology,  science,  and  in  great  measure  law,  was  attainable 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  3,  184. 

a  "Mox  visit  (Germanicus)  veteruin  Thebarum  magna  vestigia;  et  mane- 
bant  structis  molibus  literse  ^Egyptise,  priorem  opulentiara  complexae:  jus- 
susqne  e  senioribns  sacerdotum  patrium  sermnnem  interpretari,  referebat," 
met    Tac  Ann.  2,  60. 

'  Strom.  8,  4. 


240 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


only  through  the  medium  of  the  Latin,  which  the  common  people 
could  neither  speak  nor  read,  nor  even  all  the  priests.  This  was  a 
state  of  things  very  analogous  to  that  of  Egypt ;  it  gave  a  mono- 
poly of  knowledge  to  the  priesthood,  yet  was  by  no  means  devised 
for  that  pjirpose. 

The  earliest  ancient  author  by  whom  the  Egyptian  writing  is 
spoken  of  is  Herodotus,  who  says  that  they  write  and  calculate, 
carrying  the  hand  from  the  right  to  the  left,  and  that  they  use  two 
kinds  of  letters,  one  sacred  and  the  other  demotic1 ;  but  he  enters 
into  no  explanation  of  either  system.  Plato,  however,  who  attri- 
butes the  invention  of  letters  to  Theuth,  plainly  implies  that  he 
knew  them  to  be  alphabetical,  since  he  describes  this  god  or  daemon 
as  dividing  vocal  sounds  into  vowels,  consonants  and  semivowels3. 
Diodorus  in  his  account  of  Egypt  says  that  "  the  priests  teach  their 
children  two  kinds  of  letters,  those  called  sacred  and  those  which 
are  more  generally  learnt3 ;"  and  towards  the  end  of  the  same  para- 
graph, that  "  the  people  of  Egypt  generally,  as  distinguished  from 
the  priests,  learn  from  their  fathers  or  their  kinsmen  the  training 
that  belongs  to  each  special  mode  of  life ;  but  letters4  only  to  a 
small  extent,  and  not  all,  but  chiefly  those  who  practise  some  of 
the  arts."  He  gives  a  fuller  account  of  the  system  in  the  third 
book  of  his  history  (c.  3).  The  Ethiopians,  who  claimed  to  be  the 
source  of  the  population  and  arts  of  Egypt,  alleged  that  the  Egyp- 
tians had  two6  modes  of  writing;  one  demotic,  learnt  by  all,  the 
other  called  sacred  and  learnt  by  the  priests  alone,  secretly  from 

1  2,  36.  What  he  says  of  their  writing  from  right  to  left,  is  true  only  of 
the  hieratic  and  demotic  characters. 

*  Phiieb.  2,  18.    Corap.  Fisch,  ad  Weller.  1,  25. 

*  Tu  rt  iepd  Ka\ovfisva  KaX  ra  Koivortpav  s^ovra  ri\v  fidOrffftp.  1,  81. 

*  Ai6a<TKowtt  which  is  usually  changed  into  AiSAtrKovrai,  should  be  omitted, 
and  the  ellipsis  supplied  from  pavdavovoi. 

*  A1TTQN  for  1AIS2N  is  an  obvious  correction  which  has  been  made  by 
several  authors. 


ART  OF  WRITING. 


241 


their  fathers ;  but  that  among  the  Ethiopians  all  indiscriminately 
used  the  latter.  In  the  following  section  he  explains  more  fully 
the  nature  of  the  Egyptian  hieroglyphics.  "  These  characters,"  he 
says,  "  resemble  all  kinds  of  animals,  and  the  extremities  of  man^ 
and  moreover  instruments,  especially  those  of  carpentry1.  For 
among  them  the  art  of  expression  by  writing2  does  not  furnish  the 
sense  by  means  of  the  putting  together  of  syllables,  but  from  the 
metaphorical  significance  of  the  objects  copied,  memory  lending  its 
aid3.  For  they  represent  a  hawk  and  a  crocodile  and  a  serpent, 
and  of  the  parts  of  the  human  body,  the  eye,  the  hand,  the  face, 
and  others  of  the  same  kind.  Now  the  hawk  signifies  all  things 
which  are  rapidly  done ;  for  this  is  nearly  the  most  rapid  of  all 
birds,  and  by  a  natural  metaphor  the  expression  is  transferred  to 
all  rapid  things  and  things  analogous  to  them,  just  as  in  speech4. 
The  crocodile  denotes  all  badness ;  the  eye  is  the  observer  of  justice 
and  guardian  of  the  whole  body :  and  of  the  extremities,  the  right 
hand  having  the  fingers  stretched  out,  denotes  the  giving  of  sus- 
tenance; the  left,  closed,  the  preservation  and  guardianship  of 
money.  The  same  mode  applies  to  the  other  figures  derived  from 
the  body,  and  mechanical  instruments  and  all  the  rest.  For  fol- 
lowing out  the  significations  which  exist  in  each,  and  exercising 
their  minds  by  long  practice  and  memory,  they  read  readily  every- 
thing that  is  written." 

In  this  passage,  by  far  the  fullest  which  any  classical  author  has 
left  respecting  the  Egyptian  writing,  it  will  be  observed  that  no 
notice  is  taken  of  any  alphabetical  use  of  the  hieroglyphic  cha- 
racters.   They  are  all  supposed  to  be  used  symbolically,  i.  e.  to 

1  The  hatchet,  the  pincers,  the  mallet,  the  chisel,  the  square,  the  saw,  all 
appear  among  the  hieroglyphics.    See  Champollion,  Diet.  no.  651  foil. 

*  'H  ypapnaTiKTi, 

*  'E£  Ifjfp&acws  raiv  neraypatpopivwv  koX  fitra<pop3s,  (l\  pvf\p\T}£)avvr\L\r)n.lvi)$. 

*  IlapaTrX^trtwf  rots  tipnpivois.  This  is  the  translation  of  Zoega,  p.  430,  buf 
perhaps  it  means  as  before  mentioned,  L  e.  by  metaphorical  significance. 

VOL.  I.  11 


242 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


denote  qualities  by  visible  objects  naturally  associated  with  them. 
Even  of  these,  few  are  found  to  correspond  in  the  hieroglyphical 
writing  with  the  senses  assigned  by  Diodorus.  The  hawk  repre- 
sents royalty  and  divinity,  and  especially  the  gods  Horus  and  Phre 
or  the  Sun,  possibly  from  its  rapidity  of  flight,  but  more  probably 
from  the  brilliancy  of  its  eye  ;  but  not  all  rapid  things.  The  cro- 
codile denotes  darkness,  but  not  badness  of  every  kind ;  the  out- 
stretched hand  and  arm  express  the  act  of  giving,  or  more  exactly 
the  Egyptian  verb  T,  to  give ;  but  the  closed  and  expanded  palm 
are  measures  of  length1.  Believing,  on  the  authority  of  Diodorus, 
that  hieroglyphics  were  in  the  main  symbolical,  those  who  sought 
for  their  meaning  in  recent  times  set  out  in  a  wrong  direction,  and 
bewildered  themselves  in  the  mazy  regions  of  conjecture.  Ammi- 
anus  Marcellinus  also2,  though  he  correctly  stated  the  use  of  hiero- 
glyphics to  be  "  ut  ad  aevi  sequentis  sstates  patratorum  perveniret 
vulgatius  memoria,"  and  thus  contradicted  the  notion  of  a  secret 
character,  misled  inquirers  by  his  description  of  their  nature,  which 
he  distinctly  declares  not  to  be  alphabetical8.  They  were  con- 
firmed in  their  errors  by  the  only  systematic  work  on  Egyptian 
hieroglyphics  which  has  come  down  to  us,  the  Hieroglyphica  of 
Horapollo4.  This  book,  according  to  its  title,  was  written  in  Egyp- 
tian by  Horapollo  and  translated  by  Philippus ;  but  the  age  of 
both  is  unknown.  If  the  author  be  the  Horapollo  mentioned  by 
Suidas,  he  was  an  Egyptian  grammarian,  who  taught  at  Alexandria 
and  Constantinople  in  the  reign  of  Theodosius ;  if  the  name  has 
been  falsely  assumed,  the  composition  of  the  work  must  be  placed 
1  Champollion,  Diet  nos.  54,  55. 

•  Lib.  17,  c.  4,  p.  119,  ed.  Wagner. 

'  "  Non  ut  nunc  literarum  numerus  pra?stitutus  et  facilis  exprimit,  quid- 
quid  humana  mens  concipere  potest,  ita  prisci  quoque  scriptitarunt  JEgyptii ; 
sed  singula}  literse  singulis  nominibus  inserviebant  et  verbis ;  nonnunquam 
Mgnificabant  iutegros  sensus." 

*  The  best  edition  is  that  of  Leemans,  Amstelod.  1835.  It  has  bean 
translated  into  English,  and  illustrated  by  Cory. 


HORAPOLLO. 


243 


considerably  later.  The  explanations  which  he  gives  are  wholly 
symbolical  ;  in  general  fanciful  and  false,  both  as  regards  the 
analogies  on  which  the  symbolical  use  is  supposed  to  be  founded, 
and  the  actual  practice  of  hieroglyphical  writing.  The  sixth  sec- 
tion of  the  first  book  may  serve  as  a  specimen.  "What  the 
Egyptians  express  by  delineating  a  hawk.  They  delineate  a  hawk 
when  they  wish  to  denote  a  god,  or  height,  or  depression,  or  pre- 
eminence, or  blood,  or  victory.  A  god  ;  because  the  animal  is 
prolific  and  long-lived  ;  and,  moreover,  because  it  seems  to  be  an 
image  of  the  sun,  being  able,  beyond  all  other  birds,  to  look  stea- 
dily at  his  rays  ;  whence  physicians  use  the  plant  hawkweed 
(Hieracia)  to  cure  the  eyes ;  whence  also  they  sometimes  repre- 
sent the  sun  as  of  the  form  of  a  hawk,  as  being  the  lord  of  vision  : 
height ;  because  other  animals,  aiming  to  soar,  go  obliquely  round 
about,  not  being  able  to  go  straight ;  but  the  hawk  only  soars 
straight  upwards  :  pre-eminence  ;  because  it  appears  to  excel  all 
other  animals :  blood  ;  because  they  say  that  this  animal  drinks 
not  water,  but  blood  :  victory  ;  because  it  conquers  all  birds  ;  for 
when  it  is  in  danger  of  being  mastered  by  another,  it  lays  itself  on 
its  back  in  the  air  and  fights  with  its  claws  turned  up  and  its  wings 
and  rump  downwards ;  and  is  victorious,  because  its  antagonist 
cannot  do  the  same  thing."  The  only  part  of  this  which  is  true 
is  that  the  hawk  is  an  emblem  of  divinity  and  of  the  sun!  A  few 
coincidences  are  found  between  the  explanations  of  Horapollo  and 
tne  real  meaning  of  the  hieroglyphics,  but  they  are  exceptional, 
and  his  authority  as  an  interpreter  is  in  itself  worth  nothing1.  It 
is  evident  that  the  power  of  reading  a  hieroglyphical  inscription  was 
not  possessed  by  him,  if  it  existed  in  his  time  ;  that  only  an  imper- 
fect traditional  knowledge  of  a  few  symbols  remained,  and  that 
boundless  scope  was  given  to  the  fancy  in  explaining  their  origin. 

1  See  Champollion,  Precis,  p.  348.  He  says  he  has  found  only  thirteen 
of  the  characters  mentioned  by  Horapollo.  which  reallv  bear  the  meaning 
he  assigns  to  them. 


244 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


The  Latin  writers  throw  no  light  upon  the  system  of  hiero- 
glyphics. Tacitus1,  speaking  of  the  Egyptians,  says  that  they  first 
expressed  ideas  (sensus  mentis)  by  the  figures  of  animals;  and 
declared  themselves  to  be  the  inventors  of  letters — a  glory  which 
ihe  Phoenicians  had  usurped  in  consequence  of  their  extended 
navigation,  by  which  it  had  been  diffused  through  Greece.  Lucanr, 
jn  the  other  hand,  claims  for  the  Phoenicians  to  have  known 
alphabetical  letters  before  the  Egyptians  had  invented  the  papyrus, 
and  while  they  only  cut  magic  figures  of  birds  and  beasts  in  stone. 
This  shows  that  he  supposed  the  written  and  monumental  cha- 
racters of  Egypt  to  be  entirely  distinct,  which  is  contrary  to  the 
fact.  Pliny'  speaks  of  the  sculptures  on  Egyptian  monuments 
as  being  letters ;  yet  we  cannot  hence  infer  that  he  knew  them  to 
be  alphabetical.  Plutarch4  more  distinctly  speaks  of  twenty-five 
Egyptian  letters,  assigning  as  the  reason  of  this  number  that  it  is 
the  square  of  five.  As,  however,  he  elsewhere  says  that  the  Ibis, 
the  bird  of  Thoth,  was  the  first  letter6,  though  this  character  has 
no  alphabetical  sound,  he  could  only  mislead  one  who  endea- 
vored to  ascertain  the  true  nature  of  Egyptian  writing. 

Ammianus  Marcellinus,  in  the  passage  before  quoted,  in  which 
he  describes  the  transport  of  an  obelisk  by  Constantius  and  its 
erection  at  Rome,  gives  a  translation  by  Hermapion  of  the  inscrip- 
tion on  that  which  stood  in  the  Circus  Maximus.  It  furnished  no 
assistance,  however,  in  the  discovery  of  hieroglyphics ;  for  it  was 

1  Ann.  11,  14. 

•  Pharsalia,  8,  221. 

Phoenices  primum,  famse  si  creditor,  anil, 
Mansuram  rudibua  vocem  signare  figuris. 
Nondum  fluraineas  Memphis  contexere  bybloa 
Noverat ;  in  saxis  tantum  Tolucresque  feraeque, 
Sonlptaqne  aervabant  magicas  animalia  linguaa. 

•  Hiat  Nat.  86,  14  (8  bL\  T,  57  (56V 

•  U.  et  Oa  2,  p.  874.  •  Sympoa.  %  788L 


CLEMENS   ALEX  AND  RINUSi 


24o 


Rot  known  which  of  the  obelisks  once  erected  there  was  meant, 
the  Lateran  or  the  Flaminian.  The  name  of  Thothmes,  not  Rha- 
mestes,  has  since  been  found  on  the  Lateran  obelisk,  and  the 
inscription  on  the  Flaminian,  which  does  contain  the  name  of 
Rameses,  cannot  be  read  into  any  close  conformity  with  the  trans- 
lation. Yet  the  phrases  "  King  Rhamestes  Son  of  the  Sun,  living 
for  ever ;"  "  the  beloved  of  Apollo  and  the  Sun,"  "  founded  upon 
Truth,"  "  Lord  of  the  Diadem,"  &c,  are  of  constant  recurrence  in 
hieroglyphical  inscriptions,  and  prove  that  at  least  their  general 
sense  was  understood  when  Hermapion  wrote.  No  obelisk,  how- 
ever, has  been  found  at  Rome  with  an  inscription  so  exactly  agree- 
ing with  this  of  Ammianus  that  it  can  be  identified  as  the  original. 

The  only  ancient  author  who  has  left  us  a  correct  and  full 
account  of  the  principle  of  the  Egyptian  writing  is  the  learned 
Alexandrian  Father,  Clemens,  who  wrote  towards  the  end  of  the 
second  century  after  Christ.  In  his  Stromata1  he  says,  "  Those 
who  receive  education  among  the  Egyptians  learn  first  of  all  the 
method  of  Egyptian  writing  which  is  called  epistolographic ; 
secondly  the  hieratic,  which  the  hierogrammats  use  ;  and  last,  and 
as  the  completion,  the  hieroglyphic.  Of  this  one  kind  is  direct, 
by  means  of  letters,  the  other  symbolical.  And  of  the  symbolical, 
one  expresses  directly  by  means  of  imitation,  another  is  written  as 
it  were  tropically,  and  another  runs  into  downright  allegory'  bv 
means  of  certain  enigmas.  For  example8,  when  they  wish  to 
represent  the  sun  they  make  a  circle,  and  the  moon  a  crescent,  in 
the  way  of  direct  imitation.    But  in  the  tropical  way  they  engrave 

1  Lib.  5,  c  4,  p.  657,  Potter. 

1  'Avtikovs  dWnyopeirai.  For  thifl  use  of  ii  rurp*s  in  the  sense  of  plane, 
omnino,  see  Suid.  s.  voc  'Amrpv^  Si6\ov  I  -ravrs^s  9  favtpws.  Plut. 
870  D. 

•  This  is  the  sense  of  yofip,  both  here  and  below.  It  often  introduces  an 
illustrative  or  confirmatory  statement.  See  Hartung,  Gr.  Partikeln,  3. 
p.  l& 


246 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


characters,  using  them  metaphorically  according  to  their  affinity, 

and  sometimes  changing  them  and  sometimes  transforming  them 
in  a  variety  of  ways.  Handing  down,  for  example,  the  praises  of 
their  kings  in  mythological  fables,  they  record  them  by  means  of 
the  sculptures.  Of  the  third  kind,  which  uses  enigmas1,  let  this 
be  a  specimen  ;  they  likened  the  other  heavenly  bodies  to  serpents, 
on  account  of  their  oblique  course,  but  the  sun  to  a  beetle,  because 
having  made  a  round  ball  of  cow-dung  he  rolls  it  with  a  retro- 
grade movement." 

When  we  come  to  relate  the  history  of  the  discovery  of  hiero- 
glyphics, we  shall  find  that  every  part  of  the  system  is  described 
by  Clemens,  and  may  wonder  that  his  words  had  not  served  as  a 
guide  to  the  truth.  They  are,  however,  a  little  ambiguous,  and 
their  meaning  was  rendered  more  perplexed  by  the  preconceived 
opinions  with  which  learned  men  translated  and  expounded  them. 
They  are  ambiguous,  inasmuch  as  Clemens  seems  to  make  the 
hieratic,  which  is  only  a  running-hand  of  hieroglyphics,  a  distinct 
species,  and  thus  led  his  commentators  to  seek  for  some  essential 
difference  where  none  existed.  Even  the  expression  Jia  <rwv  <7rpw<rwv 
(Ttoj^si'wv,  "  by  means  of  letters3,"  which  is  now  so  clearly  seen  to 
mean  an  alphabet,  was  variously  interpreted.  Again,  we  com- 
monly use  the  word  symbolic  as  equivalent  to  emblematic,  and 
understand  by  it  something  which  does  not  represent  things 
directly,  but  by  allusion  and  analogy  ;  whereas  Clemens  includes 
under  it  the  making  pictures  of  objects  to  represent  those  objects, 
as  well  as  to  suggest  certain  analogous  qualities  to  the  mind, 
which  he  afterwards  distinguishes  as  the  tropical  use.  The  confu- 
sion was  increased  by  the  endeavor  to  harmonize  with  this  passage 
another  in  Porphyry's  4  Life  of  Pythagoras8,'  in  which  he  says  that 

1  Plutarch,  U.  S.  Ov  Si  aivtyyaiv  oiSi  avfi^oXiKus,  d\\a  Kvpiois  dvSjxafft, 

'  Not  initial  letters,  but  simply  letters,  the  prima  elemcnta  of  the  Roman* 
Bee  Lepsius,  Lettre  a  Eosellini,  p.  44.    Hor.  Sat.  1,  26. 
■  Vit  Pyth.  a  11,  12. 


CLEMENS  ALEXANDRINUS. 


247 


there  were  three  modes  of  writing  among  the  Egyptians — the 
epistolographic,  the  hieroglyphic,  and  the  symbolic ;  thus  making 
the  two  last  distinct  species,  and  the  hieroglyphic  direct  in  its  mode 
of  expression1.  The  consequence  was,  that  those  who  after  the 
revival  of  archaeological  studies  engaged  in  the  problem  of  inter- 
preting hieroglyphics,  attached  themselves  generally  to  the  dis- 
covery of  the  symbolical  and  enigmatical  characters  ;  and  as 
Horapollo  was  their  guide,  they  necessarily  went  astray.  This 
accorded  with  the  view  generally  adopted,  that  hieroglyphics  were 
devised  by  the  priests  to  conceal  their  mystical  doctrines*.  War- 
burton,  the  most  sagacious  of  them,  abandoned  the  notion  of  an 
occult  character  and  recognised  the  existence  of  an  alphabet ;  but 
he  confined  it  to  the  epistolographic  and  hierogrammatic,  expressly 
excluding  the  hieroglyphic3.  Zoega,  in  many  respects  so  merito- 
rious, entirely  misapprehended  the  meaning  of  <rpo3ra  (froi^sTa  in 
the  passage  of  Clemens,  and  rejected  the  opinion  of  De  Guignes, 
who  thought  he  had  perceived  alphabetical  characters  among  the 
hieroglyphics4.  Indeed  it  was  scarcely  possible  that  any  sagacity 
should  have  discovered  from  the  words  of  Clemens  the  real  fact 
that  the  alphabetical,  the  direct  symbolical  and  the  tropical  were 
not  three  distinct  systems,  used  by  different  classes  of  men  and 
kept  separate,  but  only  three  different  modes,  all  of  which  might 
be  employed  jointly  in  the  expression  of  a  single  sentence6. 

1  'K.oivoXoyovjitvwv  Kara  pipricm/,  where  koivos  is  equivalent  to  xvpios  in  Clemens. 

*  The  Christian  Fathers  inculcated  this  view  of  hieroglyphics.  See  St 
Cyril,  quoted  by  -Zoega,  p.  23. 

s  Divine  Legation,  B.  4,  sect  4,  v.  2,  p.  97. 

*  Deguignius,  dum  in  monumentis  Egyptiis  inter  hieroglyphicas  notas 
invenisse  sibi  visus  est  characteras  aliquos  alphabeticis  similiores  quara 
imitativis,  opinioni  indulsit  nullo  idopeo  argumento  firmatee,  p.  441.  De 
Guignes'  paper  is  in  the  Mem.  de  l'Ac.  des  Insc  34,  8. 

6  The  signification  of  the  tau  or  crux  ansata  (PL  iii.  b.  3)  as  Life,  had 
been  preserved  in  consequence  of  its  resemblance  to  the  cross.  Sozomen 
Hist  Ecci  7,  15)  relates  that  when  the  Serapeion  of  Alexandria  wm 


248 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


Probably  we  should  have  had  to  the  present  day  only  a  similar 
■uccession  of  hypotheses,  but  for  an  event  connected  with  the 
French  Expedition  to  Egypt  in  1798.  A  French  engineer,  in  dig- 
ging the  foundation  of  a  fort  near  the  Rosetta  mouth  of  the  Nile, 
found  a  stele  or  tablet  of  basalt,  on  which  was  an  inscription  in 
three  different  characters.  One  of  these  being  Greek,  it  was  soon 
ascertained  that  the  purpose  of  its  erection  was  to  acknowledge,  on 
the  part  of  the  high-priests,  prophets,  and  other  sacred  function- 
aries assembled  at  Memphis  in  the  year  196  b.  c,  at  the  coronation 
of  Ptolemy  Epiphanes,  the  services  rendered  to  the  sacerdotal  order 
and  to  Egypt  generally  by  the  young  king,  and  to  decree  him  cer- 
tain honors.  The  Greek  contains  a  command  that  the  decree 
should  be  inscribed  "  in  the  sacred  letters,  and  letters  of  the  coun- 
try and  Greek  letters1 ;"  and  it  was  obvious  from  the  inspection  of 
the  characters  that  the  first  are  what  we  call  Hieroglyphic,  and  the 
second  what  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  call  Demotic  or  Demodic* 
and  Clemens  Epistolographic.  It  was  natural  to  conclude  that 
each  of  the  inscriptions  was  substantially  the  same;  and  as  the 
numerals  for  first,  second,  and  third  were  found  in  the  same  rela- 
tive position  at  the  end  of  the  hieroglyphic  and  demotic  as  the  cor- 
responding words  in  the  Greek,  it  became  probable  that  there  was 
even  a  literal  agreement.  Various  attempts  were  accordingly  made 
to  decipher  the  other  two  by  the  aid  of  the  Greek.  They  were 
rendered  difficult,  partly  by  the  circumstance  that  the  hieroglyphic 
portion  is  much  mutilated,  and  partly  by  the  first  inquirers,  Aker- 
blad  and  Young,  directing  their  attention  rather  to  the  demotic 

destroyed  by  the  order  of  Theodosius,  a  hieroglyphics!  character  resembling 
a  cross  was  found  on  some  of  the  stones,  and  explained  by  those  who  under- 
stood such  things,  to  mean  lmpxoP::VTi- 

1  ToF$  re  Upoti  koI  fy^copiois  *ai  'EXAjjf ikoTs  yp&fifiaaiv. 

*  Dr.  Young  and  his  followers  have  adopted  the  name  enclioricd  from  the 
inscription ;  but  demotic  is  more  definite,  as  "letters  of  the  country"  are  here 
evidently  opposed  to  "Greek  letters,"  not  "sacred  letters,** 


DI8C0VERIES   OF  YOUNG. 


249 


than  the  hieroglyphic  part.  The  earliest  publications  of  the  latter, 
in  the  4  Archseologia'  and  1  Museum  Criticum1,'  relate  to  the 
attempts  to  read  the  demotic  into  Coptic.  Having  convinced  him  • 
self  that  the  demotic  was  not  alphabetic,  he  turned  to  the  study  of 
the  hieroglyphic,  and  in  1818  circulated  among  his  friends  a  hiero- 
glyphical  vocabulary  in  which  about  200  characters  were  explained. 
These  were  afterwards  published  in  the  Supplement  to  the  '  Ency- 
clopaedia Britanmca'  in  1819a.  Many  of  his  interpretations  have 
been  confirmed  by  subsequent  inquirers,  as  the  character  for  year, 
month,  and  day,  the  system  of  numeration,  the  hieroglyphic  for 
god,  priest,  land,  shrine,  give,  name,  and  others  ;  in  the  majority  of 
his  conjectures,  however,  he  was  not  successful,  and  especially  in 
those  cases  where  there  is  no  decided  visible  resemblance  between 
the  sign  and  the  thing  signified.  Two  very  important  points, 
however,  were  ascertained  by  him;  that  the  oval  rings  on  the 
Egyptian  monuments  contain  proper  names8,  and  that  female  per- 
sonages, both  human  and  divine,  are  discriminated  from  the  male 
by  the  addition  of  an  egg  and  a  semicircle  (PI.  III.  C.  *7,  8).  At 
the  end  of  his  list  he  gives,  with  a  quaere,  Sounds  ?,  thirteen  hiero- 
glyphical  characters,  to  which  he  assigns  the  values  BIR,  E,  ENE, 
I,  KE  M,  MA,  N,  OLE,  DS,  P,  T,  O.  This  was  the  first  glimpse 
of  the  great  discovery  of  the  phonetic  use  of  hieroglyphical  charac- 
ters, but  Dr.  Young  himself  had  not  a  clear  conception  of  his  own 
discovery.  He  had  arrived  at  the  deciphering  of  the  hieroglyphic 
names  through  the  medium  of  the  demotic,  and  having  convinced 

x  Arch.  18,  61.  May  19,  1814.  Mus.  Crit  vol.  2,  p.  154,  831.  1826.  The 
correspondence  with  De  Sacy  and  Akerblad,  contained  in  this  paper,  is  of 
the  years  1814,  1815.    The  letter  to  the  Archduke  John  of  Austria,  1816. 

•  VoL  4,  Art.  Egypt,  pi.  74-78. 

•  Champollion  and  others  have  represented  this  as  known  from  the  work 
of  Zoega  (Precis,  p.  22).  But  in  both  the  passages  referred  to,  Zoega  speaks 
doubtfully,  and  rather  rejects  than  adopts  the  opinion  that  these  rings  con« 
tain  proper  names    Pp.  874,  475. 

11* 


260 


ANCIENT  EOTPT. 


himself  that  the  demotic  was  not  alphabetical,  he  formed  the  same 
conclusion  respecting  the  hieroglyphic.    The  characters  which  he 
fixed  were  derived  from  the  two  names  Berenice  and  Ptolemneus 
(PI.  II.  C.  1,  2);  and  he  was  confirmed  in  his  opinion  that  they 
represented  things,  and  phonetically  the  names  of  those  things,  by 
the  resemblance  between  the  first  character  in  the  group  Berenice 
and  a  basket,  which  in  Coptic  is  Bir.    This  first  error  threw  him 
wrong  in  his  subsequent  analysis,  for  he  naturally  supposed  the 
second  character,  which  really  represents  R,  to  be  an  E.    The  N 
and  I,  which  are  the  third  and  fourth,  he  interpreted  correctly,  but 
erred  again  in  supposing  the  fifth,  which  is  K,  to  be  redundant* 
and  the  sixth,  which  is  an  S,  to  be  KE\    So  in  the  name  of  Pto- 
lemy he  correctly  ascertained  the  P,  S,  and  T,  but  supposed  the 
M  to  be  MA,  the  L  to  be  OLE,  and  the  0  to  be  superfluous.  It 
may  well  surprise  us,  that  having  ascertained  several  of  these  cha- 
racters to  represent  single  sounds  he  did  not  conclude  them  all  to 
do  so ;  in  other  words,  to  belong  to  an  alphabet  instead  of  being 
pictures  of  things  whose  names  were  used  to  express  the  sounds  of 
proper  names.    The  conclusion,  that  as  several  of  the  characters 
represented  letters,  all  must  do  so,  would  have  been  irresistible  in 
regard  to  our  own  language,  in  which  it  never  happens  that  a 
single  letter  is  itself  a  name ;  but  in  the  Coptic  a  single  letter  is 
frequently  a  word.    How  imperfect  his  discovery  was  appears  evi- 
dent from  the  fact,  that  he  did  not  succeed  in  deciphering  the 
name  of  a  single  ancient  Pharaoh  except  Thothmosis.    Here  it 
happened  that  the  first  syllable  was  not  spelt  alphabetically,  but 
expressed  by  means  of  the  Ibis,  the  bird  consecrated  to  Thoth  (PI. 
H.  C.  9).    In  all  the  rest  he  failed  entirely.    Thus  the  name  of 
Psammitichus  (6)  he  read  Sesostris ;  that  of  Sesortasen,  Heron ; 
that  of  Amenoph  (8),  Tithous.    An  accident  prevented  him  from 
availing  himself  of  a  monument  which  would  have  shown  him  that 
1  This  last  letter  is  not  found  in  some  of  the  shields  of  Berenice,  and  is  not 
in  that  copied  in  the  Plate. 


DISCOVERIES  OF  CHAMPOLLION. 


251 


the  phonetic  characters  were  a  real  alphabet.  An  obelisk  had  been 
found  in  the  Isle  of  Philae  and  transported  to  London  by  Mr.  W. 
J.  Bankes,  on  which  Ptolemy  appears  written  precisely  as  on  the 
Rosetta  stone,  and  also  another  royal  name.  Now  the  Greek 
inscription  on  the  base1  mentions,  along  with  Ptolemy,  Cleopatra, 
and  it  was  an  obvious  inference  that  the  second  hieroglyphic  name 
was  to  be  read  Cleopatra,  especially  as  it  terminated  with  the  two 
characters  which  Dr.  Young  had  already  assigned  as  the  distinction 
of  the  female  sex.  All  the  letters  which  form  the  name  Cleopatra 
occur  either  in  Ptolemy  or  Berenice,  and  if  the  same  characters 
were  again  found  in  their  proper  places  in  this  new  combination, 
the  evidence  of  their  true  nature  would  be  conclusive.  Unfortu- 
nately, by  an  error  in  the  lithographed  copy  of  the  hieroglyphics 
on  the  obelisk,  the  first  letter  of  the  name  of  Cleopatra  was  ex- 
pressed by  a  T  instead  of  a  K,  and  Dr.  Young  too  hastily  allowing 
himself  to  be  discouraged  by  this  circumstance3,  a  more  recent 
laborer  in  the  same  field  carried  off  the  larger  share  of  the  honor 
of  the  discovery. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Champollion,  who  did  not  publish 
his  Lettre  a  M.  Dacier  till  1822,  had  seen  the  Hieroglyphical  Voca- 
bulary of  Dr.  Young,  or  that  he  had  derived  from  it  the  idea, 
unknown  to  him  before,  of  a  phonetic  value  in  the  hieroglyphical 
characters  enclosed  in  the  oval  shields.  But  he  saw  more  than 
young  himself ;  he  saw  that  instead  of  representing  words  they 
represented  letters,  and,  aided  by  a  suggestion  of  Letronne,  he 
brought  this  to  the  test,  by  means'  of  the  obelisk  of  Philae,  whose 
evidence  had  escaped  from  Young.  The  combination  of  this  with 
the  Rosetta  stone  gave  him  an  alphabet  of  fifteen  letters,  and  the 
evidence  of  their  sound  was  increased  by  a  comparison  with  the 
name  of  Alexander  (ALKSNTRS),  found  with  a  Greek  inscription 

1  Letronne,  Recherches  pour  aervir  a  l'histoire  de  l'Egypte,  p.  297-303* 
Lep8ius,  Denkmaler,  taf.  xvii. 

•  Discoveries  in  Hieroglyphical  Literature,  p.  49. 


252 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


at  Karnak  (PI.  II.  4).  The  rapidity  with  which  he  proceeded 
to  read  names  occurring  on  monuments  of  the  Ptolemaic  and 
Roman  times,  showed  that  the  true  key  was  in  his  hands ;  the 
buildings  on  which  they  were  found  had  generally  Greek  inscrip- 
tions, fixing  the  reigns  in  which  they  were  erected.  Ascending  to 
the  times  of  the  Persian  conquest  and  the  Pharaohs,  who  lived 
before  it,  and  applying  the  same  alphabet,  which  he  had  derived 
from  the  Ptolemaic  and  Roman  inscriptions,  he  was  soon  able  to 
read  the  names  of  Cambyses  (Kenbot)  (5),  Psammitichus  (6), 
Tacelothis,  Osorchon,  Amunmei-Sheshonk  (7),  Amenophis  (Ame- 
notp)  (8),  Thothmes1  (9),  Amunmei-Rameses  (11),  Cheops  (Shou- 
fou)  (10),  and  others,  known,  either  from  the  classical  historians 
or  from  Manetho,  as  ancient  sovereigns  of  Egypt.  Nor  was  this 
the  limit  of  his  discovery.  He  soon  ascertained  that  parts  of  the 
nieroglyphical  inscriptions  which  are  not  included  in  the  oval 
shields,  could  be  resolved  by  the  same  phonetic  alphabet  into  words 
of  the  Coptic  language,  and  that  this  use  extended  backwards  to 
the  very  earliest  ages  of  the  monarchy.  In  the  dispute  which 
arose  respecting  their  respective  shares  in  this  great  discovery, 
neither  Young  nor  Champollion  showed  himself  perfectly  candid. 
Young  did  not  acknowledge  distinctly  the  imperfection  of  his  own 
analysis,  and  the  important  difference  in  principle  between  his 
method  and  Champollion's.  Champollion  on  the  other  hand  con- 
cealed the  fact,  that  he  had  derived  from  the  works  of  Young  the 
first  idea  of  a  phonetic  use  of  the  hieroglyphics.  The  discovery  of 
Young,  however,  in  the  state  in  which  he  left  it,  would  have  been 
productive  of  little  benefit;  as  amended  by  Champollion,  it  has 
unlocked  the  long-closed  chambers  of  Egyptian  archaeology. 

When  we  analyse  a  hieroglyphical  inscription,  we  find  that  its 
characters  are  used  in  three  different  ways.  First,  that  which 
Champollion  calls  the  figurative^  but  which  we  prefer  to  call  the 

1  Two  of  the  characters  in  the  shield  of  Thothmes,  the  guitar  and  the 
beetle,  are  not  phonetic. 


PICTORIAL  HIEROGLYPHICS. 


255 


pictorial,  since  figurative  in  English  has  the  meaning  of  tropical  or 
symbolical.  In  this  case  the  delineation  of  an  object  is  designed  to 
convey  to  the  mind  the  idea  of  that  object  and  nothing  more ;  and 
were  the  whole  inscription  made  up  of  such  delineations,  it  would 
be  a  picture-writing  like  that  of  the  Mexicans.  It  is  one  of  the 
circumstances  in  the  description  of  Clemens,  which  prevented  the 
nature  of  Egyptian  writing  from  being  understood,  that  he 
includes  this  in  the  general  appellation  of  symbolical,  as  in  the 
case  of  a  disk  for  the  sun  and  a  crescent  for  the  moon,  distinguish- 
ing it  as  "  that  kind  of  the  symbolical  which  produces  its  effect 
directly  by  imitation."  This  pictorial  representation  sometimes 
stands  instead  of  a  phonetic  name  for  the  object ;  but  the  most 
common  use  is  to  make  the  phonetic  group  of  characters  more 
intelligible,  by  being  subjoined  to  them.  Thus  to  the  names  of 
individuals  the  figure  of  a  man  is  subjoined;  to  the  characters 
which  express  the  words  for  name,  wine,  eagle,  grapes,  egg,  statue, 
ear,  wall,  ass,  milk,  and  others  (PI.  III.  A.),  figures  are  added, 
forming  what  Champollion  calls  the  determinative  of  that  group  of 
characters.  To  ran,  name,  is  subjoined  the  shield  or  ring  in  which 
proper  names  are  commonly  enclosed  ;  to  erp,  wine,  two  jars,  &cS 
In  a  similar  way  a  man  dancing  is  subjoined  to  the  verb  signifying 
that  act ;  a  woman  on  her  knees  with  a  child,  to  the  verb  signify- 
ing to  nourish  or  bring  up ;  a  man  erect  with  outstretched  hand, 
to  the  verb  which  signifies  to  call  upon2.  Sometimes  the  figure  is 
only  partially  given,  the  head  or  the  limbs  being  substituted  for 
the  whole  body.  This  mode  of  fixing  the  sense  of  a  particular 
group  of  characters  was  especially  convenient  in  a  system  of  writ- 
ing, which  did  not  mark  either  by  points  or  intervals  the  com' 
mencement  of  one  word  and  the  termination  of  another. 

1  Lepsius,  Lettre  a  M.  Rosellini,  pL  A. 

•  The  determinative  was  sometimes  fixed  by  the  sound  rather  than  the 
•ense.  Thus  a  spindle  was  used  as  the  determinative  of  singing,  hos  in 
Coptic  signifying  both  a  spindle  and  to  sing.  See  Dr.  R  Hincks,  Tr.  of  R. 
I.  Academy,  v.  21,  P.  2.\ 


254 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


The  second  use  of  the  hieroglyphical  writing  is  the  symbolical^ 
in  which  the  object  delineated  is  not  meant  to  convey  to  the  mind 
simply  the  idea  of  itself,  but  of  something  associated  with  and  sug- 
gested by  it.  Thus  a  crescent  is  used  to  denote  a  month  (PI.  I.), 
because  no  doubt,  originally  the  Egyptian  month  was  lunar ;  the 
palm  to  denote  a  year,  because  (it  is  said)  the  tree  puts  forth  a 
branch  every  month1;  the  vulpanser  or  goose  of  the  Nile,  a  son, 
because  the  bird  is  remarkable  for  its  filial  affection2 ;  the  bee,  a 
people  obedient  to  their  king3 ;  the  vulture,  maternity  (PI.  III. 
B.  5) ;  the  bull,  strength,  or  a  husband  ;  a  stretched-out  hand,  the 
action  of  giving  (PI.  IV.  F.) ;  two  legs,  verbs  of  motion ;  a  hand 
holding  a  club,  force ;  an  ostrich-feather,  truth,  from  the  equality 
of  all  the  filaments ;  a  lotus,  Upper  Egypt ;  a  head  of  papyrus, 
Lower  Egypt — as  their  characteristic  productions  (PI.  III.  D.  5) ; 
the  conical  cap,  Upper  Egypt ;  the  exterior  diadem,  Lower  Egypt, 
as  the  insignia  of  their  respective  sovereignties  (PI.  III.  D.  4),  the 
character  for  land,  four  roads  crossing,  being  subjoined  to  each ;  a 
writing-case,  a  scribe  (ib.  B.  7) ;  a  palace  (D.  8)  is  represented  by 
a  rectangular  enclosure,  with  a  large  court  and  pylon ;  a  temple, 
by  a  similar  enclosure,  with  a  sacrificial  hatchet,  the  symbol  of  a 
god  (7);  a  priest  (B.  6),  by  a  figure  with  uplifted  hands  and  a 
vessel  of  libation.  These  are  instances  of  obvious  and  simple  asso- 
ciation ;  in  other  cases  the  reference  is  more  obscure.  We  do  not 
know  the  reason  why  life  was  represented  by  the  crux  ansata  (III. 
B.  3),  or  worlds  by  two  parallel  lines  (ib.  2),  or  wife  by  a  figure 
resembling  a  shield  (ib.  4).  We  may  conjecture  that  the  crux  is 
a  key,  which  gives  entrance  into  life ;  that  the  parallel  lines  denote 
unlimited  extension ;  but  we  can  offer  no  proof  that  this  was  the 
origin  of  their  application.   The  meaning,  however,  is  not  doubtful. 

Of  that  more  deep  and  far-fetched  symbolism,  which  constituted 

1  Horapollo,  L  3.    See  PI.  III.  D.  T. 
1  Horapollo,  i.  53.    See  PI.  III.  B.  L 

•  Horapollo,  i,  62.  See  the  character  which  precedes  the  shield  of  Plol* 
my  (PI.  IV.  No.  4),  in  the  copy  from  the  RoseUa  Stone, 


PHONETIC  CHARACTERS. 


254 


what  Clemens  calls  the  enigmatical  kind,  modern  research  into  the 
hieroglyphics  has  revealed  very  little.  The  examples  which  he 
himself  gives,  the  representation  of  the  course  of  the  stars,  by  a 
serpent,  and  of  the  sun  by  a  scarabaius1,  are  not  confirmed  by  the 
monuments.  Plutarch2  tells  us  that  on  the  piDpylon  of  the  temple 
at  Sais  were  inscribed,  a  child  and  an  old  man,  a  hawk,  a  fish  and 
a  hippopotamus ;  that  the  hawk  denoted  a  god,  the  fish,  hatred, 
and  the  hippopotamus,  impudence ;  and  that  the  whole  together 
was  to  be  read,  "  Ye  who  are  being  born  and  ye  who  are  about  to 
die,  the  god  hates  impudence."  Such  a  condensation  of  symbolical 
meaning  would  approach  the  enigmatical,  and  we  cannot  pronounce 
that  the  Egyptians  never  expressed  themselves  in  this  way ;  but 
we  do  not  find  examples  of  it  in  their  monuments,  and  it  is  very 
foreign  to  the  character  of  the  hieroglyphical  writing.  As  far  as 
it  has  been  hitherto  explained,  there  are  in  it  very  few  symbols  for 
the  expression  of  abstract  conceptions  and  propositions  connected 
with  them  by  material  objects.  We  may  turn  page  after  page  of 
Champollion's  Dictionary  of  Hieroglyphics,  and  find  no  signs  but 
such  as  are  pictorial  or  phonetic. 

The  last-mentioned  class,  the  phonetic  (the  first  in  the  enumera- 
tion of  Clemens)  is  really  by  far  the  most  extensive.  The  greater 
part  of  the  characters  of  which  a  hieroglyphical  inscription  is  made 
up  are  as  truly  letters,  as  if  it  were  Greek  or  English ;  and  as  dis- 
covery has  extended  itself,  signs  supposed  to  be  symbolical  have 
shown  themselves  to  be  phonetic3.    There  are,  however,  two  cir- 

1  It  seems  rather  to  denote  the  world  (Champ.  Lex.  No.  174). 

1  Op.  2,  p.  363.    Compared  with  Clem.  Alex.  Stromat  5,  7. 

*  For  example,  the  vulpanser  (PI.  III.  B.  1)  has  been  explained  before 
symbolically  to  denote  son;  but  it  is  perhaps  the  letter  S,  representing  the 
Coptic  Se,  a  son.-  The  branch  (ib.  4,  5)  appears  not  to  be  a  symbol  of 
royalty,  but  the  first  letter,  S,  of  an  old  Egyptian  (not  Coptic)  word,  Suten, 
king.  The  first  character  in  the  group  for  Egypt  (III.  D.  6)  was  supposed 
to  represent  a  crocodile's  tail,  and  as  this  denoted  darkness  (Horap.  1,  70), 


253 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


cumstances  which  distinguish  the  Egyptian  writing  from  that  of 
other  nations.  One  is  that  in  other  alphabets  the  characters  appro- 
priated to  express  vocal  sounds  appear  to  have  no  resemblance  to 
any  material  objects,  but  to  be  arbitrarily  or  conventionally  allotted. 
It  is  true  that  in  the  Hebrew  the  names  of  the  letters  are  significant, 
Aleplt  meaning  an  ox,  Beth  a  house,  and  so  on ;  and  an  ingenious 
attempt  has  been  made1  to  show  that  the  earliest  form  of  Aleph 
resembled  the  head  of  an  ox,  of  Beth  the  gable  of  a  house ;  but  it  is 
only  by  great  exercise  of  the  fancy  that  such  an  opinion  can  be  ren- 
dered plausible  throughout.  In  the  hieroglyphical  writing  the 
majority  of  the  characters  are  pictures  of  well-known  objects,  and  the 
few  which  have  no  obvious  archetype,  as  the  most  common  forms  of 
S,  P,  M,  and  T,  may  be  concluded  from  analogy  to  have  had  the 
same  origin.  Dr.  Young  supposed  the  transition  from  the  pictorial 
to  the  phonetic  use  to  have  taken  place,  by  the  adoption  of  the  pic- 
ture of  the  object  as  an  exponent  of  the  sound  of  its  name ;  a  basket 
(Bir),  for  example,  to  denote  the  syllable  Ber  in  Berenice,  the  oval 
shield  being  used  to  show  that  the  image  of  the  basket  was  meant 
in  this  case  to  suggest,  not  the  object  itself  or  its  uses,  but  the  sound 
of  its  name.  Syllabic  characters,  however,  are  the  exception,  not  the 
rule,  in  Egyptian  writing.  Champollion  showed  that  the  characters 
represented  letters,  not  syllables,  and  were  phonetically  used  with- 
out, as  well  as  with,  the  oval  shields.  According  to  him,  when  the 
Egyptians  wished  to  represent  a  sound,  they  took  for  its  exponent  the 
picture  of  some  object,  whose  name  in  the  spoken  language  began 
with  that  sound.  It  was  even  thought  that  Clemens,  when  he 
described  the  first  method  as  imitating  by  means  of  the  first 
elements,  meant  by  this  initial  letters3.    There  are,  certainly,  some 

and  the  native  name  of  Egypt,  Chemi,  signified  black,  it-  was  supposed  to  be 
a  symbol  of  Egypt  It  is  now  considered  to  be  the  letter  Ch,  joined  with 
the  letter  Mt  to  spell  Chem.    Many  similar  instances  might  be  given. 

1  Hug  iiber  die  Erfindung  der  Buchstabenschrift.    Ulm,  180L 

"  See  p.  246  of  this  volume. 


PHONETIC  CHARACTERS. 


257 


remarkable  coincidences  between  the  characters  and  the  first  letters 
of  the  Coptic  names  of  the  objects  which  those  characters  represent 
Thus  an  eagle  stands  for  A,  and  its  Coptic  name  is  Ahom  ;  a  leaf 
of  an  aquatic  plant,  Coptic  Achi,  stands  for  the  same  letter ;  a  lion 
for  L,  Coptic  Labo  ;  an  owl  for  M,  Moulad  ;  a  knotted  cord  for  H, 
Hake,  and  some  others.  This  may  have  been  the  cause  of  the 
appropriation,  but  it  cannot  be  carried  through  the  whole  of  the 
phonetic  alphabet.  The  Coptic  language,  as"  known  to  us,  affords 
no  reason  why  A  should  also  be  denoted  by  an  arm,  OU  by  a 
chicken,  B  by  a  leg,  or  K  by  a  patera.  While  the  evidence 
remains  thus  imperfect,  we  can  only  say  that  this  is  an  easy  way  of 
accounting  for  the  transition  from  the  pictorial  to  the  phonetic  use. 

The  second  peculiarity  which  distinguishes  the  Egyptian  alpha- 
bet from  those  with  which  we  were  previously  acquainted  is,  that 
in  them  one  form  is  appropriated  to  the  expression  of  one  vocal 
sound,  whereas  in  Egyptian  writing,  most  of  the  elementary 
sounds  have  more  than  one  sign.  These  equivalents  have  been 
called  homophones  by  Champollion,  and  they  were  the  cause  of 
considerable  embarrassment  in  the  early  stages  of  the  discovery. 
Were  the  origin  above  assigned  to  the  phonetic  use  correct,  it  is 
evident  that  any  object  might  be  used  to  denote  a  letter,  whose 
name  began  with  that  letter,  and  the  latitude  in  the  use  of  homo- 
phones would  be  boundless.  But  in  fact  their  use  is  much  more 
restricted.  We  have  first  to  strike  off  a  considerable  number  of 
characters  never  used  phonetically  in  writing  the  names  of  the 
ancient  Pharaohs.  Again,  in  many  instances,  as  was  first  pointtd 
out  by  Lepsius,  a  character  which  in  the  symbolical  writing  s*ood 
by  itself  for  a  whole  word,  is  used  phonetically  for  the  initial  latter 
of  that  word,  but  in  no  other  combination.  Thus  the  sacrificial 
axe  stood  symbolically  for  a  g?d,  in  Coptic  Nouter ;  and  when 
this  word  is  phonetically  written,  the  axe  stands  for  the  firsi  letter 
N  ;  but  never  elsewhere.  So  life  was  represented  symbolically  by 
the  crux  ansata  or  tau ;  and  in  writing  the  word  oncA,  which  is 


258 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


Coptic  for  life,  this  character  stands  for  0,  but  in  no  other.  It 
was  a  rule  to  write  particular  combinations  of  sounds  with  certain 
letters  only ;  A,  M  and  N  had  each  several  homophones,  but  in 
the  name  of  the  god  AMuN  (PI.  III.  C.  1),  nnly  one  form  of  the 
three  letters  is  ever  found.  In  the  word  Men,  "  established,"  M  is 
always  written  with  the  crenellated  parallelogram  (PI.  II.),  which 
is  never  used  in  Mai,  "  beloved."  Where  no  such  traditional  rule 
prevailed,  the  choice  of  the  homophone  appears  to  have  been  deter- 
mined by  symmetry,  some  forms  grouping  best  together.  The  list 
of  132  homophones  has  been  reduced  by  Lepsius  to  34  of  general 
use1.  They  represent  fifteen  sounds ;  the  vowels  A  and  E  ;  I,  and 
the  diphthongs  AI  and  EI ;  0,  and  the  diphthong  00  ;  the  conso- 
nants B,  K,  T  (which  is  not  distinguished  from  D),  R  and  L,  which 
were  one  letter  in  Egyptian  pronunciation  and  writing3,  M,  N,  P, 
S  and  SH,  and  three  aspirates,  F,  CH,  and  H.  Of  these,  B, 
P  and  F  in  the  general  phonetic  alphabet  have  only  one  sign  ;  O, 
K,  R,  S,  SH,  CH,  H,  two  ;  A  and  N  three,  T  and  M  four.  The 
difficulty  of  mere  reading  according  to  such  an  alphabet  is  not 
great,  even  when  we  include  the  signs  which  are  phonetic  only  in 
certain  combinations.  The  vowels  were  seldom  written,  by  the 
Egyptians  themselves,  except  at  the  beginning  and  end  of  words. 

In  every  inscription  of  any  length,  we  find  these  three  modes  of 
writing,  the  pictorial,  the  symbolical  and  the  phonetic,  in  use  toge- 
ther, but  with  a  great  predominance  of  the  phonetic*.  It  is  natu- 
ral to  suppose  that  there  was  a  time  when  the  pictorial  alone  was 
used  ;  that  the  symbolical  was  an  advance  in  the  power  of  abstrac- 
tion, and  that  the  phonetic  was  the  last  stage  of  progress.  We 
may  also  conceive  that  the  phonetic  analysis  began  by  reducing 
words  to  syllables,  before  it  resolved  syllables  into  elementary 

1  See  his  alphabet,  as  given  in  the  Lettre  a  M.  Rosellini,  in  PL  IL  It  if 
copied  in  PL  II.  o.  h.  at  the  end  of  this  volume. 

a  In  the  demotic  character  they  are  always  distinguished. 
See  Note  at  the  end  of  this  Chapter. 


CHINESE  WRITING. 


259 


sounds.  These  things  are  hypothetically  probable,  but  have  nc 
historical  proof.  In  the  oldest  remains  of  Egyptian  wiiting  we 
find  the  same  mixture  of  the  pictorial,  the  symbolical,  and  the 
phonetic  as  in  the  latest.  Other  nations,  however,  exhibit  the  art 
of  writing  in  these  several  stages.  The  Mexican  writing  was  in  the 
main  pictorial ;  but  it  was  also  in  a  slight  degree  symbolical,  a 
tongue  denoting  "  speaking,"  a  foot-print,  "  travelling,"  a  man  sit- 
ting on  the  ground,  "  an  earthquake ;"  it  had  even  the  rudiments 
of  a  phonetic  system,  the  significant  names  of  individuals  or  places 
being  expressed  by  the  objects  which  the  different  parts  signified1. 
The  Chinese  system  of  writing  was  in  its  origin  pictorial ;  we  can 
still  trace,  in  the  oldest  forms  of  the  characters  which  represent 
natural  objects,  the  intention  to  make  a  drawing  of  their  outline. 
But  from  this  point  it  diverged  entirely  from  the  Egyptian.  The 
Chinese  written  character  is  a  vast  system  of  symbols,  so  multi- 
form and  so  ingeniously  applied,  that  by  means  of  it  the  most 
complex  ideas  are  synthetically  represented,  the  most  abstract  con- 
nected with  the  image  of  something  real.  The  Egyptian,  we  have 
seen,  is  symbolical  only  to  a  very  limited  extent.  The  Chinese 
possess  in  their  symbolical  writing  the  means  of  expressing  the 
whole  range  of  their  ideas,  yet  they  used  their  characters  also  to 
express  their  spoken  language ;  but  approached  no  nearer  to  the 
phonetic  use  of  hieroglyphics  than  by  employing  them  for  sylla- 
bles, not  letters3.    This  difference  is  probably  connected  with  the 

1  Prescott's  Mexico,  1,  86. 

3  "  Comme  tout  signe  simple  ou  compose^  a  son  terme  correspondani 
dans  la  langue  parlee,  lequel  lui  tient  lieu  de  prononciation,  il  en  est  un 
certain  nombre  qui  ont  6t4  pris  comme  signes  des  sons  auxquels  ils  r6pon- 
dnient,  abstraction  faite  de  leur  signification  primitive,  et  qu'on  a  joints  eu 
eette  quality  aux  images  pour  former  des  caract£res  mixtes.  L'une  de  leurs 
parties  qui  est  l'image  determine  le  sens  et  fixe  le  genre ;  l'autre  qui  est  un 
groupe  de  traits  devenus  insignifians,  indique  le  son  et  caracterise  l'esp£ce 
Ces  sortes  de  caracteres  sont  moiti6  representatifs  et  moitie  syllabiquos. 
Abel  Remusat^  quoted  by  Champollion,  Precis,  p.  353. 


260 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


difference  in  the  genius  of  the  Chinese  and  Coptic  languages. 
The  Chinese  consists  of  a  very  small  number  (less  than  400)  of 
monosyllabic  sounds,  which  are  capable  of  being  varied-by  intona- 
tion so  as  to  multiply  them  to  1300  ;  but  these  roots  are  never 
inflected  or  incorporated  by  composition.  The  Coptic  may  be 
regarded  as  poor  in  the  number  of  its  roots,  and  inflexible  as 
regards  its  grammar  and  etymology,  if  compared  with  the  Greek 
or  the  Sanscrit;  but  it  admits  the  principle  of  modification 
to  express  the  relations  of  thought,  and  composition  to  express 
complex  ideas.  The  Egyptian  writing,  therefore,  holds  an  inter- 
mediate place  between  a  purely  pictorial  and  symbolical,  and  a 
purely  alphabetical  system.  The  Chinese  have  80,000  characters, 
and  their  number  must  increase  with  every  accession  of  ideas 
the  Egyptians,  according  to  the  enumeration  of  Champollion's 
Dictionary,  1 49 ;  alphabets  have  varied  in  number  from  sixteen  to 
upwards  of  fifty  ;  but  twenty  appear  sufficient  to  the  analysis  of 
vocal  sound.  A  difficulty  adheres  to  the  Egyptian  system  which 
is  not  found  in  either  of  the  others,  from  the  intermixture  of  the 
three  modes;  when  we  find  a  character  which  represents  an 
object,  it  is  in  itself  uncertain  whether  it  stands  pictorially  for  the 
object,  or  symbolically  for  some  property  associated  with  it,  or 
phonetically  for  some  sound  to  the  expression  of  which  it  has  been 
appropriated.  Tim  difficulty  can  only  be  surmounted  by  prac- 
tice. 

In  hieroglyphical  inscriptions  the  characters  are  arranged  either 
in  horizontal  or  in  perpendicular  lines.  In  the  former  case  they 
are  sometimes  to  be  read  from  right  to  left,  and  sometimes  from 
left  to  right,  but  always  beginning  at  the  side  towards  which  the 
heads  of  the  animal  figures  are  turned.  Where  an  inscription  is 
composed  of  a  number  of  perpendicular  columns,  the  same  principle 
prevails ;  the  reading  begins  with  the  column  which  is  outermost 
on  the  side  to  which  the  heads  are  turned.  Rosellini  has  noted  an 
exception  to  this  rule  in  the  case  of  a  long  inscription  at  Medinet 


INTERPRETATION  OF  FIIER0GLYPIIIC8. 


2G1 


Aboo,  in  honor  of  Rameses  IV.,  in  which  the  columns  succeed  each 
other  from  left  to  right,  though  the  figures  are  turned  to  the  right1. 

It  is  important  to  understand  the  nature  of  the  evidence  for  the 
reading  and  interpretation  which  Egyptologists  give  of  hierogly- 
phical  writings.  The  general  values  of  the  phonetic  characters  are  the 
most  firmly  established.  They  are  fixed  by  the  Rosetta  Stone,  the 
obelisk  of  Philse,  the  inscriptions  on  the  Ptolemaic  temples,  and 
the  monuments  of  the  Roman  times,  where  the  same  names  occur 
in  Greek  or  Latin  characters,  the  value  of  which  is  not  doubtful. 
Such  evidence  cannot  of  course  be  furnished  respecting  the  Persian 
times  or  those  of  the  ancient  Pharaohs.  But  a  system  which  pre- 
vailed under  the  Ptolemies  cannot  have  originated  with  them,  and 
no  reason  can  be  imagined  why  the  same  principle  of  interpretation 
should  not  be  applied  to  what  has  all  external  marks  of  identity. 
When  therefore  the  alphabet  which  has  furnished  us  with  the 
names  of  Ptolemy,  Cleopatra,  Alexander,  Caesar  and  Trajan,  gives 
us  also  Kenbot,  Nteriush,  Chshiersh  and  Artesheshes,  in  a  country 
which  we  know  to  have  been  subject  to  Persian  sway,  we  cannot 
hesitate  to  recognise  Cambyses,  Darius,  Xerxes  and  Artaxerxes.  In 
the  line  of  the  old  Pharaohs  we  must  rely  on  the  evidence  acquired 
by  previous  successful  identifications,  and  the  striking  coincidence 
with  the  names  which  Manetho  professed  to  have  derived  from 
monuments  and  records.  A  single  instance  will  serve  to  show  the 
application  of  this  process.  The  colossal  statue  of  the  plain  of 
Thebes,  popularly  known  as  the  vocal  Memnon,  we  are  told  by 
Manetho  was  really  the  king  Amenophis*.  Pausanias  says  the 
Thebans  deny  this  to  be  the  statue  of  Memnon,  and  say  that  it  is  a 
native,  Phamenoph3.    Among  the  inscriptions  of  the  Rom*n  age 

1  Mon.  Stor.  4,  p.  84.  He  mentions  one  or  two  other  instances  of  the 
same  kind,  e.  gr.  a  sarcophagus  of  Rameses  IV.  in  the  Louvre, 

*  'A.fJfSvo}(pii'  nvr6s  eonp  6  Mt/^voji/  tlvai  vofii^opEvos  *al  tpdeyydfxtvog  \(8of,  Dyn, 

18.    The  last  words  are,  perhaps,  not  Manetho's. 

8  Attic.  C.  42.  'AXXn  yap  ov  Mefifova  6pofia$ovoiv  oi  Oij/?h~oi,  <Pii/m-dty3  Si  siv<k 
*t?)V  fyyw(llf.H',  t>v  rniro  t'yrtXflfl  %v. 


262 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


which  cover  the  legs  of  the  statue  is  one  in  which  the  writer  records 
that  lie  has  heard  the  voice  of  Memnon  or  Phamenoph1.  In  the 
usual  oval  ring  on  the  pedestal  of  the  statue  is  a  group  of  charac- 
ters, which  Champollion  by  the  aid  of  his  alphabet,  already  esta- 
blished by  the  evidence  which  I  have  mentioned,  read  Amenothph8. 
Ph  is  the  Coptic  article,  and  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  a  more  con- 
vincing proof  than  this  coincidence  affords  of  the  soundness  of  his 
principle.  The  pronunciation  of  many  names  not  royal  has  been 
ascertained  by  their  transcription  in  Greek.  Among  authorities  of 
this  kind,  the  bilingual  papyrus  of  Leyden8  is  most  remarkable.  It 
is  of  a  late  age,  and  bears  traces  of  having  been  written  after  the 
rise  of  Gnosticism  ;  but  containing  the  transcription  of  some  hun- 
dred names  in  demotic,  hieratic  and  Greek,  it  enables  us  to  ascer- 
tain the  phonetic  value  of  the  characters.  There  must  still  remain 
some  doubt  in  regard  to  characters  which  do  not  occur  in  the  spell- 
ing of  names  whose  pronunciation  is  known  by  their  Greek  or 
Latin  equivalents.  Thus  the  name  which  Champollion  and  others 
after  him  have  read  Osortasen,  on  the  obelisks  of  Heliopolis  and 
the  Fyoum,  is  read  by  Lepsius  and  Bunsen  Sesortasen,  and  no 
decisive  test  can  be  applied  to  settle  the  dispute.  Some  doubt 
hangs  also  over  cases  in  which  a  hieroglyphic  character  may  stand 
for  a  whole  word  or  for  a  letter.  Champollion  attributes  to  the 
ibis  the  sound  of  Thouth  or  Thoth,  the  name  of  the  god  of  whom 
the  ibis  was  the  symbol ;  and  this  is  confirmed  by  the  name  Touth- 
mosis  given  by  Manetho  to  the  king,  whose  name  is  spelt  by  an 
ibis  and  the  letters  M,  S.  In  other  instances  however  it  is  doubtful 
whether  we  are  to  give  the  whole  sound  of  the  name  or  only  that 
of  the  first  letter.  There  is  a  people  frequently  mentioned  in  the 
campaigns  of  the  Egyptian  kings,  in  whose  name  the  figure  of  a 
lion  occurs.    This  is  considered  by  Champollion  to  stand  simply 

1  'ILkXvov  aiSfio-avTOf  lycb  n<5/?Xioj  Ba\/3ivos  <pa>vas  raj  deias  Mt/ivoi/oj  J)  <t>apcio(f>. 

*  Precis,  p.  286.  The  fourth  character  is  called  by  Lepsius  and  Bui* 
sen,  A. 

'  Published  by  Professor  Reuvons. 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HIEROGLYPHICS. 


263 


for  R,  and  he  reads  the  name  Shari ;  while  Rosellini1  makes  it  to 
be  Moui,  one  of  the  Coptic  words  for  lion,  and  reads  the  name 
Sciomui.  The  same  character,  the  lute,  which  in  the  Rosetta 
Stone  appears  to  signify  grace  or  beneficence,  is  supposed  to  stand 
phonetically  for  no/re,  the  Coptic  for  good ;  and  he  has  read 
accordingly  the  shield  of  the  queen  of  Amasis  JSfofre-Are,  and  one 
of  the  Sesortasens  has  received  on  the  same  evidence  the  addition 
of  Nofreftep ;  but  the  phonetic  value  of  this  character  and  others 
in  the  names  assigned  to  royal  or  private  personages  is  still 
doubtful. 

The  pictorial  signs  are  commonly  such  as  to  carry  the  evidence 
of  their  own  meaning  with  them.  It  is  otherwise  with  the  symbol- 
ical characters,  whose  relation  to  the'  ideas  which  they  are  meant 
to  express  is  often  obscure,  and  could  not  have  been  divined  without 
some  direct  evidence.  The  most  decisive  is  that  of  a  bilingual 
inscription ;  but  unfortunately  this  evidence  is  applicable  only  to  a 
very  limited  extent.  The  portion  of  the  Rosetta  Stone  which  con- 
tains the  hieroglyphical  inscription  is  the  most  injured,  nearly  two- 
thirds  being  broken  off,  and  no  other  monument  of  the  same  kind 
has  yet  been  brought  to  light2.  From  the  part  which  exists,  com- 
pared with  the  Greek,  all*  our  real  knowledge  of  the  system  has 
been  derived;  but  even  in  this  the  correspondence  between  the 
hieroglyphic  and  the  Greek  is  by  no  means  so  exact  as  to  furnish 
us  with  the  precise  analysis  of  every  phrase  in  the  former3.  It  is 
probable  that  the  decree  was  originally  composed  in  Greek,  and 
•that  considerable  latitude  was  indulged  in  rendering  it  in  hierogly- 
phics.   Other  means  of  interpretation,  however,  are  not  wanting. 

1  Mon.  St  or.  iii.  2,  20. 

*  A  copy  of  a  part  of  it  has  been  found  at  Philse ;  it  will  probably  be 
iUustrated  by  Lepsius.    See  Bunsen's  Egypt,  p.  594,  Eng. 

'  It  has  been  attempted  by  Salvolini,  probably  from  the  papers  of  Cham- 
pollion,  in  hi3  Analyse  Grammatical  Raisonni'e  de  differentes  Textei 
Egyptiens,  vol.  1,  Par.  1886. 


261 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


The  meaning  of  a  word  or  phrase  may  be  fixed  by  its  connexion 
with  some  visible  representation.  Thus  Amenophis-Memnon  at 
Luxor1  appears  leading  in  his  hand  four  steers  as  an  offering  to 
Aniun,  whose  color  is  respectively  pied,  red,  white  and  black. 
Before  each  is  a  single  character,  and  as  the  animals  differ  in 
nothing  except  color,  it  is  a  reasonable  presumption- that  the  cha- 
racter denotes  the  color.  That  which  is  before  the  white  victim 
is  apparently  an  onion — not  ill-fitted  for  an  emblem  of  this  color. 
It  occurs  again  elsewhere  in  connexion  with  a  character,  which 
from  being  placed  over  offerings  or  tribute  of  gold,  or  men  working 
in  precious  metals,  evidently  means  gold2,  and  the  combination 
"  white  gold,"  i.  e.  silver,  suits  very  well  the  place  in  which  it 
occurs.  Further,  the  inner  conical  part  of  the  pschent,  or  double 
royal  cap,  is  painted  white,  and  we  find  the  same  character  placed 
beside  the  representation  of  it.  The  character  opposite  to  the 
black  steer  is  a  crocodile's  tail,  which  according  to  Ilorapollo8  was 
the  symbol  of  darkness.  It  is  used  in  other  combinations  to  which 
the  idea  of  black  or  dark  suits  well.  The  character  opposite  to  the 
red  steer  is  a  bird,  whose  color  no  doubt  was  red.  It  is  found 
with  the  representation  of  the  lower  part  of  the  psclient,  which  is 
colored  red.  In  the  absence  of  such  ^"'ect  indications,  recourse 
must  be  had  to  the  method  of  decipherers.  Assuming  upon  merely 
presumptive  grounds  a  certain  meaning,  they  try  it  upon  various 
combinations,  and  by  eliminating  successively  what  is  shown  to  be 
false,  arrive  at  last  at  the  true  solution.  The  nature  of  the  hiero- 
glyphic texts  affords  the  means  of  ascertaining  the  sense  of  doubtful 
characters.  They  consist  (the  funeral  papyri  particularly)  very 
much  of  fonr.ulary  phrases;  and  when  in  one  of  these,  the  compo- 
nents of  which  are  well  known,  there  appears  a  variation,  the  pro- 

1  Rosellini,  M.  Reali,  tav.  xli. 

"  It  occurs  also  on  the  Rosetta  Stone,  where  it  is  directed  that  the  atatut 
of  the  king  shall  be  gilded.    Line  8,  in  Birch's  facsimile. 

1  Hierog.  1,  70-     L*<$tj{  >tyo*rfj,  Kpo*o6fX\ov  oipav  faypafohoir.  > 


INTERPRETATION   OF  IIIEROG LYPHICS.  265 

Lability  is  that  the  new  character  is  only  an  equivalent  or  homo 
phone  of  that  whose  place  it  has  taken. 

It  has  been  already  mentioned  Chat  in  many  instances  the  repre- 
sentations of  known  objects  have  groups  of  characters  placed  beside 
them,  which  are  read  by  means  of  the  phonetic  alphabet  into 
words,  which  in  Coptic  denote  those  objects.  The  grammatical 
forms  and  particles  of  the  Coptic  language  aro  also  found,  in  such 
frequent  recurrence,  that  Champollion  has  been  able  to  exhibit 
their  hieroglyphical  equivalents  in  a  systematic  form.  So  little 
doubt  remains  of  the  phonetic  value  of  most  of  the  characters,  that 
it  might  have  been  expected  that  whole  inscriptions  might  be  read 
into  Coptic  and  interpreted  with  certainty  by  the  known  vocabulary 
of  that  language.  This  expectation,  however,  has  not  been  fulfilled. 
Although  Champollion  and  Rosellini  affect  to  write  in  Coptic  cha- 
racters their  translations  from  the  hieroglyphics,  it  is  evident  from 
inspection  of  them  that  a  very  small  portion  corresponds  to  any 
known  Coptic  words.  This  cannot  be  altogether  explained  by  the 
scantiness  of  the  remains  of  this  language ;  for  in  many  cases  where 
it  furnishes  a  word  to  express  an  obvious  idea  or  a  simple  object, 
the  hieroglyphic  is  different.  There  are  indications  of  the  existence 
of  an  old  or  sacred  language,  differing  from  that  which  was  in 
common  use,  and  it  may  be  this,  not  the  vulgar  Coptic,  into  which, 
if  we  were  acquainted  with  it,  the  hieroglyphic  character  should 
be  read.  Manetho,  in  the  passage  quoted  from  him  by  Josephus, 
speaking  of  the  Hyksos  or  Shepherd-kings,  says,  Hyk  in  the  sacred 
language  signifies  king,  and  Sos  a  shepherd,  in  the  common  dialect: 
or  according  to  the  reading  of  another  manuscript  of  Manetho, 
which  Josephus  had  consulted,  Hyk  or  Ak  meant  captive.  Now 
Shos  is  the  Coptic  for  a  shepherd ;  the  old  Egyptian  for  king  is 
Suten,  which  is  often  found  phonetically  written  ;  but  hyk  is  also, 
though  more  rarely,  used  in  the  sense  of  ruler1,  while  it  is  not 
found  in  the  Coptic.    We  cannot  therefore  doubt,  that  in  the  age 

1  ChampolL  Diet  des  Hierog.  p.  325 ;  Lepsius,  Lettre  a  M.  Rosellini,  p.  Tl 

VOL.  I.  12 


2C6 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


of  Manetho  a  distinction  already  existed  between  the  sacred  and 
the  common  dialect.  Indeed  it  was  hardly  possible  that  it  should 
be  otherwise ;  whatever  care  the  priesthood  might  exercise,  in  pre- 
venting the  corruption  of  the  idiom  in  which  their  sacred  books 
were  written,  it  was  out  of  their  power  to  control  those  natural 
causes,  which  introduce  changes  into  the  popular  speech.  Perhaps, 
when  the  study  of  the  hieroglyphic  texts  has  been  more  extended, 
it  may  be  possible  to  recover  from  them  this  lost  language,  and 
thus  give  complete  confirmation  to  the  system  which  has  been 
adopted  for  reading  them,  but  at  present  no  such  work  could  be 
accomplished.  Till  then,  we  cannot  rely  with  entire  confidence  on 
those  interpretations  which  are  not  derived  from  the  Rosetta  Stone, 
or  do  not  correspond  with  the  Coptic,  or  are  not  certified  by  such 
frequency  of  recurrence  as  to  render  their  meaning  indisputable. 
The  theological  and  mystical  nature  of  much  of  the  hieroglyphical 
literature  renders  its  deciphering  particularly  difficult ;  in  ordinary 
cases  no  other  proof  is  required  that  the  process  is  correct,  than 
that  it  furnishes  a  meaning  intelligible  in  itself  and  suitable  to  the 
connexion ;  but  such  a  test  is  not  applicable  to  the  vague  and 
dreamy  contents  of  the  funereal  Ritual,  or  the  legends  which  accom- 
pany the  figures  of  the  gods.  The  hieroglyphics  which  are  found 
with  the  historical  paintings  and  sculptures  have  a  more  definite 
subject,  and  the  uncertainty  of  the  philological  interpretation  is  in 
some  measure  obviated  by  the  distinctness  of  the  scene  exhibited. 
Yet  even  of  these  no  such  connected  rendering  has  been  given,  as 
carries  its  own  evidence  with  it,  and  many  conjectural  meanings 
are  assigned,  which  it  will  require  the  test  of  varied  application  to 
other  passages  to  confirm.  This  view  of  the  present  state  of  our 
knowledge  of  hieroglyphics  will  explain,  why  in  this  work  hardly 
any  use  has  been  made  of  inscriptions  in  expounding  the  theological 
dogmas  of  the  Egyptians,  and  the  sparing  and  cautious  use  which 
will  be  made  of  them  in  the  historical  portion. 

It  is  clear  that  the  hieroglyphic  character  is  the  "sacred  letters  * 


HIERATIC  CHARACTER. 


2G7 


of  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  and  the  Rosetta  inscription,  and  that 
the  enchorial  of  the  latter  is  the  demotic  or  demodic  of  the  two 
former  and  the  ejnstolographic  of  Clemens  Alexandrinus.  The 
hieratic  of  this  Father  is  that  which  appears  in  most  of  the  papyri 
before  the  time  of  the  Saitic  kings,  among  others  the  hieratic  canon 
or  Royal  List,  of  Turin.  We  find  also  in  the  older  papyri  linear 
hieroglyphics1,  in  which  the  figures,  instead  of  being  fully  drawn 
and  filled  up  as  in  painting  or  sculpture,  have  only  their  outlines 
traced  with  a  pen.  These  linear  hieroglyphics  are  always  disposed 
in  vertical  columns,  as  on  the  obelisks.  The  inspection  of  the 
hieratic  characters  would  at  first  sight  lead  to  the  supposition  that 
they  were  entirely  distinct  from  hieroglyphics ;  they  are  always 
written  in  horizontal  lines,  and  appear  arbitrary  in  their  forms.  A 
closer  examination  and  comparison,  however,  shows  that  they  are 
really  derived  from  the  hieroglyphics,  with  such  changes  as  were 
necessary  to  adapt  their  stiff  and  angular  forms  to  rapid  writing. 
This  will  be  evident  in  comparing,  group  by  group,  the  fac-simile 
of  a  portion  of  the  Rosetta  Stone,  given  in  PI.  IV.,  with  the  hie- 
ratical  transcription  placed  below  it.  In  the  arrangement  of  the 
hieratic  characters,  following  consecutively  in  horizontal  lines,  the 
order  of  pronunciation  is  more  exactly  observed  than  in  the  hiero- 
glyphics, which  are  sometimes  disposed  with  a  view  to  symmetry. 
The  phonetic  use  predominates  more  than-  in  the  pure  hiero- 
glyphics, some  of  the  factorial  and  symbolical  characters  being- 
dropped,  as  too  cumbersome  for  writing'.  The  hieratic  character 
was  not  exclusively  devoted  to  such  purposes  as  we  should  call 
sacred,  *.  e.  religious  rituals  and  treatises,  but  derived  its  name 
from  being  used  for  sacerdotal  purposes,  such  as  the  keeping  of 
the  temple  accounts,  genealogical  registers,  and  the  copying  of 

1  An  example  of  linear  hieroglyphics  may  be  seen  in  the  publication  ol 
the  Egyptian  Society,  Lond.  182&,  though  there  called  erroneously  "a  Ivie 
ratic  MS.  of  Lord  Mountnorris."    (PL  1-6.) 

*  Lepsius,  Lettre  a  M.  Rosellini,  p.  70. 


V 


268  ANCIENT  EGYPT. 

portions  of  the  gre^t  funereal  Ritual,  in  cases  where  a  hiera 

glyphical  manuscript  would  have  been  toe  expensive.  The  oldest 
extant  specimen  of  this  writing  is  a  fragment  pasted  into  the  inte- 
rior of  the  wooden  coffin  of  a  king  called  Nantef,  belonging  to 
some  dynasty  of  the  Old  Monarchy.  It  differs  in  no  important 
respect  from  that  of  the  papyri  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty1. 

The  demotic  character  appears  from  existing  remains  to  have 
been  chiefly  used  in  contracts  and  judicial  pieces ;  its  employment 
on  the  Rosetta  Stone  is  a  proof,  that  among  the  mixed  population 
of  Egypt  under  the  Ptolemies,  the  knowledge  both  of  the  hiero- 
glyphic and  the  hieratic  had  become  more  than  ever  confined  to 
the  priests  ;  what  was  to  be  generally  understood  must  be  in  Greek 
or  demotic.  According  to  Lepsius,  it  exhibits  not  only  the  vulgar 
character,  but  the  vulgar  idiom.  But  the  analysis  which  has 
hitherto  been  made  of  the  documents  in  this  character,  notwith- 
standing the  advantage  of  a  Greek  translation  of  some  of  the 
papyri,  as  well  as  the  Rosetta  Stone,  has  not  been  sufficiently  com- 
plete to  allow  of  our  asserting  this  with  confidence.  It  is  evident, 
however,  that  the  character  has  been  derived  from  the  hieratic,  as 
that  from  the  hieroglyphic,  by  the  necessity  cf  adaptation  to  still 
more  rapid  writing ;  that  pictorial  and  symbolical  characters  are 
more  rare,  though  not  entirely  banished,  and  that  the  language 
which  it  represents  approaches  more  nearly  to  the  Coptic. 

In  the  passage  already  quoted,  Clemens  says  that  the  Egyptians 
record  the  praises  of  their  kings  "  by  means  of  anaglyphs,"  and  hence 
a  particular  kind  of  writing  has  been  created,  called  by  Champollion2 
anaglyphic.  But "  anaglyph  "  means  only  an  engraved  figure  or  cha- 
racter9, and  is  the  appropriate  expression  for  hieroglyphics  considered 
with  reference  to  their  mechanical  execution,  not  their  import 

1  Bunsen,  Egypten's  Stelle,  B.#2,  254 ;  3,  7. 

•  Precis,  p.  848. 

•  Strabo  (17,  p.  806),  speaking  of  the  Egyptian  pylonet,  sayt,  4vyX*fv 

t^ovmv  of  toT%qi  fitya\(av  tt'JwAcov. 


ANAOLTrnS. 


269 


According  to  Champollion,  this  class  was  composed  almost  entirely  of 
symbolical  characters.  "  The  greater  part  of  the  symbolical  images 
indicated  in  the  whole  of  the  first  book  of  Horapollo,  and  in  that 
part  of  the  second  which  seems  the  most  authentic,  are  found  in  the 
painted  or  sculptured  pictures  either  on  the  walls  of  the  temples  and 
palaces  and  tombs,  or  in  the  MSS.,  on  the  bandages  and  coffins  of 
the  mummies,  on  amulets,  &c. — paintings  and  sculptures  which  do 
net  exhibit  scenes  of  public  and  private  life,  nor  religious  ceremo-v 
nies,  but  which  are  extraordinary  compositions,  in  which  fantastic 
beings,  or  it  may  be  real  beings,  having  no  relation  to  each  other 
in  nature,  are  nevertheless  united,  brought  together  and  put  in 
action.  These  purely  allegorical  or  symbolical  bas-reliefs,  which 
abound  on  Egyptian  constructions,  were  specially  designated  by 
the  ancients  under  the  name  of  anaglyphs,  by  which  I  shall  hence- 
forward distinguish  them."  I  am  not  aware  that  any  other  passage 
in  the  ancients  but  that  of  Clemens  even  appears  to  give  the  name 
of  anaglyphs  to  a  distinct  kind  of  hieroglyphical  writing ;  and  how 
far  he  was  from  using  it  in  the  sense  which  Champollion  arbitrarily 
assigns  to  it,  is  evident  from  his  saying  that  in  this  way  the  Egyp- 
tians recorded  the  praises  of  their  kings. 


EXPLANATION  OF  THE  HIEROGLYPHIC4*  IN  PL.  IV. 

The  lowest  compartment  of  this  plate,  which  is  taken  from  Lepsius's  Let- 
tre  a  M.  Rosellini,  contains  a  facsimile  of  a  portion  of  the  Rosetta  Stone, 
with  a  transcription  by  Lepsius  in  the  hieratic  character,  and  the  corre- 
sponding words  of  the  Greek. 

In  the  Group  No.  1,  the  first  character  on  the  right  hand,  called  by 
Champollion  the  Sistrwn,  is  explained  by  him  (Diet  No.  836  ;  Gram.  2,  *75) 
as  K  or  S.  The  Coptic  word  for  set  up  is  Ko  or  Kaa  (Lev.  xxvi.  1) ;  the 
other  characters  are  S  and  A  with  the  legs  determinative  of  verbs  transi- 
tive. Lepsius  reads  the  whole,  Ko-sa ;  Bunsen  and  Birch  (Bunsen's  Egypt, 
voL  1,  p.  595)  /SAa,  taking  the  sistrum  as  an  H.    The  analogy  to  the  Coptic 


270 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


is  doubtful,  but  the  sense  is  clear,  as  the  same  group  occurs  four  times  ie 
the  Rosetta  Inscription  (1,  6,  13,  14  bis),  and  always  in  connexion  with  set- 
ting up  a  tablet  or  a  statue. 

No.  2.  The  first  figure,  a  breast  and  pair  of  hands  holding  a  paddle  or 
rudder,  is  considered  by  Lepsius  as  the  letter  H ;  the  two  next,  N,  T,  appear 
to  be  connected  with  the  Coptic  root  Tntn,  to  be  like,  answering  to  the 
Greek  slicova.  The  fourth  is  the  determinative,  a  royal  statue.  The  crown 
(3)  is  N,  the  sign  of  the  genitive,  and  belongs  to 

No.  4,  the  branch  and  bee,  originally  interpreted,  "King  of  the  obedient 
people,"  from  a  passage  in  Horapollo  (1,  63,  Xadv  npds  0aai\£a  nttQriviov  6n- 
XovvTti  jizKiaaav  guypa^ovot),  and  another  in  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  17,  4, 
"Per  speciem  apis  mella  conficientis  indicant  regem  :  moderatori  cum  jucun- 
ditate  aculeos  quoque  innasci  debere  ostendentes."  The  branch  was  sup- 
posed to  represent  the  plant  from  which  the  honey  was  derived.  Subse- 
quently Champollion  considered  the  two  first  characters  as  phonetic,  S,  T 
for  Suten,  king,  and  the  bee  as  the  determinative  of  the  kingly  office.  Bun- 
sen  (p.  595)  explains  the  bee  or  wasp  as  an  emblem  of  the  Lower  Coun- 
try, and  the  branch  of  the  Upper. 

In  the  shield  No.  5,  the  characters  in  the  first  division  are  the  phonetic 
name  Ptolmais.  The  second,  answering  to  rov  aiuvoftiov  in  the  Greek,  con- 
tains the  crux  ansata,  the  emblem  of  life.  The  two  following  characters  are 
phonetic,  T  T,  which  may,  perhaps,  answer  to  the  Coptic  Tka,  eternity. 
The  straight  line  denotes  the  world,  PI.  IIL  B.  2.  The  fourth  division  con- 
tains, first,  the  phonetic  name  of  the  god  Ptah,  then  the  phonetic  syllable 
Mai,  beloved.    This  epithet  of  the  king  is  not  translated  in  the  Greek. 

No.  6  is  the  sacrificial  hatchet,  the  symbol  of  god.  No  7  contains  the 
letters  H  R,  perhaps  connected  with  Coptic  Bra,  face;  the  legs  expressing 
an  active  quality,  imtyavovi,  "  that  manifests  himself." 

In  No.  8,  the  hemisphere  stands  for  lord  (PI.  III.  B.  2),  and  the  three 
musical  instruments  either  denote  symbolically  the  charm  (^apts,  evxaptarov) 
of  music,  and  hence  goodness,  grace ;  or  the  letter  N,  the  initial  of  No/re, 
Coptic  for  good.  The  triplication  of  the  sign  denotes  the  plural  or  the 
superlative. 

No.  9  contains  the  characters  Ko-out.  The  Coptic  for  dicere  is  Djo,  but 
the  letter  Djandja  is  often  interchanged  with  K;  out  is  the  Coptic  parti 
ciple ;  and  thus  the  whole  would  signify  dictus  (Champ.  Diet.  p.  408).  No 
10  contains  the  shield  which  encloses  names,  here  used  for  ran  (PL  Hi, 
A,  I),  name,  end  the  serpent,  pit,  his  (PL  IV  .E.  4) ;  the  whole  answering  to 


EXPLANATION  OF  HIEROGLYPIIIC8. 


271 


the  Greek  ft  npoaovonatrOriairat.  The  figure  of  a  man  with  the  hand  raised 
towards  the  mouth,  is  the  determinative  of  verbs  relating  to  the  expression 
of  ideas  in  speech  and  writing  (Champ.  Diet.  p.  33).  The  name  of  Ptolemy 
follows  in  the  original,  with  the  epithet,  "who  defends  Egypt" 

The  upper  portion  of  PI.  IV.  exhibits  the  manner  in  which  grammatical 
combinations  and  inflections  were  represented  in  hieroglyphics.  Son  (E.)  is 
in  Coptic  Sere  or  Shere,  or  abbreviated,  Se,  Si ;  it  is  here  expressed  picto- 
rially  by  the  figure  of  a  child.  Substituting  for  this  the  word  Shere,  it  is 
thus  varied  in  combination  with  the  possessive  pronouns,  the  phonetic  cha- 
racters for  which  are  added  to  it.  The  Coptic  prefixes  the  definite  article  P. 
like  the  Greek  6  vldi  fiov,  inserts  a  short  vowel,  and  places  the  possessive 
before  the  noun. 


Hieroglyphic. 
Singular. 
Shere-i,    my  son. 

Shere-k,   thy  son  (male  addressed). 
Shere-t,    thy  son  (female  addressed). 
Shere-ph,  his  son. 
Shere-s,    her  son. 

Plural. 

Shere-n,   our  son  (with  three  strokes, 

the  sign  of  plurality). 
Shere-tn,  your  son. 
Shere-sn,  their  son. 


Coptic. 
Singular. 
P.  A.  Shere.    The  a  is  a  fragment 
of  Anok,  Coptic   for  /.  Heb, 

P-ek-Shere. 
P-et-Shere. 
P-eph-Sherec 
P-es-Shere. 

Plural 

P-en-Shere. 

P-eten-Shere. 
P-ou-Shere. 


The  division  F.  of  the  same  plate  exhibits  the  numbers  and  persons  of  the 
verb  give.  This  in  Coptic  is  T,  connected  with  Tot,  hand.  The  hand 
stretched  out  with  an  offering  may  be  regarded  as  a  symbol  of  the  act  of 
giving ;  bvt  it  is  also  used  phonetically  for  T  and  D.  The  formation  of  th« 
persons  proceeds  thus  in  the  Coptic,  again  prefixing  the  pronouna 

Hieroglyphic.  Coptic 

Singular.  Singular. 

T-ei,          I  give.  Ei-t. 

T-k  or  t,    Thou  givest  K-t 


272 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


He  gives. 
She  gives. 


Coma 

Ph-t 

S-t. 


T-n, 
T-tn 
T-sn, 


Plural. 
We  give. 

Ye  give. 
They  give. 


Tetn-t 
Ou-t  or  Se-t 


Plural 


The  explanations  and  examples  now  given  will  convey  an  idea  of  th€ 
general  principles  of  hieroglyphic  writing.    A  popular  view  of  the  subject, 


with  a  very  full  phonetic  alphabet,  will  be  found  in  Wilkinson's  Mod.  Egypt 
and  Thebes,  vol.  2,  p.  582.  Fuller  information  may  be  sought  in  Cham- 
pollion,  Grammaire  Egyptienne,  Paris,  1836-1841  ;  Dictionnaire  Egyptien, 
Paris,  1841  ;  Bunsen,  Egypt's  Place,  &o.  vol.  1,  496-600,  and  the  valuable 
papers  of  Dr.  Edward  Hincks,  in  Transactions  of  R.  I.  A.  vol.  xxi  The  two 
last-mentioned  writers  have  suggested  modifications  of  the  system  of 
Champollion,  which  it  does  not  belong  to  the  scope  of  the  present  work  to 
examine. 


CHAPTER  XX. 


SCIENCE. 

Neither  physical  nor  mathematical  science  can  \  e  attributed  to 
the  ancient  Egyptians,  in  the  sense  in  which  the  woid  is  dow  under- 
stood, as  implying  that  the  facts  respecting  the  operations  of  nature 
with  which  observation  had  furnished  them,  had  been  generalized 
into  laws,  established  on  demonstration.  They  were  great  obser- 
vers of  all  remarkable  phenomena  under  the  name  of  prodigies,  and 
carefully  noted  all  their  circumstances  and  results ;  but  it  was  for 
the  purpose  of  predicting  similar  results,  if  similar  prodigies  occurred 
again1.  They  were  acquainted  with  certain  relations  of  space  and 
number,  but  neither  their  geometry  nor  their  arithmetic  could  be 
called  a  science,  not  being  deduced  by  reasoning  from  self-evident 
truths*.  Such,  however,  as  Egyptian  science  was,  it  belonged 
exclusively  to  the  priests3.  The  education  of  the  people  generally 
was  nothing  more  than  a  training  in  the  occupation  which  they 
inherited  from  their  parents  or  kinsmen,  to  which  a  slight  tincture 
of  learning  was  added  in  the  case  of  artisans.  The  priests  carefully 
educated  their  own  sons,  who  might  pass  into  the  order  of  soldiers 
or  public  functionaries,  as  well  as  continue  priests,  in  the  knowledge 

'  Her.  2,  82.  Tipara  ttXeo  tr<pt  dvtfipnrai  5)  rolai  aXkoiai  anaoi  dvdpcjnoiirt'  ytvo- 
fitvov  yap  reparof,  <pv\a<T<rov<ri  ypa(p6ftevoi  rwnopaTvov*  Kal  %v  Kort  vartpov  irapair\ft> 
ttov  Tovrto  yevr\Tai  Kara  ruvrd  vofii^ovtri  diro(if]<JSoQai. 

"  Avant  l'6cole  d'Alexandrie  il  n'a  point  exists  chez  les  anciens  peuples 
le  science  proprement  dite."  (Letronne,  Revue  dea  deux  Mondea,  184S, 
p.  B20.) 

•  DiodL  I,  81. 

12* 


274  ANCIENT  EGYPT. 

of  the  hieroglyphical  and  demotic"  character1,  and  in  geometry  and 

arithmetic  and  astronomy.  Geometry  appears  not  to  have  risen 
much  above  the  practical  art  of  land-surveying,  from  which  it 
derived  its  name.  Had  we  more  precise  information  respecting  its 
transmission  from  Egypt  to  Greece,  in  the  seventh  century  before 
Christ,  we  should  be  enabled  to  judge  of  the  progress  which  it  had 
made  in  the  country  of  its  origin.  Pythagoras,  who  was  the  founder 
of  mathematical  science  among  the  Greeks,  had  been  admitted  to 
all  the  secrets  of  the  Egyptian  priests.  He  is  said  to  have  sacrificed 
to  the  Muses,  on  the  discovery  of  the  relation  between  squares  of 
the  sides  which  contain,  and  of  the  side  which  subtends  the  right- 
angle  of  a  right-angled  triangle2.  If  this  relation  and  its  mathe- 
matical proof  were  known  to  the  Egyptians,  they  must  at  least  have 
laid  the  foundations  of  geometrical  science.  According  to  Plato, 
Theuth,  secretary  to  Thamus  king  of  Egypt,  invented  arithmetic 
and  geometry8.  But  this  cannot  be  received  as  an  historical  state- 
ment ;  no  such  name  as  Thamus  appears  in  the  list  of  kings,  and 
Theuth  is  evidently  the  god  Thoth,  the  mythic  source  of  all  know- 
ledge preserved  by  writing.  Another  account  makes  Mceris4  to 
nave  been  the  author  of  geometry,  a  third  Sesostris6,  evidently 

1  Td  <T  oXXo  ir\?idos  twv  A.!yvnr'io)v  Ik  iraiiwv  ytavQavti  irapa  rwv  raripuiv  ?/  avyyt- 
vdv  ra$  ncpt  %Kaorov  0iop  intTTi?iev<J£isy  ypd^fiara  6'  zir'  6\iyov  ovx  anavreg  d\X  ot  raff 

Hxvai  iicTaxEipi^nEvni  fiaXiara.  (Diod.  u.  s.)  Plato  appears  to  allow  a 
greater  amount  of  knowledge  to  the  Egyptian  laity  than  Diodorus — TooiSe 

Tolvvv  kicauTOiv  xpri  <pdvat  fiavBavtiv  6uv  tovs  IXevBepovs  oca  kcli  it  a  fiit  oXv  {  iv  Aiyvrrrb) 
xaiSuv  fyXoj  a/ia  ypafx^aai  n<xv6dv£t  (Leg.  7,  2,  p.  818). 

*  Plut.  de  Repugn.  Stoic.  2,  p.  1089.  Cic.  ST.  D.  3,  86. 

*  Plat  Pha?dr.  iii.  274,  ed.  Steph. 

*  Diog.  Laert.  8,  11.  Tovrov  (TlvQaySpav)  yewftcrpiav  Im  irrpaj  dyayeTv,  Moi- 
pibos  irp&rov  evp6vTog  ras  dp^a?  tojv  otoj^eicjv  avrii$t  wj  tprjatv  'A.vTiic\siSr)s.  Mceris 

was  probably  fixed  upon  from  the  great  engineering  works  attributed  to 
him  in  the  Fyoum.  According  to  Strabo  (17,  788),  the  Roman  Petroniua 
made  Egypt  fertile  with  a  lower  rise  of  the  Nile  than  had  been  ever  known 
before;  so  that  even  in  the  art  of  making  canals,  the  Romans  excelled  the 
Egyptian*  •  Heroi  2,  109. 


ASTRONOMY. 


275 


because  these  sovereigns  engaged  in  undertakings  for  which  a  know- 
ledge of  geometry  was  requisite.  Nothing  remains  in  the  monu- 
ments by  which  we  could  ascertain  the  state  of  the  science  in  early 
times  ;  but  the  belief  of  the  Greeks,  that  Pythagoras,  Thales,  Phere- 
cydes,  Anaxagoras  and  Plato  had  derived  their  knowledge  of 
mathematics  from  Egypt,  would  be  inexplicable  if  this  country  had 
not  long  preceded  their  own  in  its  cultivation.  If  Pythagoras 
learnt  there  the  proposition  which  is  associated  with  his  name,  but 
himself  discovered  the  demonstration,  this  would  be  analogous  to 
the  relation  which  in  other  respects  we  discover1  between  the 
Egyptian  and  the  Grecian  intellect.  The  relation  between  the 
squares  of  the  sides  of  a  right-angled  triangle  was  known  to  the 
Chinese  before  they  became  acquainted  with  European  mathema- 
tics, but  it  was  proved  by  measurement,  not  geometrically2.  From 
the  measures  of  the  angles  of  the  pyramids  it  has  been  concluded 
that  at  the  time  of  their  construction  the  Egyptians  were  not 
acquainted  with  the  division  of  the  circle  into  degrees,  but  that  the 
angles  were  regulated  by  the  proportion  between  the  base  and  per- 
pendicular of  a  right-angled  triangle.  Their  astronomical  monu- 
ments, however,  show  that  under  the  eighteenth  dynasty  they  had 
divided  the  ecliptic  into  twelve  parts  of  thirty  degrees,  and  this  was 
probably  the  origin  of  the  division  which  still  continues  in  use. 
For  there  is  no  reason  why  the  quadrants  of  a  circle  should  be 
divided  into  ninety  degrees  each,  but  an  obvious  reason  for  dividing 
the  ecliptic  by  twelve  and  thirty,  these  being  the  nearest  whole 
numbers  to  the  lunations  of  a  year  and  the  days  of  a  lunation. 
Spherical  trigonometry  appears  to  have  been  wholly  unknown  ir. 
ancient  Egypt. 

The  amount  of  astronomical  knowledge  which  the  Egyptians 

1*Ori  ircp  av'EXAjjfes  0ap0apu)v  irapaXa^u)fievi  k&Wiov  tovto  els  reXos  ditepya^ojMsdcu 
—Plat.  Epin.  il  p.  988. 

*  Davis,  The  Chinese,  ch.  19. 

•  Perring.    See  Bunsen,  ^Egypten's  Stelle,  B.  2,  p.  365,  Germ. 


270 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


possessed  in  the  time  of  the  Pharaohs  remains  obscure,  after  a]] 
the  light  which  recent  discoveries  havfrthrown  on  their  condition 
in  remote  ages.  They  enjoyed,  equally  with  the  Babylonians,  the 
advantage  of  a  wide  horizcn  at  Heliopolis,  and  a  sky  free  from 
clouds  and  vapor,  both  there  and  at  Thebes,  for  making  constant 
observations1,  but  they  had  no  such  commanding  observatory  as 
the  Tower  of  Belus  afforded  to  the  Chaldiean  astronomer.  The  - 
horoscopus2  who  occupied  the  second  place  in  the  procession  of  the 
priests,  carried  in  his  hand  a  horologium  (sun-dial)  and  a  palm3, 
symbols  of  astronomy,  and  was  compelled  to  learn  by  heart  the 
four  books  of  astronomy  attributed  to  Hermes-Thoth.  One  of 
these  related  to  the  distribution4  or  grouping  of  the  fixed  stars ; 
another  to  the  conjunction  and  opposition  of  the  sun  and  moon ; 
another  to  their  rising.  Besides  these,  the  hierogrammat  was 
required  to  understand  the  order  of  the  sun  and  moon  and  five 
planets.  Such  is  the  account  given  by  Clemens  Alexandrinus  in 
the  beginning  of  the  third  century  after  Christ.  The  fact  that  the 
pyramids  are  placed  with  the  centre  of  their  sides  exactly  facing 
the  cardinal  points,  shows  that  in  the  early  age  when  these  struc- 
tures were  erected,  they  had  the  means  of  tracing  an  accurate 
meridian  line.  To  accomplish  this,  however,  requires  rather  time 
and  care  than  great  astronomical  knowledge.  It  is  effected  by  the 
observation  of  the  shadow  of  a  gnomon,  at  the  time  of  the  solstices, 
which  is  nearly  of  the  same  length  at  equal  distances  from  the 
meridian,  the  sun  then  changing  his  declination  very  little  in  the 
course  of  a  day. 

1  Cic  Divin.  1.  Plat.  Epin.  ii.  987.    The  French  Astronomer  Nouet  denies 
this,  and  says  that  the  horizon  of  Egypt  is  much  obscured  by  haze. 
■  Clem.  Alex.  Strom,  p.  7  57,  ed.  Potter. 

•  Horapollo,  1.  8,  4.  A  palm-tree  (<£olVt£)  was  the  emblem  of  a  year, 
because  it  put  forth  twelve  branches  (tfdi's)  in  the  year,  one  at  each  new 
moon.  The  0dis  was  an  emblem  of  the  month.  It  seems,  however,  from 
the  hieroglyphics,  that  tho^idi?  was  the  emblem  of  the  year  (PL  IIL  D.  1.) 

*  To»  6ian6<ipovt  Clemen*,  u.  & 


LENGTH  OF  THE  YEAR. 


277 


As  the  hieroglyphic  for  jaonth  is  the  crescent  of  the  moon,  the 
Egyptian  months  must  hare  been  originally  lunar.  The  division 
of  the  seasons  was  physical,  not  astronomical.  It  was  threefold 
(see  PI.  L),  the  four  months  of  vegetation  being  originally  distin- 
guished by  a  flowering  plant ;  the  four  of  ingathering  or  harvest 
by  the  characters  for  house  and  mouth  ;  the  four  of  the  inundation 
by  a  cistern  and  the  character  for  water ;  but  when  the  year 
became  fixed,  these  characters  had  ceased  to  be  appropriate,  two- 
thirds  of  each  season  having  advanced  into  the  neighboring  divi- 
sion. Each  month  had  a  name  which  has  been  preserved  by 
Greek  and  Coptic  writers1,  but  they  do  not  correspond  phonetically 
to  the  hieroglyphics.  Each  month  and  day  had  also  its  tutelary 
god2,  but  this  was  rather  an  astrological  than  astronomical  distri- 
bution. The  hieroglyphics  of  the  months  were  in  use  at  an  early 
period  of  the  old  monarchy,  being  found  according  to  Lepsius  on 
the  pyramids  of  Dashour. 

When  the  Egyptians  established  the  division  into  twelve  months 
of  thirty  days  each,  they  may  have  reckoned  the  year  at  360  days, 
but  at  a  very  early  period  they  had  learnt  to  intercalate  five  addi- 
tional days*.  When  this  great  correction  of  their  calendar  took 
1  They  are  as  follows  in  the  Julian  year : — 


1.  Thoth  . 

1.  Phaophi  . 

1.  Athyr  . 

L  Choiak  . 

t  Tybi  .  . 

L  Mechir  . 

1.  Phamenoth 


29.  August 
28.  September. 
28.  October. 
27.  November. 
27.  December. 
26.  January. 
25.  February. 


I.  Pharmuthi 
L  Paeon 
1.  Payni 
1.  Epiphi  . 
1.  Mesori  . 
Epagomenffl 


.  27.  March. 

.  26.  ApriL 

.  26.  May. 

.  25.  June. 

.  25.  July. 

.  24-29.  August, 
(Ideler,  1,  143.) 


After  the  introduction  of  Julius  Caesar's  correction  (aa  80),  the  Alexan- 
drians intercalated  a  day  every  four  years,  and  then  began  their  year  on 
the  30th  of  August  (Ideler,  Hist  Unters.  p.  125). 

*  Herod.  2,  82.  Lepsius,  Einleitung,  p.  144,  thinks  the  names  of  the 
months  were  derived  from  the  god& 

»  Her.  %  4.  A«' 

ravlros  vevTt  >'utpas  nipt£  rov  iwt't.i  ,v  cai  o  kvkXos  t&v  ijpeuv  is  ruvrd  xeptiun  rmpa- 
riverai. 


278 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


place  is  uncertain.  Syncellus,  in  the  Laterculus1,  attributes  it  U* 
Asseth,  o.ie  of  the  Shepherd  kings  ;  but  Lepsius  says  that  he  has 
found  traces  of  the  five  intercalary  days,  or  Epagomence  as  the 
Greeks  called  them,  in  a  grotto  at  Benihassan  of  the  twelfth 
dynasty,  that  is  before  the  invasion  of  the  Shepherds2.  Their 
introduction  into  the  year  was  expressed  by  an  ingenious  mythe. 
Thoth  (Hermes),  the  god  of  astronomy  and  calculation,  plays  at 
dice  with  the  Moon,  and  wins  from  her  a  seventieth  (a  round 
number  for  seventy-second)  part  of  each  of  the  360  days  of  which 
the  year  consisted,  out  of  which  fractional  parts  (3TY  =  o)  five 
entire  days  are  composed.  These  days  are  consecrated  to  five  gods 
whose  worship  thus  seems  to  be  indicated  as  of  later  origin  ;  the 
first  to  Osiris,  the  second  to  Arueris,  the  third  to  Typhon,  the 
fourth  to  Isis,  and  the  fifth  to  Nephthys3.  In  the  astronomical 
monument  at  the  Rameseion,  a  vacant  space  is  left  between  Mesori 
the  last  and  Thoth  the  first  of  the  Egyptian  months,  apparently  to 
represent  the  intercalated  days4. 

But  the  intercalation  of  five  days  was  not  sufficient  to  bring  the 
Egyptian  calendar  into  harmony  with  the  heavens.  The  true 
length  of  the  solar  year  exceeds  365  days  by  nearly  six  hours.  It 
is  evident  therefore  that  there  would  be  an  error  in  defect  of  a 
quarter  of  a  day  in  every  year,  of  a  day  in  every  four  years,  a 
month  in  120  years,  and  a  year  of  365  days  in  1460  years.  With- 
out some  further  correction  the  Egyptian  year  would  be  an  annus 
vagus ;  its  true  commencement  and  all  the  festivals,  the  time  of 
which  was  reckoned  from  it,  travelling  in  succession  through  all 

1  "  Asseth  first  added  the  five  Epagomenae,  and  made  the  Egyptian  year, 
which  had  previously  only  360  days,  to  consist  of  365."  Sync  Chron. 
p.  123. 

9  Einleitung,  146.  Mention  is  there  made  of  a  "Festival  of  the  Five 
redundant  days  of  the  year." 

•  Plut  Is.  et  Osir.  c.  12.  The  Epagomenae  are  designated  as  Day  of  birth 
of  Osiris,  Day  of  birth  of  Horus,  <fec. ;  but  as  it  should  seem,  only  on  mom* 
ments  of  later  times.    Lepsius,  p.  146. 

4  Trans,  of  Roy.  Soc  Lit  4to.  voL  3,  2,  p.  434, 


LENGTH  OF  THE  YEAR. 


279 


the  days  and  months,  just  as  our  own  were  doing,  but  at  a  less 
rapid  rate,  and  in  a  contrary  direction,  before  the  alteration  of  the 
Style.  Herodotus  appears  not  to  have  been  aware  that  any  cor- 
rection had  been  applied  to  the  calendar,  or  indeed  required ;  since 
he  praises  the  intercalation  of  five  days,  as  bringing  back  the  circle 
of  the  seasons  to  the  same  point.  Diodorus1  however  represents 
the  priests  of  Thebes,  and  Strabo2  those  of  Heliopolis  as  knowing 
the  true  length  of  the  solar  year,  and  intercalating  five  days  and  a 
quarter.  They  furnish  no  evidence  however  of  the  antiquity  of  the 
practice,  nor  of  its  adoption  in  civil  life.  Indeed  Geminus  of 
Rhodes8,  who  lived  in  the  time  of  Sylla,  expressly  says  that  the 
priests  did  not  intercalate  the  quarter  day,  in  order  that  the  festivals 
might  travel  through  the  whole  year,  and  "the  summer-festival 
become  a  winter-festival  and  an  autumn-festival  and  a  spring-fes- 
tival." Such  a  change  implies  that  the  original  import  of  the  fes- 
tivals, some  of  which  were  closely  connected  with  the  season  of  the 
year4,  was  no  longer  obvious.  It  is  even  said  that  the  priests 
imposed  on  the  sovereign  at  his  inauguration  an  oath  that  he 
would  keep  up  the  old  reckoning,  and  not  allow  the  quarter  day 
to  be  intercalated8.  This  again  points  to  a  time  when  the  priests 
had  become  jealous  of  the  civil  power,  and  wished  to  perpetuate 
the  confusion  of  the  calendar,  as  the  patricians  did  at  Rome,  for 

1  DiocL  1,  50.  8  Strabo,  17,  806. 

*  JZovXovrat  ol  Alyvirrioi  riff  dvcias  rofj  Qr.otf  nrj  Kara  rov  avrdv  xaipdv  rov  iviavrov 
yii  toQai)  dAXo  Sta  itaadv  rcov  rov  Iviavrov  oipuip  6u\8hi>'  teal  yivtixQai  rfjv  dcpivqv  eopri)v 

Kal  xciptpiviiv  Kal  (pBivotrwpivhv  koX  iapivfiv.  Geminus,  Isagoge  in  Arati  Phcen.  c 
6,  quoted  by  Ideler,  Handb.  der  Chronologie,  1,  95. 

4  Thus  on  the  28th  day  of  Phaophi,  after  the  autumnal  equinox,  thev  cele- 
brated the  festival  of  the  "  Birth  of  the  Sun's  Staff,"  in  allusion  to  his  increas- 
ing feebleness ;  at  the  winter  solstice  they  carried  a  cow  seven  times  round 
the  temple,  which  was  called  the  "Seeking  of  Osiris," Plut.  Is.  et  Os.  p.  372. 

6  Deducitur  rex  a  sacerdote  Isidis  in  locum  qui  nominatur  arJuroj,  et  sacra» 
mento  adigitur,  neque  diem  neque  mensem  inter calandum.  Schol.  Lat.  Vet 
in  Arat.  Germanici,  Ideler.  u.  s. 


280 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


their  own  purposes.  The  use  of  a  lunar  year  by  the  Mahometans, 
which  causes  the  great  Fast  of  Ramadan  to  travel  through  the 
year,  is  a  proof  of  the  force  of  ancient  custom. 

It  appears  probable,  however,  that  from  an  early  period  the  true 
length  of  the  solar  year,  and  the  time  in  which  the  excess  would 
amount  to  an  entire  year,  was  known  to  the  Egyptian  priests, 
though  not  applied  to  the  popular  calendar.  In  the  Roman  times 
they  certainly  had  a  period,  called  Canicular,  Cynic  or  Sothiac1,  of 
1461  years,  which  is  exactly  the  number  of  Julian  or  true  years  of 
365{  days,  answering  to  14C0  of  the  vague  years  of. 365  days2. 
Now  among  the  periods  which  were  assigned  for  the  return  of  the 
Phcenix,  one  was  1461  years3,  and  hence  we  may  conclude  that 
the  period  of  the  Phcenix  was  the  same  as  the  Sothiac  period. 
The  symbol  of  the  Phcenix  must  have  been  of  long  standing  in  the 
time  of  Herodotus,  since  it  was  so  much  misapprehended,  that  he 
describes  it  under  the  head  of  zoology4,  though  naturally  incredu- 
lous respecting  the  tale  of  the  young  phcenix  bringing  his  father, 
embalmed  in  frankincense,  to  the  temple  of  Heliopolis.  He  reckons 
the  intervals  of  his  appearance,  however,  at  500  years,  on  the 
authority  of  the  Heliopolitans,  and  so  far  throws  doubt  on  the 
identity  with  the  Sothiac  period.  Indeed  the  great  variety  of 
periods  assigned  may  lead  us  to  suspect  that  the  Phcenix  was  a 
general  emblem  of  a  Cycle*.  The  most  probable  etymology  of  the 
word  is  from  the  Coptic  pheneck,  s&culum. 

1  Bainbridge,  Canicularia,  Oxf.  1648,  a  work  which  still  retains  its  value. 

9  JEgyptiorum  annus  magnus  initium  sumit  cum  primo  die  ejus  mensis 
quern  Thoth  vocant  Caniculae  sidus  exoritur.  Nam  eorum  annus  civilis 
solos  habet  dies  865  sine  ullo  intercalary  eoque  fit  ut  anno  1461  ad  idem 
revolvatur  principium.    Censorinus  de  Die  Natali,  c.  18. 

*  Tac.  Ann.  6,  28.  De  numero  annorum  varia  traduntur ;  maxirae  vul- 
gatur  quingentorum  spatium ;  sunt  qui  adseverent  mille  quadringentos  sera- 
ginta  unum  interjicL 

*  "Kan  Si  Kai  aWog  opvts  itpds,  ro>  ovvopa  (poivt^.     Her.  2,  78. 

*  Horapollo,  1,  35,  says  the  Phoenix  was  an  emblem  of  one  returning 


SOTHIAC  PERIOD. 


281 


One  of  these  Sothiac  periods  came  to  a  conclusion  in  historic 
times;  expiring  in  a.d.  138-91.  Reckoning  backward  1460  years 
we  come  to  1322  b.c.  This  does  not  absolutely  prove  that  it  was 
in  use  1322  b.c,  or  was  then  first  established;  but  it  has  been 
thought  that  the  monuments  supply  this  deficiency.  The  period 
is  called  Sothiac,  because  the  time  assumed  for  its  commencement 
was  when  Sirius  or  the  Dogstar,  called  by  the  Egyptians  Sothis3, 
and  consecrated  to  [sis',  rose  heliacally  on  the  first  day  of  Thoth, 
the  first  month  of  the  Egyptian  fixed  year,  the  20th  of  July  of  our 
reckoning.  This  phenomenon  appears  to  have  been  fixed  upon, 
from  the  brilliancy  of  the  star,  which  would  make  it  more  conspi- 
cuous ;  and  its  coincidence  with  the  commencement  of  the  inunda- 
tion, which  occurred  about  this  time,  made  it  still  more  appropriate 
as  the  starting-point  of  an  Egyptian  period.  Now  in  the  astrono- 
mical monument  at  the  Rameseion4,  in  the  middle  of  the  vacant 
space  between  the  months  Mesori  and  Thoth,  is  a  figure  of  Isis- 
Sothis.  It  is  inferred  that  this  monument  was  erected  in  commemo- 
ration of  the  commencement  of  a  Sothiac  period,  and  the  chrono- 
logy of  Egyptian  history  suits  well  enough  with  the  date  of  the 

home  after  long  absence  in  a  foreign  land.  The  priests  themselves  (iElian, 
EL  An.  6,  58)  disputed  about  the  expiration  of  a  Phoenix  period.  J2ian 
extols  the  Phoenix  as  the  better  arithmetician. 

1  Censorinus,  who  wrot«  a.d.  238,  says,  "  anni  illiua  magni  qui  Solaris  et 
Canicularis  et  Dei  annus  vocatur,  nunc  agi  verteniem  annum  centetimum" 
Ideler,  u.  «. 

*  Aiyvnriois  dpx^  *rovS  Kopwcyof  rpdf  yap  rc3  Kcp.  wo  $  H  'oBk,  r)v  K'»>f  Asrlpm 

•Exec's  <ffw.  Porph.  Antr.  Nymph,  a  24.  "Sothii  haso  apud  Vettinm 
Valentem  MS.,  ex  libris  Petosiris  vocatur  m&aculino  genere,  roS  S>,8 
dv7T  Kfj."    Marsham,  Can.  Chron,  p.  9. 

*'0\op  rd  acrpov  (the  Lion)  dcpupuKCttriv  'H>uu*  r6rt  yif>  «al  IpBatvu  4  N«rXo{ 
Ka\  n  roi  }\.vvds  twtroXh  kutj  zvotKarnv  (paiverat  xal  ravrifv  <ir>X' 1  'rp,$  rldirru  xalrrji 
'\ffi6oi  tgpov  elvai  rov  Kvva  Xtyovai.    Schol.  Arat.  Phaen.  1,  152. 

*  Wilkinson,  Modern  Egypt  and  Thebes,  2,  155.  Tomlinaon,  Trans,  Roy 
Bo<v  Lit  3,  2,  p.  484. 


282 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


work,  which  belongs  to  the  age  of  Rameses  II.  or  III.  Though 

the  evidence  of  the  monument  is  not  decisive  of  the  }Tear,  there  is 
nothing  improbable  in  the  supposition  that  the  true  length  of  the 
year  was  known,  and  a  period  established  for  bringing  the  vague 
and  the  true  }Tear  into  harmony,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  fourteenth 
century  before  the  Christian  aera;  and  astronomical  calculation 
shows  that  Sirius  rose  heliacally  at  Heliopolis  on  the  20th  July  in 
the  year  13221.  The  same  coincidence  would  take  place  in  the 
same  latitude  1460  years  earlier,  or  2782  b.c.*,  which  Freret  and 
Bailly  supposed  to  be  the  time  when  the  cycle  was  established. 
Isis-Sothis  is  called  "  Star  of  the  beginning  of  the  year,"  in  hiero- 
glyphics of  the  age  of  Rameses  II.8,  which  implies  the  existence  of 
a  fixed  year,  beginning  with  the  rise  of  that  star. 
•  Upon  this  period  of  1461  years,  which  whenever  established  was 
real,  was  founded  an  imaginary  period  of  36,525  years,  produced 
by  multiplying  it  with  25\  This  was  the  great  year  in  which  all 
the  heavenly  bodies  were  supposed  to  make  a  complete  revolution 
of  the  heavens5.  Twenty-five  was  the  number  of  years,  after  which, 
309  lunations  having  occurred,  the  new  and  full  moons  returned 
on  the  same  day  and  nearly  the  same  hour  of  the  Egyptian 
calendar8.  It  was  also  the  time  after  which  the  moon-god  Apis, 
if  he  lived  so  long,  was  put  to  death7. 

Herodotus  and  Tacitus  both  speak  of  500  years  as  a  period 

1  Ideler  Handbuch,  1,  129. 

*  Ideler,  ib.  130.    Fourier,  Mem.  aur  l'Eg.  vol  7. 
'  Lepsius,  Einleitung,  1,  152. 

4  Syncellua,  Chronogr.  p.  62,  ed.  Dind. 

*  Sync.  p.  35.  "EAA^ftj  *ai  A.lyvirrtoi  iv  tiKoai  irtvTt(  25)  ntptddotg  hdv  rwf 
dird  av£a  (1461)  r  ^  v  k  o  it  fx  t  k  f)  v  air  o  k  a  t  a  a  r  a  a  t  v  yiveaBai  Xiyovot,  rjyow  dit  d 
wrjftetov  tis  (TTifieiov   tov  ovpavov-diroKaTaoTaoiv 

*  Ideler,  Handb.  1,  182.  A  less  accurate  reason  had  been  assigned  by 
jMarsham,  Can.  Chron.  p.  9,  "  Est  in  25  vagis  annia  eadem  Lun»  ratio  q\ue 
IB  19  fixis." 

T  Pint  la.  «t  Osir.  374  B.    Plin.  8,  46, 


PRECESSION  OF  THE  EQUINOXES. 


283 


assigned  to  the  return  of  the  Phoenix.  We  know  of  no  astrono 
mical  cycle  which  exactly  corresponds  with  this ;  the  nearest  num- 
ber is  532,  produced  by  multiplying  the  solar  and  lunar  cycles 
(19X28),  the  period  after  which  the  new  and  full  moons  return 
on  the  same  days  of  the  week.  As  the  larger  cycle  of  1461  years 
is  called  in  round  numbers  1000,  so  500  might  be  popularly  substi- 
tuted for  532.  The  use  of  such  a  cycle  would  imply  that  the 
Egyptians  reckoned  their  days  by  sevens  :  this  is  not  expressly 
said  by  any  ancient  author.  We  know,  however,  from  Dion  Cas- 
sius  that  the  custom  of  assigning  a  day  of  the  week  to  the  sun,  moon 
and  planets  arose  in  Egypt1,  where  the  number  seven  was  held  in 
great  reverence;  and  it  is  more  probable  that  it  had  prevailed 
there  in  ancient  times,  than  that  it  had  been  introduced  subse- 
quently to  the  age  of  Herodotus. 

The  intercalation  of  a  quarter  day  is  in  excess  about  six  minutes, 
and  therefore  does  not  bring  the  reckoning  once  in  four  years,  into 
complete  conformity  with  the  heavens ;  but  neither  the  Egyptians, 
nor  the  Greeks  who  improved  upon  them,  appear  to  have  known 
the  exact  length  of  the  solar  year.  Hipparchus,  the  greatest  astro- 
nomer of  antiquity,  reckoned  the  tropical  year  at  36od  5h  55'  12", 
which  is  6'  24"  too  long2.  This  error,  adopted  by  Julius  Caesar 
into  the  Roman  calendar,  rendered  necessary  the  Gregorian  reform 
of  the  style,  by  which  all  future  irregularity  is  precluded. 

It  has  been  supposed  that  the  Egyptian  astronomers  were  ac- 
quainted with  the  Precession  of  the  Equinoxes,  that  is,  the  gradual 
increase  of  the  longitude  of  all  the  fixed  stars  at  the  rate  of  about 
50"  in  a  year,  or  a  degree  in  Y2  years,  in  consequence  of  which 
the  position  of  the  solstitial  and  equinoctial  colures,  in  reference  to 
the  signs  of  the  zodiac,  is  perpetually  varying3.    The  only  passage 

1  Td  is  rot>$  darepas  rjvg  Itttcl,  roij  nXavriras  uvopaantvovs  rig  fipty&S  dvaxtiodai 
Kartarrj  W  Atywrtoj/.    Dion.  Cass.  Hist.  37,  18. 
'  Ideler,  Handb.  1,  o-t 

'  Their  comj  lote  revolution  is  tn©  AiroKaTaaraTu  rov  ^(adiaxov)  spoken  ol  by 


284 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


in  an  ancient  author  which  can  be  understood  as  attributing  this 
knowledge  to  them  is  in  the  second  book  of  Herodotus.  Having 
calculated  from  the  data  of  the  priests  that  11,340  years  had 
elapsed  from  Menes  to  Sethos,  he  adds,  "  In  this  time  they  said 
that  the  sun  had  four  times  risen  out  of  his  customary  place,  and 
nad  twice  risen  from  the  point  where  he  now  sets,  and  twice  set  at 
the  point  whence  he  now  rises ;  and  that  while  these  things  were 
going  on,  nothing  in  Egypt  had  varied,  neither  in  regard  to  the 
productions  of  the  earth,  nor  the  effects  of  the  river,  nor  in  regard 
to  diseases  or  death1."  Literally  taken,  this  account  supposes  a 
double  change  in  the  rotation  of  the  earth  upon  its  axis,  nothing 
less  being  sufficient  to  cause  the  sun  "  to  rise  where  he  now  sets, 
and  set  where  he  now  rises."  Eminent  critics  have  seen  in  it  a 
reference  to  the  change  of  the  tropics,  consequent  on  the  precession 
of  the  equinoxes3.  No  such  meaning,  however,  can  be  fairly 
extracted  from  the  words  of  Herodotus,  and  if  we  endeavor  from 
what  he  has  said,  to  majve  out  what  we  suppose  the  priests  to  have 
told  him,  we  enter  a  boundless  field  of  unsatisfactory  conjectures. 
It  is  not  improbable  that  they  may  have  discovered  a  secular  vari- 
ation in  the  position  of  the  fixed  stars,  especially  of  Sirius,  which 
they  carefully  observed  ;  but  being  ignorant  of  its  law,  its  amount, 
and  the  effects  which,  according  to  the  true  system  of  the  heavens, 
it  would  appear  to  produce,  they  made  the  extravagant  statement 
which  Herodotus  has  recorded.  That  they  considered  the  pheno- 
menon as  a  secular  variation,  not  as  a  prodigy,  is  evident  from 
their  mentioning  that  no  failure  of  crops,  no  deficiency  of  the  inun- 
dation, no  increase  of  disease  or  mortality  had  been  the  result. 

Syncellus,  ubi  supra,  as  taking  place  in  36,525  jjears.    The  true  period  of 
the  Precession,  at  the  rate  of  1°  23'  40"  in  a  century,  is  about  26,000  years 
1  2,  142. 

1  Lepsius,  Chronologie  der  Egypter,  Einleitung,  p.  190  folL  Boeckh 
Manetho  und  die  Hundsternperiod,  p.  421.  Scaliger  and  Ideler  (1,  188; 
referred  the  passage  to  the  recurrence  of  the  Sothiac  period. 


ECLIPSES. 


28t 


We  have  the  strongest  ground  to  conclude  that  tl  e  precession  was 
not  known,  as  an  observed  and  ascertained  astronomical  fact,  to 
the  Egyptians.  It  was  the  discovery  of  the  Greek  Hipparchus,  and 
the  observations,  the  discrepancy  of  which  with  his  own  revealed 
the  change  to  him,  were  not  made  by  Egyptian  astronomers,  but 
by  the  Greeks  Aristyllus  and  Timocharis  about  160  years  before1. 

Eclipses,  the  great  bases  of  astronomical  chronology,  had  not 
been  recorded  with  any  extraordinary  accuracy  by  the  Egyptians, 
or  Hipparchus  and  Ptolemy,  who  both  lived  in  Egypt  would  have 
availed  themselves  of  such  materials.  The  latter  author  found  at 
Babylon  records  of  lunar  eclipses,  observed  with  an  accuracy  that 
leaves  little  to  modern  science  to  correct,  from  the  middle  of  the 
eighth  century  b.  c.9  Solar  eclipses  are  said  to  have  been  recorded 
there,  as  far  back  as  the  nineteenth  century  b.  c.s,  but  nothing  of 
this  kind  appears  to  have  been  furnished  by  Egypt.  Diodorus4, 
indeed,  maintains  that  the  Thebans  had  accurately  observed  and 
also  predicted  both  solar  and  lunar  eclipses.  Seneca6  speaks  of 
solar  eclipses  observed  by  the  Egyptians,  and  collected  by  Conon ; 
yet  these  statements  cannot  avail  to  prove  that  they  were  scientific 
observations,  when  set  against  the  negative  evidence  arising  from 
the  neglect  of  them  by  Ptolemy.  Still  less  can  we  draw  any  con- 
clusion in  favor  of  the  scientific  astronomy  of  the  Egyptians  from 
what  Diogenes  Laertius  says6,  that  they  assigned  the  number  of 
solar  and  lunar  eclipses  between  Vulcan  and  Alexander  the  Great. 
As  they  reckoned  this  interval  at  48,863  years,  the  eclipses  had 

»  Ideler,  Handb.  1,  27.  In  favor  of  its  being  known  to  Eudoxus  and 
learnt  by  him  from  the  Egyptians,  Lepsius,  ubi  supra. 

2  Ideler,  in  the  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Berlin,  1815,  has  worked  out  some  of 
these  by  lunar  tables,  and  finds  tliem  agree  within  a  few  minutea 

•  Simplicius,  in  his  Commentary  on  Aristot  de  Ccelo,  quoted  by  Ideler 
Historische  Untersuchungen,  p.  166. 

4  1,  50.  '  Nat.  Qurest  7.  8.    Conon  lived  about  250  b.  - 

Prooemiun:,  sect  L 


286 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


certainly  not  been  observed.  We  do  not  find  in  the  paintings  and 
sculptures  of  Egypt  any  representation  of  instruments  for  observing 
astronomical  phsenoinena,  nor  do  we  know  that  in  this  respect  the 
Babylonians  had  any  advantage  over  them.  The  latter  people, 
however,  were  the  authors  of  two  inventions  for  measuring  time — 
an  operation  essential  to  an  accurate  record  of  eclipses — the  dial, 
and  the  division  of  the  day  into  twelve  parts1.  Recent  investiga- 
tion has  shown,  that  the  system  of  weights  and  measures  adopted 
in  Egypt,  originated  among  the  Babylonians2 ;  we  may  hence  infer 
that  they  surpassed  other  nations  in  the  management  of  calculation  ; 
and  thus  they  would  naturally  outstrip  them  in  scientific  astronomy. 
The  topography  of  Egypt  was  accurately  known  to  the  Egyptian 
priests  by  the  measurement  of  the  land,  but  they  seem  never  to 
have  applied  astronomy  to  geography  by  fixing  the  latitudes  of 
places.  This  was  an  invention  of  the  Alexandrian  Greeks.  They 
knew,  however,  the  obliquity  of  the  ecliptic,  and  Pythagoras3  may 
have  derived  from  the  same  source  his  doctrine  that  the  sun  is  the 
centre  of  the  planetary  system,  the  earth  a  spherical  body  revolving 
around  it4. 

If  the  Egyptians  were  not  the  founders  of  scientific  astronomy, 
there  can  be  no  question  that  they  were  most  assiduous  observers 
of  the  aspect  and  position  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  and  attributed  to 
them  an  important  influence  on  human  events.  We  have  exam- 
ples of  astronomical  monuments  in  the  sepulchral  chambers  of 
Sethcs  and  the  Rameses  at  Thebes,  placed  there,  as  the  later  zodi- 
acs of  Dendereh  and  Esneh,  for  astrological  rather  than  astrono- 
mical purposes.  On  the  circle  of  Osymandyas  (see  p.  131  of  this 
vol.)  every  day  was  marked  by  the  planets  and  stars  which  rose 
and  set  upon  it,  and  the  prognostics  which  these  afforded,  accord- 

J  Herod.  2,  109. 

*  Boeckh,  Metrologische  Untersuchungen  liber  Gewichte,  Miinzfuase  und 
Masse  des  Alterthuma,  1838. 
»  Diod.  1,  98.    PluU  riac.  Phil  2,  12.  4  Diog.  Lflert  Pyth.  81,  26. 


ASTROLOGY. 


287 


ing  to  Egyptian  astrology1.  They  had  an  astrological  system, 
attributed  to  two  names  of  uncertain  age^  Petosiris  and  Xecepsos* 
according  to  which  they  could  assign  the  influence  which  the  day 
of  an  individual's  birth  would  have  upon  his  character,  fortunes  ana 
length  of  life,  and  the  effects,  beneficial  or  injurious,  of  the  move- 
ments and  revolutions  of  the  planets.  By  their  science  the  Egyp- 
tian astrologers  could  foretell  years  of  scarcity  and  plenty,  pesti- 
lences, earthquakes,  inundations,  and  the  appearance  of  comets,  and 
do  many  other  things  surpassing  the  sagacity  of  the  vulgar.  And 
they  represented  themselves  to  have  been  in  these  points  the  teach- 
ers of  the  Chaldaeans,  whom  they  claimed  as  an  Egyptian  Colony*. 
They  evidently  attributed  virtues  to  particular  numbers,  3,  7,  10; 
and  their  multiples  are  of  perpetual  occurrence.  They  had  made 
a  duodecimal  division  of  the  zodiac  and  allotted  constellations  to 
each,  but  not  the  figures  by  which  they  are  commonly  distin- 
guished. These  are  found  only  on  monuments  of  the  latest  Ptole- 
maic or  Roman  times.  Each  of  these  duodecimal  divisions  was 
again  subdivided  into  three,  making  thirty-six  decans  for  the  year4. 
The  human  body  was  divided  into  thirty-six  parts  answering  to  the 
Decans,  and  specially  under  their  influence,  a  god  or  daemon  pre- 
siding over  each.  In  later  times  at  least,  the  opinion  prevailed 
that  the  souls  of  men  entered  into  life  through  one  of  the  signs  of 
the  zodiac,  the  six  first  being  favorable  in  their  influence,  the  six 
last  unfavorable. 

The  erection  of  such  edifices  as  the  pyramids  and  temples,  and 

;  Herod.  2,  82.    Diod.  1,  81.  9  Plin.  2,  21.  7,  50. 

*  <f>ao\  kq\  rois  tv  Ba/?vAwvJ  XaAJaiotj,  dirowcovj  Atymrriur  Svras,  ri)v  i6^av  ^xtiv 
rrtv  -rtpl  rrjj  dcrpo\oyiai}  irapa  tcjv  ispiwv  ^aBovras  tgjv  Ai'yuTrriwj'.     Diod.  1,  81. 

*  Lepsius,  Chronologie  der  Eg.  Einleitung,  p.  66.  He  has  compared  the 
liieroglyphical  signs  with  the  Egyptian  names  which  Hephaestion  has  pre- 
served, and  finds  a  remarkable  coincidence.  Of  the  Egyptian  horoscopy, 
see  Stob.  Eclog.  ii.  8,  p.  3S6,  390,  ed.  Heeren.  Orig.  c  Cels.  8,  p.  416.  Salmaa 
Plin.  Exercit  in  Solinum,  p.  160. 


288 


ANCIENT  EGTPT. 


the  execution  of  great  works  in  hydraulics,  proves  little  respecting 
the  scientific  knowledge  of  the  Egyptians.  Works  demanding 
quite  as  much  skill  were  executed  by  the  Italian  nations  before  the 
rise  of  Rome,  or  by  the  Chinese  and  Mexicans,  to  noue  of  whom  is 
there  any  reason  to  attribute  high  attainments  in  mathematical 
science.  The  description  given  by  Herodotus'  of  the  manner  iu 
which  the  pyramids  were  constructed,  leads  us  to  form  no  high 
estimate  of  their  mechanical  skill.  Machines  of  wood,  apparently 
simple  levers,  of  strength  sufficient  to  raise  a  block  to  the  height 
of  one  course,  were  planted  on  each  successive  stage,  and  thus  the 
top  was  reached.  Diodorus2  supposes  a  still  more  inartificial  pro- 
cedure, the  construction  of  inclined  mounds,  by  which  the  stones 
were  raised  to  the  necessary  level.  It  is  not  probable  that  either 
account  rested  on  historical  evidence ;  but  they  show  that  the 
Egyptians  did  not  believe  that  their  predecessors  possessed  any 
refined  mechanical  knowledge,  and  therefore  had  not  much  them- 
selves. We  have  a  representation  in  one  of  the  tombs  of  the 
manner  in  which  a  colossal  statue  was  transported,  in  the  age  of 
Sesortasen  II.  It  is  accomplished  by  the  main  strength  of  172 
men,  arranged  in  rows,  with  scarcely  any  application  of  mechanical 
knowledge3.  Had  the  pulle}'  or  the  capstan  been  used,  we  should 
have  found  some  representation  of  them  among  the  varied  pictures 
of  Egyptian  life.  No  such  representations,  however,  occur4.  The 
Greeks  themselves,  a  considerable  time  after  their  acquaintance 
with  Egypt  began,  were  so  poor  in  mechanical  contrivance,  that 
when  Chersiphron  built  the  temple  of  Ephesus,  in  the  reign  of 
Ainasis,  he  was  obliged  to  raise  his  architraves  by  surrounding  his 

1  %  125. 

*  Tfiv  KarasKtvrjp  Sih  ^cj/tarMj/  ytvicBai^  pfpTio  T(ov  nrj^dvwv  ivonutvwv.  1,  68. 

*  Atlas  to  Minutoli's  Reiaen,  PL  18.  Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Custom* 
vol.  iil  p.  828. 

*  A  pulley  from  an  Egyptian  tomb  is  preserved  in  th«  Ltyden  Museum, 
but  its  age  is  uncertain. 


ARITHMETIC,  WEIGHTS,  AND  MEASURES.  28$ 

columns  with  bags  of  earth,  which  served  as  an  inclined  plane1. 
Had  the  Egyptians  been  acquainted  with  the  mechanical  powers, 
the  Greeks  would  have  borrowed  them  in  the  interval  between 
Psammitichus  and  Amasis.  Simple  machinery,  combined  with  an 
unlimited  command  of  human  power,  is  sufficient  for  the  greatest 
works  which  Egypt  exhibits.  Belzoni,  with  a  very  small  number 
of  men,  could  remove  his  fractured  Colossus  to  the  Nile,  by  using  \ 
levers  and  rollers.  The  erection  of  obelisks  appears  to  require  more 
mechanical  skill  ;  yet  even  this  might  be  accomplished  by  inarti- 
ficial means2,  without  the  machinery  which  the  Romans  employed 
to  erect,  or  Fontana  to  replace  them3. 

The  Egyptian  system  of  arithmetical  notation  was  simple  in 
principle  but  cumbrous  in  detail  (see  PI.  IV.).  In  the  hieroglyphic 
writing  the  nine  digits  were  expressed  by  an  equal  number  of 
strokes  ;  ten  by  a  specific  character,  repeated  as  far  as  nine  to 
denote  the  decads,  and  combined  with  strokes  to  denote  the  inter- 
vening digits.  A  hundred,  a  thousand,  ten  thousand,  a  hun- 
dred thousand,  were  all  denoted  by  specific  characters.  In  the 
hieratic  character  and  the  demotic  the  strokes  are  combined  for 
rapid  execution,  as  far  as  four,  which  has  a  specific  character  ; 
and  this  is  joined  with  the  four  preceding  to  make  up  the  digits 
as  far  as  nine.  Ten  has  an  appropriate  character  ;  so  have  the 
hundreds,  thousands,  ten  thousands,  and  hundred  thousands.  In 
its  general  principles  therefore  the  Egyptian  notation  is  closely 
analogous  to  the  Phoenician4,  Etruscan5  and  Roman,  multiplying 

1  Plin.  36,  21  (14).  36,  9. 

2  The  process  consists  in  gradually  introducing  earth  beneath  the  shaft 
vhich  is  to  be  raised.  In  this  way  the  trilitha  of  Stonehenge  are  supposed 
to  have  been  elevated.  Pliny  (36,  8)  says  120,000  men  were  employed  to 
raise  an  obelis!  at  Thebes. 

3  See  the  description  in  Ammianus  Marcellinus  (17,  415)  of  the  elevation 
of  an  obelisk  in  the  Circus  Maximus. 

4  Gesenius,  Scripturse  Phoenic.  Monumenta,  1,  p.  85. 
*Muller,  Etrusker,  2,  317. 

"VOL.  I,  lfi 


£90 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


strokes  for  the  lower  numbers,  and  using  specific  characters  for  the 
higher  multiples  ;  but  is  opposed  to  the  Hebrew  and  Greek,  which 
employed  the  letters  of  the  alphabet.  There  is  a  considerable 
resemblance  between  the  hieratic  and  demotic  form  of  the  charac- 
ters for  the  digits,  and  the  Arabic  numerals,  which  renders  it  not 
improbable  that  the  Mahometan  conquerors  of  Egypt  may  have 
borrowed  their  system  thence.  There  is  no  approach,  however, 
to  a  decimal  notation,  which  is  the  great  excellence  of  the  Arabian 
system,  and  though  distinct  as  a  record,  the  Egyptian  method 
must  have  been  very  inconvenient  for  calculation,  which  was 
probably  performed  by  mechanical  means. 

An  Egyptian  cubit  in  the  Museum  at  Paris  gives  1-707  foot  for 
the  length  of  this  measure.  We  do  not  know  what  was  the  unit  of 
weight  ;  but  one  of  the  Tombs  of  Thebes  exhibits  the  weighing  of 
gold  and  silver.  The  whole  weight  is  a  calf  ;  a  half,  the  head  of 
an  ox  ;  a  quarter, a  small  oval  ball1.  It  is  remarkable,  that  notwith- 
standing the  high  civilization  which  the  Egyptians  had  attained 
they  had  no  coined  money  in  any  period  of  their  independence. 
Their  currency  was  gold  and  silver  rings2,  which  were  estimated  by 
weight  ;  but  it  is  uncertain  how  they  supplied  the  want  of  a  copper 
coinage  for  small  values.  It  has  been  conjectured  that  the  scarabaei 
which  have  been  found  in  such  numbers,  served  this  purpose. 

Although  the  art  of  medicine  was  practised  by  the  Egyptian 
priests  and  its  literature  wholly  in  their  keeping,  they  were  not  the 
sole  physicians  and  surgeons  of  the  community,  as  will  be  here- 
after shown.  Egypt  was  remarkable  for  the  production  of  medici- 
nal herbs3  :  commerce  with  Asia4  and  the  interior  of  Africa  would 
greatly  increase  the  number  of  drugs,  and  the  fame  of  its  physi- 

1  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  34. 

2  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  2,  286. 

3  Od.  <5',  228.  Jerem.  xlvi.  11.  Go  up  into  Gilead  and  take  balm,  0 
virgin,  daughter  of  Egypt;  in  vain  shalt  thou  use  many  medicines  ;  for  thou 
shalt  not  be  cured.  4  Genesis  xxxvii.  25- 


MEDICINE. 


291 


cians  was  spread  throughout  the  ancient  world.  Homer  describes 
them  as  1 '  sons  of  Paeon,  skilful  above  all  men1. ' '  Cambyses  sent 
for  an  oculist  from  Egypt2,  and  Darius  kept  Egyptian  physicians 
about  him,  as  the  most  skilful,  though,  as  the  event  proved,  they 
were  surpassed  by  a  Greek3.  Every  place  in  Egypt,  says  Herodo- 
tus, is  full  of  physicians4.  They  were  required  to  practise  according 
to  certain  precepts,  established  by  men  of  high  reputation,  and 
handed  down  from  ancient  times  in -the  sacred  books.  Six  of  these 
are  enumerated  by  Clemens  Alexandrians5,  one  treating  on  the 
structure  of  the  body,  another  on  its  diseases,  a  third  on  medical 
and  surgical  instruments,  a  fourth  on  drugs,  a  fifth  on  the  eyes, 
and  a  sixth  on  female  diseases.  This  division  and  arrangement, 
comprehending  physiology,  pathology,  pharmaceutics  and  surgery, 
indicates  an  advanced  state  of  the  science.  The  different  branches 
of  practice  were  minutely  subdivided,  and  each  practitioner  confin- 
ed himself  to  one6.  Some  were  oculists,  some  dentists,  some  treat- 
ed diseases  of  the  head,  some  of  the  bowels,  and  some  those  of  un- 
certain seat.  Such  appears  to  be  the  natural  tendency  of  medical 
practice,  when  carried  to  a  high  degree  of  experimental  skill,  and 
exercised  among  a  numerous  population.  Their  system  was  pro- 
phylactic7. Attention  to  diet  was  a  leading  principle  in  it  ;  they 
considered  the  food  as  the  great  source  of  disease, and  endeavored 
to  counteract  its  ill  effects  by  frequent  fasts  as  well  as  medicine8. 
Herodotus  observes  that,  except  the  Libyans,  the  Egyptians  were 
the  healthiest  race  with  whom  he. was  acquainted,  and  he  attri- 
butes this  to  the  absence  of  those  extremes  which  in  other  coun- 
tries make  the  changes  of  the  seasons  dangerous.  Food  was  plen- 

1  Od.  (5',  229.  2  Her.  3,  1.  3  Her.  3,  129.  4  2,  84. 

6  Strom.  6,  p.  758  Potter.  8  Her.  u.  s. 

7  Diod.  1,  82.  Tuf  vooovc  TrpoKaTa?<.c/nj3av6fj.evot  QepaTEVovai  tu 
auiiara  KAvopol;  k.  t. 

8  Her.  2,  77.  ?,vQf!ii£ovoi  rpeic  fjpipaf  ine^i);  [irjvbs  eKaarov.  Sea-batli- 
ing  {rj  6iu  Qa?.a-~7]c  Sepa-rreia)  was  said  to  be  another  of  their  remedies, 
which  had  proved  successful  in  the  case  of  Euripides  (Diopr.  Laert.  Plat.  \). 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


tiful  in  Egypt1,  and  the  materials  of  clothing  cheap  ;  the  Nile 
afforded  a  supply  of  water  which  was  most  copious  during  the 
hottest  part  of  summer,  and  the  Etesian  winds  which  blew  during 
the  same  period,  tempered  the  heat  of  an  almost  vertical  sun. 
Medical  science,  however,  could  hardly  be  progressive  under  the 
restrictions  to  which,  according  to  one  account,  it  was  subject.  If 
the  patient  could  not  be  cured  by  the  application  of  the  precepts 
contained  in  the  ancient  books,  the  practitioner  was  exonerated  ; 
but  if  he  departed  from  them  he  was  liable  to  capital  punishment 
(we  must  supposejn  the  event  of  the  patient's  death),  the  legisla- 
tor thinking  that  few  were  likely  to  improve  upon  the  practice 
which  had  been  observed  from  ancient  times,  and  established  by 
the  most  skilful  professors  of  the  art.  Such  is  the  statement  of 
Diodorus2  ;  but  it  appears  from  Aristotle3,  that  after  three  or  f  our 
days'  unsuccessful  treatment  by  the  established  methods,  the  phy- 
sician might  adopt  others,  without  incurring  responisbility.  The 
extreme  subdivision  of  the  profession,  unless  counteracted  by  a 
comprehensive  education,  must  have  tended  to  reduce  medical 
practice  to  a  very  mechanical  art. 

In  later  ages  at  least  the  Egyptian  art  of  medicine  was  much 
contaminated  by  astrology.  This  mixed  science  was  called  Iatro- 
mathematic*.  It  was  the  natural  result  of  the  opinion,  which,  as 
we  may  infer  from  the  monuments5,  prevailed  in  very  remote  times, 
that  the  sun  and  constellations  had  an  influence  on  different  parts 
of  the  human  body  according  to  the  place  in  the  heavens  which 
they  occupied. 

1  Diod.  1,  80. 

2  1,  82.  According  to  Horapollo,  1,  38,  one  of  these  books,  treating  of 
symptoms,  was  galled  Ambres. 

3  Arist.  Polit.  3,  10.  Kivslv  is  to  innovate  on  existing  institutions  (Plat. 
Hipp.  Maj.  284  B). 

4  Zoega  de  Or.  Obelise.  523.    Lobeck,  Aglaophamus,  927. 

6  Champollion,  Lettres  d'Egypte,  239,  gives  an  account  of  such  a  table  of 
solar  and  stellar  influence,  in  a  royal  tomb  at  Thebes. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


RELIGION. 
SECT.    L  THEOLOGY. 

The  ceremonial  religion  of  the  Egyptians  is  known  to  us  in  more 
complete  detail  from  paintings  and  sculptures  than  that  of  any 
other  nation  ;  but  when  we  endeavor  to  penetrate  into  the  con- 
ceptions which  this  splendid  ritual  expressed,  we  encounter  insu- 
perable difficulties.  It  was  not  the  practice  of  the  ministers  of 
ancient  religions  to  reduce  theological  belief  into  precise  dogmatic 
forms  ;  the  names  by  which  the  deities  were  to  be  invoked,  the 
prayers  to  be  addressed  and  the  sacrifices  to  be  offered  to  them, 
were  fixed  by  usage  or  positive  regulation  ;  but  the  ideas  attached 
to  the  name  invoked  varied  with  the  worshipper's  state  of  intellec- 
tual culture.  This  is  to  a  certain  extent  true  of  all  religious  con- 
ceptions ;  they  are  refined  or  gross,  elevated  or  low,  according  to 
the  mental  state  of  the  believer.  Religions,  however,  established 
on  the  authority  of  Revelation  naturally  seek  to  confine  this  variety 
within  the  narrowest  possible  limits.  The  Egyptian  religion,  on 
the  contrary,  was  even  more  indefinite  than  those  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans,  among  whom  an  historical  mythology  gave  an  objective 
reality  and  fixedness  to  the  religious  conceptions,  which  mere 
intellectual  abstractions,  such  as  Egyptian  art  symbolized,  could 
not  possess. 

Xo  work  written  by  an  Egyptian  priest  or  theologian  remains 
to  reveal  the  religious  system  of  his  countrymen.  We  know  the 
theological  writings  of  Manetho  only  partially  and  at  second-hand 
through  Plutarch  ;  Herodotus  has  preserved  some  valuable  infor- 
mation about  the  external  religion  of  Egypt,  and  occasionally  a 


294 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


sacerdotal  tradition  respecting  the  gods  of  the  temples  which  he 
visited.  But  if  he  derived  from  the  priests  any  more  abstruse 
information  respecting  their  religious  system,  he  has  not  recorded 
it.  He  often  suppresses  what  he  had  been  told,  from  religious 
scruples,  but  it  is  evident  that  what  he  shrunk  from  repeating  were 
tales  of  the  sufferings  of  the  gods,  especially  Osiris1,  or  revolting 
circumstances  connected  with  religious  rites,  not  the  truths  of  a 
more  profound  or  spiritual  theology.  The  revelations  which  they 
may  have  made  to  Pythagoras,  in  his  longer  and  more  intimate 
acquaintance  with  them,  have  nearly  all  been  buried  in  the  same 
mysterious  silence  as  his  own  doctrines2.  It  is  probable  that  the 
familiarity  of  Plato  with  their  theological  system  had  a  great 
influence  upon  the  form  in  which  he  promulgated  his  conceptions 
of  the  divine  nature;  but  we  derive  little  knowledge  of  this  country 
from  his  works,  beyond  an  occasional  allusion  and  a  testimony  to 
the  high  antiquity  and  unchangeable  character  of  all  its  institu- 
tions3. 

Diodorus  gives  an  account  of  the  Egyptian  religion  in  his  first 
book4,  drawn  from  different  and  not  always  accordant  sources.  ; 
but  throughout  it  is  evident  that  those  from  whom  his  information 
was  derived  were  eager  to  connect  the  Egyptian  theology  with  the 
Greek  ;  and  not  so  much  to  explain  what  it  was  in  itself,  and  in 
its  primary  conception,  as  to  find  in  it  analogies  to  the  Greek 
mythology,  favoring  the  claim  of  Egypt  to  be  the  native  country 
of  the  Greek  gods.  The  sun,  moon  and  elements,  forming  the 
body  of  the  universe,  were  according  to  him  the  original  divinities, 

1  2.  62,  132,  171. 

2  Pythagoras  tantum  non  omnia  institutioni  sacerdotum  ^Egyptiorum 
debet,  in  iis  etiam,  ut  credo,  quae  sibi  ipsi  ascripsit.  (Jablonsky,  Proleg.  p. 
xlix*)  But  the  proof  of  this  comprehensive  statement  is  not  even  attempted 
by  the  learned  writer.  The  assertion  also  that  Thales  borrowed  from  Egypt 
his  doctrine  "  that  God  was  the  Intellect  which  formed  all  things  from 
water,"  is  made  without  proof.    (Proleg.  p.  xlvii.) 

3  Tim.  iii.  22.  4  Hist.  1,  6-26. 


SECT.  I.— THEOLOGY. 


295 


the  two  first  bearing  the  names  of  Osiris  and  Isis,  Jupiter  being 
the  vivifying  spirit,  Vulcan  fire,  Demeter  the  earth,  Oceanus  or  the 
Nile  the  watery  element,  and  Minerva  the  air.  *  These  were  the 
heavenly  and  immortal  gods  ;  but  besides  these  there  were  others, 
some  bearing  the  same,  some  different  names  from  the  immortals, 
who  had  been  rulers  of  Egypt,  or  for  some  other  merit  had  been 
placed  in  the  rank  of  divinity.  It  is  evident  that  we  have  here  the 
result  of  an  attempt  to  combine  two  different  explanations,  the 
physical  and  the  historical  ;  and  as  the  latter  finds  no  countenance 
in  the  older  work  of  Herodotus,  it  was  probably  devised  after  the 
Egyptians  became  familiar  with  the  Greek  mythology.  For  it  was 
part  of  this  historical  system,  that  these  illustrious  persons  had  not 
only  during  their  lives  conferred  great  benefits  on  Egypt,  but  had 
traversed  the  world  for  the  same  purpose,  and  had  been  received 
as  divinities,  though  under  different  names,  by  the  inhabitants  of 
other  countries.  Inscriptions  were  feigned,  to  give  plausibility  to 
this  opinion.  Thus  at  Nysa  in  Arabia,  according  to  an  account 
recorded  by  Diodorus1,  two  columns  were  found,  one  of  Isis,  the 
other  of  Osiris,  on  the  latter  of  which  the  god  declared  that  he 
had  led  an  army  to  India,  to  the  sources  of  the  Danube,  and  as 
far  as  the  ocean.  This, if  not  immediately  borrowed  from  Manetho, 
as  the  words  of  Eusebius  seem  to  imply2,  was  at  least  derived  from 
him,  and  shows  that  even  he  wrote  with  the  Greek  mythology 
before  his  mind,  and  adapted  to  it  his  explanation  of  the  Egyptian 
religion.  For  there  is  nothing  in  history,  or  in  the  monuments, 
which  indicates  that  the  gods  of  Egypt  were  really  deified  men. 

1  1,  28. 

2  Tpd<j)£i  ical  tu  Trepi  tovtuv  n'ka.TVTepov  [xev  6  MaveBof  eTrcTeTfj.ijfj.evo)Q  6e 
6  Aiodupoz.  (Euseb.  Pnep.  Ev.  3,  2.)  He  naturally  asks,  what  propriety 
there  could  be  in  human  giving  names  to  the  parts  of  Nature :  but  accord- 
ing to  the  view  which  the  Christian  Fathers  usually  adopted,  he  considers 
the  human  origin  of  the  gods  the  true  one,  the  connexion  with  the  elements 
as  a  fiction.    (Ib.  p.  91.) 


296 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


Under  the  later  Greek  sovereigns  and  Roman  emperors,  the 
worship  of  Egyptian  deities  spread  very  extensively  beyond  the 
limits  of  Egypt.  The  rites  and  doctrines  of  this  religion,  by  their 
solemnity  and  mysticism,  revived  for  a  while  the  faith  which  the 
established  system  had  no  longer  the  power  to  excite  ;  miraculous 
cures  and  other  benefits,  obtained  by  the  votaries  of  Isis1  or  Serapis, 
nourished  this  faith  ;  the  credit  which  the  ancient  oracles  had  lost 
was  transferred  to  the  dreams  which  they  sent  to  their  worshippers, 
or  divinations  practised  in  their  temples.  Curiosity  was  awakened 
to  gain  some  deeper  insight  into  the  meaning  of  the  figures  and 
emblems  of  its  gods,  and  the  sense  hidden  in  the  dark  allegories 
by  which  its  tenets  were  rather  concealed  than  expressed.  The 
priesthood  no  longer  possessed  any  power  to  prevent  the  disclosure 
of  their  secrets.  A  philosopher  like  Plutarch  did  not  disdain  to 
write  his  learned  treatise  c?e  Iside  et  Osiride,  addressed  to  Clea, 
the  chief  of  the  Thyades,  or  female  ministers  of  the  Bacchic  or- 
gies at  Delphi2.  She  had  been  initiated  by  her  father  and  mother 
into  the  mysteries  of  Osiris3  ;  but  Plutarch  wished  to  communicate 
to  her  more  lofty  and  philosophical  views  of  the  Egyptian  the- 
ology than  those  taught  by  the  Isiac  priests,  who  in  this  age  ap- 
pear to  have  been  selfish  impostors,  preying  on  the  credulity  of 
the  superstitious,  and  themselves  entirely  ignorant  of  the  real 
meaning  of  the  rites  into  which  they  initiated  others.  The  Egyp- 
tian learning  which  he  has  brought  together  makes  his  treatise  the 
most  comprehensive  and  valuable  of  all  the  ancient  writings  on 
this  subject,  and  many  curious  facts  are  preserved  in  it  respecting 
religious  usages  and  doctrines.    But  when  he  explains  the  origin 

1  Diod.  1,  25. 

2  There  was  a  temple  of  Isis,  the  most  sacred  of  any  dedicated  by  the 
Greeks  to  her  worship,  at  Tithorea,  near  Delphi  (Paus.  10,  32). 

3  De  Is.  et  Os.  p.  364  E.  The  genuineness  of  this  treatise  of  Plutarch  has 
not  escaped  the  scepticism  of  the  German  critics,  but  the  name  is  of  no 
great  importance. 


SECT.  I. — THEOLOGY. 


297 


and  design  of  these  usages,  and  the  primary  meaning  of  the  alle- 
gorical and  symbolical  language  in  which  theology  was  clothed,  it 
is  evident  from  the  variety  and  uncertainty  of  his  explanations  that 
they  are  merely  the  conjectures  of  ingenious  theorists,  among 
which  the  author  chooses  that  which  best  accorded  with  his  own 
views.  His  knowledge  was  derived  from  Greek  books,  without 
actual  inspection  of  Egypt,  or  power  to  interpret  its  monuments. 
Manetho  is  the  earliest  writer  whom  he  quotes,  and  his  chief  au- 
thority. Plutarch  himself  explains  the  mythic  history  of  Osiris, 
Isis  and  Typhon,  as  an  allegory  of  the  contest  of  the  two  princi- 
ples in  nature.  We  must  therefore  receive  his  essay,  not  as  an  au- 
thorized exposition  of  the  Egyptian  theology,  but  as  an  ingenious 
attempt  to  extract  from  it  a  connected  and  rational  system,  in 
which  however  much  knowledge  is  incidentally  preserved. 

The  disposition  to  bring  the  doctrines  of  Egyptian  theology  into 
harmony  with  Greek  philosophy  is  more  glaring  in  the  later  Pla- 
tonists,  and  makes  such  writers  as  Porphyry,  Iamblichus,  Proclus, 
Damascius,  little  to  be  depended  upon  in  forming  an  idea  of  the 
original  religion  of  Egypt.  In  the  age  in  which  they  lived,  the 
long  intercourse  of  the  Egyptians  with  the  Greeks  had  produced  a 
considerable  assimilation  between  them, and  an  endeavor  mutually 
to  accommodate. their  systems.  These  Neo-Platonists  or  Eclectics 
had  in  fact  admitted  into  their  philosophy  much  that  had  an 
Egyptian  or  Oriental  origin,  besides  giving  to  the  doctrines  of 
Plato  and  Pythagoras  such  modifications  as  would  adapt  them 
to  their  purpose  of  establishing  a  system  which,  in  doctrine  and 
morals,  might  be  an  effectual  antagonist  to  Christianity.  The 
Egyptians  themselves  knew  little  respecting  the  original  import 
of  their  own  theology  in  this  age,  and  the  knowledge  of  the 
sacred  character  was  nearly  lost1. 

The  attempts  made  between  the  revival  of  letters  and  the  dis- 
covery of  the  hieroglyphics,  to  reconstruct  the  system  of  Egyptian 

1  See  p.  242  of  this  volume. 
13* 


298 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


theology,  were  fruitless.  Two  writers  of  the  eighteenth  century 
advanced  as  far  as  it  was  possible  to  do,  while  the  key  to  Egyptian 
antiquity  was  wanting.  Jablonsky,in  his  Pantheon  jEgyptiorum* 
by  the  careful  collection  of  everything  which  the  ancients  have  left 
us  on  this  subject, greatly  facilitated  the  labors  of  every  subsequent 
inquirer;  but  the  truth  was  not  to  be  discovered  by  any  comparison 
or  combination  of  what  the  ancients  had  written  ;  and  the  scanti- 
ness of  all  information  from  the  times  when  the  Egyptian  theology 
was  a  living  system,  compelled  him  to  build  to  an  unsafe  extent 
upon  the  foundation  of  the  later  Platonists  and  Pythagoreans,  and 
the  Orphic  and  Hermetic  books.  His  knowledge  of  the  Coptic 
language,  however,  which  he  justly  assumed  to  be  in  substance  the 
same  with  the  ancient  Egyptian,  enabled  him  to  throw  some  light 
from  etymology,  both  on  the  titles  and  attributes  of  the  Egyptian 
gods  and  the  names  of  their  early  kings,  into  which  the  names  of 
the  gods  frequently  enter.  Zoega3,  directing  his  attention  prima- 
rily'to  fche  monuments  of  Egypt,  cleared  away  many  errors  of  long 
standing  respecting  the  uses  of  the  obelisks  and  pyramids,  and 
approximated  to  a  true  conception  of  Egyptian  antiquity  as  closely 
as  it  was  possible  to  do,  by  the  combination  of  learning  and  saga- 
city, before  the  language  of  the  monuments  was  understood. 

The  discovery  of  the  Rosetta  Stone  led  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
group  of  characters  expressing  the  name  of  the  god  Ptah3 ;  and 
when  the  phonetic  alphabet  was  once  established,  many  others 
were  rapidly  ascertained.  The  name  of  the  divinity  is  frequently 
written  over  or  beside  his  sculptured  or  painted  figure,  and  from 
these  sources  Wilkinson4  and  Champollion  restored  with  little 
uncertainty  the  Egyptian  Pantheon.  In  some  respects  it  corre- 
sponds with  the  accounts  of  the  ancients,  but  in  many  differs  from 

1  Francf.  ad  Viadr.  2  vols.  8vo.  1750. 

2  De  origincet  usu  Obeliscorum.    Romse,  1797,  fol. 
d  See  PI.  IV.,  the  shield  of  Ptolemy. 

4  Wilkinson,  Materia  Hieroglyphiea,  published  at  Malta,  1828. 


SECT.   I. — THEOLOGY 


299 


them.  In  the  further  progress  of  the  hieroglyphical  discoveries,, 
the  legends  which  accompany  the  figures  of  the  deities  have  also 
been  interpreted.  They  appear  to  contain  a  declaration  of  their 
parentage,  their  attributes  and  opefations  ;  but,  for  reasons  pre- 
viously assigned,  we  have  used  them  sparingly  and  cautiously,  as 
evidence  of  the  religious  system  of  the  ancient  Egyptians.  Be- 
yond a  few  formulary  phrases,  fixed  by  bilingual  inscriptions,  or 
whose  frequent  recurrence  gives  some  security  to  their  meaning, 
we  cannot  place  implicit  reliance  on  the  interpretations  even  of 
the  most  sagacious  writers.  The  interpretation  of  the  papyri 
which  accompany  the  mummies  is  still  more  obscure,  from  the 
mysterious  nature  of  their  subject  ;  and  had  they  been  more  con- 
vincingly deciphered,  their  authority  would  be  doubtful,  as  they 
do  not  represent  the  public  religion  of  the  country. 

The  distribution  of  their  sovereigns  into  dynasties  seems  to  have 
suggested  to  the  Egyptians  a  similar  arrangements  of  their  gods, 
but  in  a  sense  somewhat  different  ;  the  dynasty  of  sovereigns  com- 
prehending several  generations,  whereas  one  god  reigned  through 
the  whole  of  a  dynasty1.  Vulcan  or  Ptahissaid  to  have  been  the 
first,  succeeded  by  his  son,  the  Sun,  Agathodsemon, Cronos, Osiris, 
Typhon.  Horus,  the  son  of  Osiris  and  Isis2,  was  the  first  of  those 
who  succeeded  the  gods,  and  are  called  in  the  Greek  of  Syncellus 
7'jj.ideoi,  in  the  Latin  of  Eusebius  heroes,  by  whom  the  Egyptians 
understood,  not  heroes  or  demigods  in  the  Grecian  sense, as  beings 
having  one  mortal,  one  divine  parent,  but  gods  of  an  inferior 
order,  Mars,  Anubis,  Hercules,  Amnion  being  reckoned  among 
them.  Herodotus  makes  the  reiom  of  mortal  kino;s  immediatelv 
to  have  succeeded  that  of  Horus,  the  son  of  Osiris.  To  the 
demigods  are  said  by  Manetho  to  have  succeeded  "  dead  men," 

1  Herod.  2,  144.  To  Kpbrepov  r&v  avdgC)v  deoiq  elvac  tov$  kv  AtyvKTu 
apxovTac,  oiKeovTrzg  ufxa  toIol  uiOpu~oicc  /cai  rnvruv  a  lei  i  i>  a  tov 
k  par  e  ov  t  a  elv  a  t.    But  he  does  not  use  the  term  dynasty. 

1  Svncell.  p.  13. 


300 


/ 

ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


reuvss,  manes,  whom  the  Egyptians  appear  from  tins  collocation  of 
them  to  have  considered  as  forming  the  lowest  link  between  the 
divine  and  human  nature,  and  therefore  as  the  immediate  prede- 
cessors of  earthly  sovereigns.*"  To  these  dynasties  long  periods  of 
domination  are  arbitrarily  ascribed,  which  the  Christian  chronol- 
ogers  endeavored  to  reconcile  with  the  Scriptures  by  summarily 
reducing  the  years  of  the  Egyptian  reckoning  to  lunar  months, 
or  even  single  days1. 

The  papyrus  called  the  Hieratical  Canon  of  Turin,  shows  that 
in  the  remote  age  in  which  it  was  written,  probably  that  of  Rame- 
ses  the  Great,  dynasties  of  gods  were  supposed  to  have  preceded 
Menes,but  from  its  torn  condition  no  exact  agreement  can  be  made 
out.  Seb  (Saturn),  Osiris  or  Isis,  Seth  or  Typhon,  Horns,  Thoth, 
Thmei,  are  the  only  gods  whose  names  remain  ;  corresponding 
nearly  with  the  succession  giv^en  by  Manetho2. 

The  dwelling  of  the  gods  among  men  and  their  personally  ruling 
over  them  belongs  to  a  natural  and  widely  diffused  conception  of 
primaeval  times,  as  distinguished  for  purity,  and  therefore  honored 
by  the  intimacy  of  superior  natures.  It  has  nothing  historical. 
Some  motive,  however, must  have  regulated  the  distribution  of  the 
gods  into  successive  dynasties.  It  was  natural  that  the  earliest 
dominion  should  be  attributed  to  the  greater  gods,  and  that  Ptah, 
who  represented  the  elemental  fire,  and  was  the  father  of  the  Sun, 
should  be  placed  at  the  commencement  of  the  whole  series.  But 
we  cannot  infer  anything  from  this  arrangement  respecting  the 
successive  ascendency  of  different  religious  systems  in  Egypt,  or 
conclude  that  the  worship  of  Ptah  was  really  older  than  that  of 
Osiris.  There  was  an  obvious  physical  reason  why  the  god  of  fire 
should  be  made  to  precede  the  god  of  the  sun.  So  in  the  arrange - 

1  Euseb.  Arm.  1,  cap.  19.  Suidas,  Lex.  s.  voc.  "HQatoroc.  klyvirTLoi 
T7/v  TzepLodov  r//c  y/uipag  ivi0VTov  tleyov. 

-  Le  Sueur,  Chronologic,  p.  307,  pi.  xi. :  Birch,  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit,  1, 
203,  Svo. 


SECT.   I. — THEOLOGY. 


301 


mcnt  of  the  Greek  divinities,  Ouranos  and  Ghe  (Heaven  and  Earth) 
are  naturally  placed  before  Cronos  (Time),  as  Cronos  before  Jupi- 
ter. Yet  there  is  no  trace  of  2  period  in  Greek  history  when  Ura- 
nus and  Cronos  were  worshipped,  and  Jupiter  was  yet  unknown  as 
H  deity,  or  only  deemed  subordinate  to  the  others,  as  there  is  Done 
in  Egyptian  history  of  Ptah  or  the  Sun  being  worshipped  while 
Osiris  and  Isis  had  no  place  in  the  Pantheon. 

The  papyrus  of  Turin,  from  its  mutilated  condition,  affording  us 
no  satisfactory  evidence  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Egyptians 
arranged  their  gods,  Herodotus  is  on  this  point  our  oldest  authori- 
ty1. He  says  that  there  were  eight  gods  originally,  and  that  Pan 
and  Leto  belonged  to  this  number  ;  that  from  these,  twelve  were 
produced,  of  whom  he  specifies  only  Hercules  ;  and  again  a  third 
set  from  the  second,  whose  number  he  does  not  specify,  to  which 
Dionysus  (Osiris)  belonged.  Xo  o*her  ancient  writer  mentions 
this  threefold  series  of  the  Egyptian  gods  ;  it  does  not  corre- 
spond, with  Manetho's  division  into  gods,  demigods  and  manes  ; 
nor  do  we  find  traces  in  the  monuments  of  any  such  classification. 
Nevertheless  we  cannot  doubt  that  in  the  time  of  Herodotus  these 
three  series  were  distinguished  ;  only  we  are  not  called  upon  to 
receive  the  chronology  which  reckoned  17,000  years  from  Amasis 
to  the  origin  of  the  twelve  gods,  nor  even  to  admit  that  there 
was  any  real  succession  among  the  three  groups  into  which  they 
were  divided,  or  that  they  represent  the  ascendency  of  the  differ- 
ent bodies  of  priests. 

1  2,  43.  'Apxcuo~  tIc  tare  Oedg  Kiyvwriolai  'HoariJqg'  ug  ds  avrol  ?.iyovai 
irtd  eart  t^ranKjxO-La  icai  uvpia  t;  "Auaaiv  Bacu.evcavra,  e~ei  re  k  k  tuv 
oktu  B  euv  oi  dv  6  6  e  na  0  e  01  iyevovTO\uv  UpaxXea  iva  voju.i^ovai. 
2,46.  Tbv  Uuva  tuv  oktu  Beuv  Xoyl^oirai  elvai  oi  'Mevdi/oior  rove 
6  i  6ktu  6  e  ov  g  r  ov  r  o  v  ; ,  rrpoTtpovg  tuv  dvudenu  Beuv  <paai  yevicOai.  2, 
145,  he  says  that  "  Pan  was  a  very  ancient  god,  one  of  the  eight  who  are 
called  the  first ;  Hercules  of  the  second,  who  are  said  to  be  twelve ;  Bac- 
chus" (Osiris)  "of  the  third" — oi  iic  tuv  dvudeKa  Beuv  iyevovTO,  2,  136. 
Atjtu,  tuv  oktu  Beuv  tuv  TtpuToi  yevopevuv 


302 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


Of  those  who  have  endeavored  to  assign  its  primary  meaning 
to  the  Egyptian  religion,  some  have  represented  it  as  simply  ma- 
terial, the  elements  and  heavenly  bodies  being  themselves  the  gods, 
without  any  pervading  and  presiding  intellect.  "  The  philosophy 
of  the  Egyptians  concerning  the  gods,"  says  Diogenes  Laertius  , 
' '  is  this,  that  matter  was  the  beginning  of  all  things  ;  that  from 
it  the  four  elements  were  separated,  and  some  animals  formed  ; 
that  the  Sun  and  Moon  are  gods,*  one  called  Osiris,  the  other  Isis. " 
Eusebius2  says  that  the  Egyptians  believed  the  world  was  god, 
and  that  different  gods  made  up  its  parts,  but  did  not  admit  any 
intellectual  principle.  He  quotes  Chseremon  also  as  asserting, 
that  the  Egyptians  had  no  other  gods  than  the  visible  universe, 
the  sun,  moon  and  planets.  Others  sought  its  explanation  in  a 
system  of  metaphysical  conceptions  respecting  the  Divine  nature 
and  the  manifestations  of  Divine  power.  The  following  passage, 
from  the  older  Hermetic  Books,  quoted  by  Iamblichus3,  will 
show  how  the  doctrines  of  Greek  philosophy  were  combined 
with  those  of  Egyptian  mythology  : — ■ 

1 '  Before  all  the  things  that  actually  exist,  and  before  all  begin- 
nings, there  is  one  God,  prior  even  to  the  first  god  and  king,  re- 
maining unmoved  in  the  singleness  of  his  own  Unity  :  for  neither 
is  anything  conceived  by  intellect  inwoven  with  him,  nor  any 
thing  else  ;  but  he  is  established  as  the  exemplar  of  the  god  who 
is  good,  who  is  his  own  father,  self-begotten,  and  has  only  one 
parent.  For  he  is  something  greater  and  prior  to,  and  the  foun- 
tain of  all  things,  and  the  foundation  of  things  conceived  by  the 
intellect,  which  are  the  first  species.  And  from  this  One  the  self- 
originated  god  caused  himself  to  shine  forth  ;  for  which  reason  he 
is  his  own  father  and  self-originated.   For  he  is  both  a  beginning 

1  Proem.  12. 

2  Froep.  Ev.  iii.  3,  9.  AlyvxTtuv  6  Aoyog  tov  koc/iov  elvai  tov  Qeov  yerti 
Ik  irAeiovuv  Oeuv  tCjv  avrov  ueotiv  avveoTUTa. 

8  Cory's  Ancient  Frag.,  p.  283. 


SECT.   I. — THEOLOGY. 


303 


and  god  of  gods,  a  monad  from  the  One,  prior  to  substance  and 
the  beginning  of  substance  ;  for  from  him  is  substantiality  and 
substance  :  whence  also  he  is  called  the  beginning  of  things  con- 
ceived by  the  intellect.  These  then  are  the  most  ancient  begin- 
nings of  all  things,  which  Hermes  places  before  the  ethereal  and 
empyrean  and  celestial  gods.  But  according  to  another  arrange- 
ment he  places  thegodEmeph  "  (probably  Kneph)  "  as  leader  of 
the  celestial  gods,  whom  he  declares  to  be  Intellect  conceiving  it- 
self, and  turning  its  conceptions  upon  itself.  Before  this  he 
places  the  one  indivisible  and  what  he  calls  the  first  image1  and 
names  Eicton- ,  in  which  indeed  is  the  first  that  conceives  and  the 
first  that  is  conceived  ;  on  which  account  it  is  worshipped  in  si- 
lence only.  In  addition  to  these,  other  rulers  preside  over  the  cre- 
ation of  visible  things  :  for  the  creative  intellect,  presiding  both 
over  truth  and  wisdom,  when  it  proceeds  to  production  and  leads 
forth  into  light  the  secret  power  of  the  hidden  reasons,  is  called 
A mon  in  the  Egyptian  xongue.  And  when  it  perfects  all  things 
without  falsehood,  but  according  to  art  with  truth,  Ptha  :  but  the 
Greeks  change  Ptha  into  Hephaistus,  attending  only  to  the  techni- 
cal. And  as  being  a  producer  of  good  things  it  is  called  Osiris  ; 
and  has  other  names  in  virtue  of  other  powers  and  operations. 

' '  There  is  also  among  them  another  presidency  over  all  the  ele- 
ments that  are  concerned  in  production  and  their  powers,  four 
male,  four  female,  which  they  assign  to  the  Sun  ;  and  another  do- 
minion over  all  nature,  as  concerned  in  production,  which  they 
give  to  the  Moon.  And  dividing  the  heaven  into  two  parts  or  four, 
or  twelve  or  thirty-six,  or  the  double  of  these,  they  place  at  the 
head  of  them  more  or  fewer,  and  set  over  them  all  one  superior  to 

1  TlptiTov  fidyev/ja,  which  seems  to  be  here  used  in  the  same  sense  as  tK/xa- 
ytlov  (Suid.  kKTVTTo/j.a'  uTroafpaycG/xa).  See  Tim.  Locr.  p.  534  E.,  where 
Matter  is  called  iKfiayelov,  as  receiving  likenesses  into  itself  from  the  Idea, 
which  is  the  Trapddeiyfj.a  rdv  yevvupevuv.    Wyttenb.  ad  Plut.  373  A. 

2  From  sIkcj,  to  resemble. 


304 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


tliem.  And  thus  from  first  to  last  the  whole  system  of  the  Egyp- 
tians, in  regard  to  the  beginnings,  sets  out  from  one  and  advances 
to  a  plurality  ;  the  many  again  being  guided  by  one,  and  the  na- 
ture of  the  unlimited  being  everywhere  controlled  by  some  lim- 
ited measure,  and  by  the  supreme  Unity  the  cause  of  all." 

That  the  Egyptians,  in  the  age  of  this  writer,  expounded  their 
own  mythology  into  the  metaphysical  system  here  set  forth,  is  not 
to  be  doubted.  Whether  they  had  done  so  before  they  became  ac- 
quainted with  the  Greek  philosophy  is  less  certain.  Yet  the  resi- 
dence of  Pythagoras  and  Plato  in  Egypt1  makes  it  not  improba- 
ble that  the  resemblance  to  their  metaphysical  doctrines  which  ap- 
pears in  the  foregoing  extract  maybe  owing  to  their  communica- 
tions with  its  priests.  The  Pythagorean  rules  of  diet  and  disci- 
pline, so  minute  and  fanciful,  bear  strong  marks  of  being  trans- 
ferred from  the  practice  of  the  sacerdotal  order  in  Egypt.  It  is 
another  question  whether  the  Hermetic  doctrines  represent  the 
true  and  primary  conceptions  of  Egyptian  theology.  There  is 
nothing  in  the  symbols.by  which  the  gods  are  distinguished,  to  in- 
dicate that  they  denoted  such  abstract  notions,  nor  in  the  frag- 
ments of  their  mythological  history  to  show  that  they  stood  in 
such  a  relation  to  each  other.  The  lepol  \6yoi,  which  Herodotus 
relates,  resemble  the  mythological  tales  which  in  other  countries 
were  told  of  the  gods,  not  mystical  or  metaphysical  doctrines.  It 
would  have  been  singular  if  among  the  most  cultivated  people  of 
early  antiquity  a  theosophy  had  not  been  formed,  of  which  tfie  ob- 
ject was  to  refine  away  the  gross  conceptions  in  which  the  primitive 
legends,  symbols  and  rites  of  religion  originate,  and  engraft  upon 
traditionary  mythology  the  speculative  philosophy  of  a  later  age. 

A  strong  presumption  against  any  interpretation,  which  supposes 
the  Egyptian  religion  to  contain  a  system,  whether  of  physical, 
metaphysical  or  other  truth,  arises  from  the  fact,  that  it  does  not 

1  See  the  passages  quoted  in  the  notes  of  Menage  on  Diogenes  Laertius, 
Pythag.  3,  Plat.  7. 


SECT.  I. — THEOLOGY. 


305 


appear  to  have  been  systematically  conceived  and  projected  ;  but 
to  have  been  fashioned  into  a  whole  by  the  agglutination  of  partsv 
having  a  separate  origin.  From  various  passages  in  Herodotus  it 
is  obvious,  that  the  worship  of  the  different  gods  was  established 
by  the  inhabitants  of  the  several  noraes1,  and  this  division  of  wor- 
ship goes  as  far  back  as  the  origin  of  the  monarchy2.  There  must 
indeed  have  been  a  certain  unity  of  religious  conception  in  the  mind 
of  the  nation,  otherwise  we  cannot  understand  that  political  unity 
which  belonged  to  them  in  the  earliest  recorded  period  of  history 
But  this  unity  of  religious  conception  is  rather  a  national  agree- 
ment in  the  mode  of  expressing  the  religious  sentiment  which  is 
common  to  mankind  than  the  united  belief  of  a  theological  sys- 
tem, devised  by  common  consent,  or  imposed  on  all  by  some  supe- 
rior authority.  So  we  find  one  language,  with  dialectic  differences, 
prevailing  along  with  other  circumstances  which  constitute  national 
unity  ;  it  is  essential  to  that  sympathy  without  which  the  social 
union  could  not  be  formed.  It  does  not  however  show  itself  by 
the  existence  of  a  parent  language  of  which  the  several  dialects  are 
the  offspring  ;  nowhere  can  we  establish  historically  the  existence 
of  such  a  language  ;  but  in  a  general  conformity  of  mental  concep- 
tion and  vocal  expression,  characterizing  the  whole  nation,  yet  dif- 
ferenced at  the  same  time  by  local  or  other  influences.  So  the 
unity  of  the  Egyptian  people  implies  such  a  degree  of  accordance 
in  religious  conception  that  they  could  all  join  in  a  common  wor- 
ship, and  receive  as  divine  the  deities  whom  their  neighbors  spe- 
cially adored  ;  but  by  no  means  that  the  whole  theological  system 
existed  in  its  integrity,  previous  to  the  commencement  of  history, 
and  that  different  nomes  selected  from  it  the  gods  of  their  local 
worship.   It  seems  more  probable,  that  from  a  multitude  of  reli- 

1  "Ocol  fiiv  Atof  Qrjfiauoq  idpvvTai  ipov,  7}  vofxov  tov  Qrjpatov  elm,  ovroi 
fiev  vlv  TiavTeg  otcjv  aTcexbiievoL,  ulyag  ■dvovof  6001  <$£  tov  Msydr/ro;  £K.t7]vto.l 
Ipuv,  7)  vofiov  tov  Nevdrjoiov  elal,  ovroi  63  aiytiv  u-Kexofievoi,  dig  Ovovai. 
Her  2,  42. 

2  Manetho,  Dyn.  2,  2. 


30G 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


gious  conceptions,  formed  and  embodied  with  a  pervading  resem. 
blance  and  community  of  character,  such  as  one  people  would 
naturally  exhibit,  a  system  was  subsequently  constructed,  allowing 
each  local  deity  his  separate  honors,  and  the  supreme  veneration 
of  his  original  votaries,  but  also  giving  to  them  a  subordination  of 
power  and  division  of  functions, which  they  did  not  before  possess. 

Such  an  origin  will  best  explain  the  extraordinary  intermixture 
and  confusion  of  the  characters  and  functions  of  the  Egyptian  gods. 
In  their  visible  symbols  and  in  their  names  they  appear  at  first 
sight  to  be  distinct,  and  there  is  usually  some  office  prominently 
assigned  to  every  one  ;  but  on  further  examination  we  find  that 
each  assumes  occasionally  the  attributes  of  the  others,  and  that  a 
permanent  line  of  demarcation  cannot  be  drawn  between  them. 
Those  which  appear  usually  in  an  inferior  rank  are  at  times 
invested  with  the  titles  of  supreme  divinity.  This  too  was  a  natural 
consequence  of  a  local  origin  ;  to  the  people  of  each  nome  their 
own  special  god  would  become  the  chief  object  of  worship  ;  the 
inhabitant  of  the  Thebais  would  attribute  to  his  Amun,of  Memphis 
to  his  Ptah,  of  Sais  to  his  Neith,  the  offices  and  operation  of  the 
head  of  the  system.  And  besides  this,  reflecting  men  would  natu- 
rally endeavor  to  bring  back  the  diversity  of  persons  and  attributes 
in  the  popular  theology  to  the  idea  of  a  primitive  and  controlling 
unity.  For  we  find  everywnere,  in  the  civilized  ancient  world,  a 
belief  in  one  supreme  power,  co-existing  with  polytheism,  either  as 
the  result  of  a  primaeval  revelation  of  this  doctrine,  or  of  that  con- 
viction of  a  unity  of  purpose  and  administration  which  forces  itself 
upon  the  mind,  from  its  own  consciousness  of  a  moral  and  intel- 
lectual unity,  and  from  the  observation  of  the  external  world. 

Still  the  historical  fact  remains,  recorded  by  Herodotus,  and 
liable  to  no  doubt,  that  the  Egyptians  had  a  threefold  division  of 
their  gods,  into  eight,  twelve,  and  an  indefinite  number.  It  is 
not  quite  clear  from  his  language,  whether  the  twelve  were  the  off- 
spring of  the  eight,  so  that  the  whole  number  became  twenty,  or 


SECT.  I. — THEOLOGY. 


307 


whether  the  number  twelve  included  the  eight,  so  that  only  four 
new  deities  were  added  to  the  list.  It  has  been  generally  taken  for 
granted,  that  the  eight  were  the  only  original  gods,  and  that  in 
them  we  have  the  germ  of  the  theological  system  of  the  Egyp- 
tians. Thus  Jablonsky1  supposes  that  this  ogdoad  was  made  up  of 
the  seven  planets  and  Ptah,  the  supreme  intelligence  which  pre- 
sided over  the  universe.  But  he  confesses,  that  of  such  a  worship 
of  the  heavenly  bodies  he  finds  no  mention  in  Herodotus,  and 
scarcely  any  in  later  writers  ;  and  he  is  compelled  to  suppose  that 
some  other  meaning  was  substituted  to  the  astronomical  in  very 
early  times.  The  monuments  give  no  countenance  to  this  sup- 
position of  an  astronomical  origin. 

Others  again  have  supposed  that  the  eight  gods  formed  a  system 
in  which  a  gradual  progression  from  concealment  to  manifestation 
in  the  divine  energy  is  shadowed  forth2,  and  others  have  merely 
selected  those  which  from  their  importance  and  antiquity  seemed 
to  have  the  most  plausible  claim  to  be  reckoned  among  the  eight 
gods.  In  all  such  arrangements  and  distributions  there  must  be 
much  that  is  arbitrary  ;  yet  the  division  into  eight3  and  twelve  no 

2  "  Septem  germanos  (in  a  passage  of  Martianus  Capella)  quis  non  agnoscat 
totidem  planetas,  per  quos  totum  mundum  gubernari  credebant  veteres  ? 
Fontem  vero  lucis  aethereas,  in  totius  inundi  lumina  fusum,  non  esse  alium 
quam  Pthan,  sive  Vulcanum,  alio  loco  docuinius.  Haec  est  antiquissima 
Deorum  JEgyptiorum  ogdoas,  quae  primis  idolatriae  in  iEgypto  stability 
seculis,  diu  sola  obtinuit,  et  deos  omnes,  ab  ilia  gente  cultos,  uti  auguror, 
complexa  est."  (Jabl.  P.  iEg.  Proleg.  p.  lxii.)  Others  substituted  the  3un 
for  Ptah.  See  Chaereraon  ap.  Euseb.  Praep.  Ev.  3,  4.  Porphyr.  ibid.  'H  tuv 
Alyv7rTiuv  artop'^rjTog  deoAoyia,  ovd£  iDJkovq  ttX^v  tuv  hot'  ovpavbv  aciTzpuv 
tuv  re  unAavuv  KaAovjuevuu  nal  tuv  6vop.a^op.evuv  TTAavTjTuv  tOeoAoyet, 
drjjiiovpyov  re  tuv  oAuv  elaiiyev,  ovtivolovv  uoufiaTov,  ovde  Anyov  dij/uiovoyi- 
kov,  ovdl  fj.i)v  ovdl  Oebv  ov6£  deovc,  ovdt  rivag  voeoug  kcu  a<t>avelg  dvvdfieis' 
fiovov      tov  tpu/ievov  "HXiov. 

'  Bunsen,  ^Egypten's  Stelle,  1,  456. 

8  Lepsius  (Einleitung,  p.  505,  note  2)  is  of  opinion  that  the  eight  gods 
were  originally  only  seven.    Elsewhere  he  says  (p.  253,  note),  "  The  great 


COS 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


doubt  had  a  motive.  The  number  twelve  is  clearly  astronomical. 
The  Egyptians  first  allotted  a  god  to  each  month  and  day  of  the 
year,  that  is,  they  assigned  to  each  of  the  divisions  of  the  sun's 
path  through  the  heavens,  one  of  their  gods  or  daemons  ;  and  so 
strongly  were  they  influenced  by  a  desire  to  connect  their  theology 
and  their  astronomy,  that  when  the  five  additional  days  were  intro- 
duced into  the  reckoning  of  the  solar  year  they  distributed  the 
birthdays  of  the  gods  Osiris  and  Isis,  Typhon,  Aroeris  and  Athor 
among  them,  assigning  one  to  each.  These  are  plain  marks,  not  of 
an  astronomical  origin  of  the  Egyptian  deities, but  a  distribution  of 
them  according  to  an  astronomical  principle.  There  may  therefore 
have  been  also  an  astronomical  reason  for  fixing  the  number  of  the 
oldest  gods  at  eight,  this  being  the  number  of  the  spheres  of  the 
planets  (including  the  Sun  and  Moon)  and  the  fixed  stars1.  Eight 
was  a  sacred  number  in  antquity.  The  Orphic  or  Pythagorean 
maxim  rravra  Sktcj  may  probably  have  had  an  Egyptian  origin2- 
It  is  the  first  cube  number,  and  may  on  that  account  have  been 
held  in  mystic  reverence  among  a  people  who  attached  sanctity  to 

gods,  who  as  far  as  I  know  have  never  been  correctly  reckoned  up,  were, 
according  to  the  Theban  doctrine,  Mentu,  Atmu,  Mu,  Scb,  Osiris  [Aroeris], 
Set,  Hor  ;  according  to  the  Memphite  doctrine,  Ptah,  Pa,  Mu,  Seb,  Osiris 
[Hor],  Set,  Hor.  The  exclusion  of  Aroerisjmd  also  at  a  later  time  of  Set, 
produced  other  deviations  from  this  series,  in  different  times  and  places.  In 
their  stead  most  frequently  Sebek,  sometimes  also  Tlioth,  the  first  of  the 
second  series,  was  assumed  amongst  the  greater  gods.  Amun  occasionally 
appears  at  their  head,  but  did  not  originally  belong  there."  The  evidence 
of  these  arrangements  has  not  yet  been  produced,  and  they  cannot  be 
reconciled  with  Herodotus. 

1  Clem.  Coh.  p.  44.  Eevonpai rjq  Xal.Krjdovioc,  kitTO.  fiev  Oeovc,  roOc  irMvij 
rag,  oydoov  di  -rbv  in  Travruv  avruv  cvveotutcl  koo[iov  aivhreTaL.  Plat. 
Epinom.  ii.  986.    'lore  oktu  SvvdfiEic  tuv  tteqi  51  ov  ovpavbv  yeyovviac. 

2  Jabl.  Proleg.  p.  lxxi.  An  Orphic  poet  (Eus.  Praep.  Evang.  3,  9)  thus 
enumerates  the  eight  principles :  Fire,  Water,  Earth,  Night,  Day,  Counsel 
(Metis),  Love,  and  Zeus,  who  comprehends  them  all. 


SECT.  I.— THEOLOGY. 


309 


numbers.  The  Pythagoreans  considered  it  as  the  number  of  jus- 
tice .  The  Dii  Select!  of  the  Romans  were  eight  ;  the  Cabiri 
according  to  one  reckoning  eight2.  An  alleged  inscription  from 
an  Egyptian  stele  enumerates  as  the  gods  of  Egypt,  Wind,  Heaven, 
Sun,  Moon,  Earth,  Night,  Day  and  Love,  in  all  eight3.  Were  the 
evidence  more  satisfactory  that  the  Egyptian  gods  originally  repre- 
sented the  elements,  the  number  eight  would  be  the  best  adapted 
to  it,  since  they  reckoned  them  four,  and  supposed  them  to  have  a 
double  nature, male  and  female4.  According  to  the  view,  however, 
which  has  been  already  proposed,  it  is  not  likely  that  the  whole 
system  originated  in  any  one  principle.  There  appear  in  it  traces 
of  at  least  three,  the  worship  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  the  personifi- 
cation of  the  powers  supposed  to  be  engaged  in  the  creation,  pre- 
servation, and  government  of  the  world,  and  the  assignment  of 
personal  symbols  to  abstract  qualities.  The  worship  of  Ra  (the 
Sun)  is  clearly  an  example  of  the  first  ;  that  of  Khem  or  Pan 
(the  productive  power  of  Nature)  of  the  second  ;  and  that 
of  Thoth  (the  Reason  and  inventive  faculty  of  man)  of  the 
third. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  occasion  of  fixing  the  number 
eight,  it  is  probable  that  it  was  composed  of  four  male  and  foul 
female  gods  ;  for  we  generally  find  that  tha  Egyptian  deities  were 
arranged  in  triads,  a  god,  a  goddess  and  their  son.  The  following 
arrangement  has  no  positive  authority,  and  only  professes  to  bring 
together  the  eight  deities  who  appear  to  have  held  the  chief  place 
in  the  veneration  of  the  Egyptians.  In  some  cases  the  relation  of 
consort  existed,  in  others  not. 

1  Macrob.  Somn.  Scip.  1,  5,  p.  17. 

2  Euseb.  Praep.  Ev.  1,  10,  from  Sanchoniatho. 

9  Jabl.  1,18.  According  to  the  fanciful  explanation  of  Sextus  Empiricus 
(adv.  Math.  5,  p.  733,  Bekk.)  the  Egyptians  reckoned  all  the  celestial  bodies 
as  eight,  viz.  the  Sun  and  Moon,  five  planets,  and  the  fixed  stars. 

4  Senec.  Quaest.  Nat.  3,  14.    Jamblich.  de  Mystcr.  8,  3. 


310 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


Am  tin 

Khem  (Pan) 
Kneph 
Ptah 

I  have  placed  Amun  (or  Ammon)  at  the  head  of  the  system, 
because  the  Greek  authors  are  unanimous  in  considering  him  to 
correspond  with  their  Jupiter1,  and  this  must  have  been  from  their 
relative  place  in  the  Greek  and  Egyptian  systems,  as  there  was 
nothing  in  their  physical  attributes  to  identify  them.  The  meaning 
of  the  name  appears  to  have  been  uncertain  to  the  Egyptians  them- 
selves ;  Manetho  thought  that  it  denoted  concealment  ;  but  this 
sense  hardly  belongs  to  the  Coptic  root2.  Hecatams  of  Abdera 
agreed  in  the  statement  that  Ammon  was  a  concealed  God,  inas- 
much as  he  was  the  first,  and  denoted  the  universe,  but  explained 
his  name  as  signifying  come  hither,  being  a  common  form  of  com  - 
pellation.  Amou  or  Amoun,  in  fact,  in  Coptic  signifies  veni3 ;  but 
it  is  not  very  probable  that  the  name  of  the  god  should  have  origi- 
nated in  this  way.  The  most  obvious  etymology  is  from  the 
Coptic  amoun,  which  signifies  glory,  celsitudo,  and  would  be  ap- 
propriate to  the  chief  of  the  gods4. 

Amun  is  usually  represented,  especially  at  Thebes,  with  a  human 
face  and  limbs  free,  and  therefore  not  apparently  symbolizing  a 
concealed  divinity,  having  two  tall^straight  feathers  on  his  head 
proceeding  from  a  red  cap.  In  front  of  these  plumes  a  disk  is 
sometimes  seen5.  The  body  is  colored  of  a  deep  blue.  The  Greeks 
and  Latins  agree  in  describing  Amun  as  having  the  head  of  a  ram. 

1  Herod.  2,  42.    Diod.  1,  13.    Plut.  Is.  et  Osir.  354  C. 

2  The  verb  amoni,  from  which  it  is  supposed  to  be  derived,  means  tu  detain, 
not  to  conceal.    See  Peyron,  Lex.  #.  v. 

3  Jabl.  Panth.  JEg.  1,  179.    Peyron,  Lex.  Copt.  p.  6. 

4  The  reference  of  the  name  Amun  to  Cham  or  Ham  is  destitute  of  all 
probability. 

5  Birch,  Eg.  Ant.  in  Brit.  Mus.  P.  1,  p.  2. 


Maut,  Mut  or  Buto. 
Athor,  Leto. 
Neith. 

Pasht,  Bubastis. 


SECT.  I.— THEOLOGY. 


311 


Herodotus  says1,  "  The  Thebans  and  those  who,like  them,  abstain 
from  sheep,  say  they  do  it  for  this  reason,  that  Jupiter  (Amun), 
when  Hercules  desired  to  see  him,  at  first  refused  ;  but,  on  his  per- 
sisting, cut  off  the  head  of  a  ram  which  he  had  flayed,  and  held  it 
before  him,  clothing  himself  in  the  skin,  and  showed  himself  to  him 
in  this  form.  And  for  this  reason  the  Egyptians  represent  Jupiter 
with  the  head  of  a  ram.  And  once  a  year,  on  the  festival  of  Jupi- 
ter, they  kill  and  flay  a  ram,  and  clothe  the  statue  of  Jupiter  in  the 
manner  described,  and  then  bring  near  to  it  another  statue  of  Her- 
cules. ' '  We  may  conclude  from  this  ceremony  that  the  statue  of 
Amun  was  not  always  represented  with  the  head  of  a  ram  ;  and  in 
fact  the  figures  thus  distinguished  have  usually  the  name  of  an- 
other god,  to  be  mentioned  hereafter.  But  the  ancients  have  been 
too  hastily  charged  with  error  in  calling  Amun  ram-headed.  The 
name  of  Amun  is  found  beside  figures  so  characterized1 ;  the  temple 
of  Ammonium  was  dedicated  to  the  ram-headed  god3  ;  and  we 
have  here  already  an  instance  of  the  difficulty  of  preserving  an 
exact  line  of  distinction  between  the  Egyptian  divinities.  Jablon- 
sky  supposed  that  Amun  represented  the  Sun  in  Aries,  in  accord- 
ance with  his  theory,  that  the  positions  of  this  luminary  at  the  four 
great  seasons  of  the  year  had  each  a  symbol  among  the  Egyptian 
gods,  Amun,  Horus,  Serapis,  and  Harpocrates4.  The  monuments 
give  no  confirmation  to  this  opinion  ;  nor- do  they  on  the  other 
hand  afford  us  much  light  as  to  the  primary  conception  ;  but  the 
epithet  Ra,  Sun,  often  subjoined  to  Amun,  seems  to  indicate  an 
original  connexion  with  the  solar  god.  His  worship  prevailed  in 
Nubia  and  Meroe  according  to  the  ancients  ;  and  this  is  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  confirmed  by  the  monuments,  the  ram-headed  god 
being  found  there5.  It  has  been  conjectured  that  this  affinity  of 
the  worship  of  Thebes  and  the  higher  regions  of  the  Nile,  gave  rise 

1  2,  42.  a  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  pi.  22. 

8  Minutoli,  Reise,  Atlas,  fig.  8,^9,  19.    See  p.  72. 

4  Proleg.  p.  lxx.  lib.  2.  2,  3,  4,  5,  6.  6  Hoskins's  Ethiopia,  pi.  10. 


312 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


to  the  story  of  Jupiter  and  the  rest  of  the  gods  annually. visiting 
the  Ethiopians,  and  feasting  for  twelve  days  among  them1.  But 
the  custom  to  which  Diodorus  and  Eustathius2  allude  in  explana- 
tion of  this  story  was  something  different;  for  the  statue  of  the  god 
was  carried  not  up,  but  across  the  river,  into  Libya,  not  Ethiopia  ; 
and  the  account  given  by  the  priests  bears  marks  of  being  devised 
in  order  to  appropriate  to  Egypt  another  passage  in  the  Iliad3. 
A  remarkable  circumstance  connected  with  the  name  of  this  o-od 

o 

has  been  noticed  by  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson.  On  many  monu- 
ments of  Egypt,  the  hieroglyphics  or  phonetic  name  of  Amunra 
have  been  substituted  for  others,  which  have  been  so  carefully 
erased  that  he  was  unable  to  ascertain  what  the  original  had  been4. 
The  figure  of  the  god,  however,  remains  unaltered.  This  substitu- 
tion has  been  so  systematically  made,  that  it  must  have  been  the 
result  of  some  general  order  ;  and  as  it  is  confined  to  monuments 
erected  previous  to  and  during  the  reign  of  the  3rd  Amunoph,  it 
is  probable  that  it  was  done  by  his  authority.  Before  this  time  the 
traces  of  Amun  in  the  Egyptian  theology  are  few.  Ammenemes, 
in  the  twelfth  dynasty,  is  the  earliest  king  into  the  composition  of 
whose  name  that  of  Amun  enters.  The  motive  of  the  substitu- 
tion has  not  been  explained5,  but  it  has  probably  been  connected 
with  some  change  in  the  religious  system  of  the  Egyptians. 

1  Horn.  II.  d,  423.  2  Diod.  1,  97.    Eustath.  Comment,  ad  loc.  Horn 

3  Horn.  II.  346.  The  carpet  of  flowers  which  sprung  up  under  the 
embrace  of  Jupiter  and  Juno  was,  according  to  these  commentators,  derived 
from  the  custom  of  carrying  the  shrines  of  the  gods  to  the  top  of  a  moun- 
tain, and  strewing  flowers  beneath  them. 

4  Manners  and  Customs,  4,  244.  As  in  the  statue  of  Amenophis  in  the 
British  Museum,  and  on  the  obelisk  of  the  Lateran  at  Rome.  See  Dr.  E. 
Hincks,  in  Trans,  of  R.I. A.  vol.  21,  P.  1.  He  thinks  that  Amun  has  been 
effaced  and  re-inserted. 

5  According  to  Major  Felix,  the  obliterated  characters  were  a  vulture 
flying,  its  body  formed  by  an  eye,  holding  in  its  claws  a  signet  (Birch,  Gall, 
of  Antiq.  p.  2,  note  12).    The  flying  vulture  was  the  emblem  of  the  goddess 


3ECT.   I. — THEOLOGY, 


313 


The  god  who  has  sometimes  the  ram's  head,  sometimes  the 
horns  of  a  goat,  is  in  the  great  majority  of  instances  designated  in 
the  hieroglyphical  inscriptions  as  Xouf  Xoub  or  Num  (PI.  III.  C. 
3),  with  the  figure  of  a  ram  subjoined.  His  image  is  of  more  fre- 
quent occurrence  in  Xubia  and  Meroe  than  that  of  Amun.  He  is 
supposed  to  be  also  the  K>7/0  of  the  Greeks,  of  whom  Plutarch 
says  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  Thebaid  considered  him  to  be 
without  progenitor  and  immortal1,  and  on  that  account  did  not 
contribute,  like  the  rest  of  the  Egyptians,  towards  the  mainte- 
nance and  interment  of  the  sacred  animals.  It  is  probable  that 
this  is  the  same  god  whom  Damascius  calls  Ka^^2,  and  who  in 
the  text  of  Iamblichus  appears  as  'Hp/0,  the  ruler  of  the  celestial 
gods.  According  to  Eusebius  the  Egyptians  called  the  creator 
(demiurgus)  Kneph3,  though  this  attribute  is  more  commonly 
given  to  Ptah.  Strabo  says  that  there  was  a  temple  at  Elephan- 
tine dedicated  to  Chnuphis4,  which  appears  to  be  the  same  name  ; 
and  an  inscription  has  been  found  at  Elephantine  "  to  the  god 
Chnoubis5. "  Hence  he  is  called  in  the  legends  "  Lord  of  Ebo," 
the  name  of  Elephantine8.  We  have  proof  again  of  the  confusion 
or  blending  of  him  with  Amun,  for  a  Greek  inscription  in  the 
oasis  El  Khargeh  declares  the  temple  to  be  dedicated  1 '  to  the 
great  god  Amennebis, "  i.  e.  Amun  Neph7.    At  Syene  an  inscrip- 

of  Eilithyia,  who  corresponded  with  the  Lucina  of  the  Latins.  Bunsen 
supposes  that  the  ithyphallic  Khem  was  the  god  for  whom  Amun  was  sub- 
stituted (Eg.  vol.  1,  p.  438).  On  the  obelisk  of  Karnak  it  appears  to  have 
been  Athom  or  Atmou. 

1  Qvtjtov  ovdtva  Qeov  vo/zi^ovrac  dXXa  bv  Kahovoiv  avroi  KNH$  dyevvqTov 
bvra  nai  aOdvarov.    (Is.  et  Os.  p.  359.) 

2  Cory,  Ancient  Fragm.  p.  321.  KAM<I>,  which  is  a  various  reading,  is 
not  very  remote  from  KNH$. 


T  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  &  Thebes,  2,  -369  ;  oris  this  Amun-neb,  Amu* 
Lord? 


"  Praep.  Ev.  3,  11. 

6  Wilk.  M.  &  C.  4,  238. 


4  Lib.  IT,  p.  817. 

6  Rosellini,  M.  del  C.  94. 


VOL.  L 


14 


314 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


tion  lias  been  found  Jovi  Hammond  Cenubidi.  The  description 
which  Porphyry  gives  of  Kneph",  as  having  a  human  figure,  a 
dark  blue  color,  a  girdle  and  a  sceptre,  and  a  royal  feather  on  his 
head,  accords  with  the  representations  of  Amun,  not  of  Kneph. 
The  same  author  says  that  from  his  mouth  was  produced  an  egg, 
out  of  which  came  the  god  whom  the  Greeks  call  Hephais- 
tos,  and  the  Egyptians  Ptha.  The  monuments  do  not  confirm 
this  account  ;  but  in  the  temple  of  Osiris  at  Philae  he  appears, 
fashioning  upon  a  wheel  or  lathe  the  limbs  of  Osiris,  while  the 
figure  Kjf  the  god  Nile  stands  by  and  pours  water  on  the  wheel. 
Elsewhere  he  is  called  the  potter,  and  at  Elephantine  appears 
working  a  lump  of  clay  upon  the  lathe3.  n  We  may  therefore 
safely  conclude  that  he  was  worshipped  as  the  power  which 
reduced  all  things  to  order  and  form  in  creation  ;  and  hence, 
while  the  philosophising  interpreters  of  later  times  made  him  to 
be  an  intellectual  principle,  he  was  according  to  more  material 
conceptions  the  element  of  Water4,  or  the  Sun.  In  a  statue  in 
the  British  Museum  he  wears  the  disk  of  this  luminary  on  his 
head. 

Another  title  which  has  been  given  to  Noum  is  Agathodaemon. 
According  to  Sanchoniatho,  as  quoted  by  Eusebius5,  the  Phoeni- 
cians represented  this  god  by  a  serpent  ;  and  the  Egyptians  gave 
a  similar  title  to  Kneph,  from  which  we  may  infer  that  his  attri- 
butes were  regarded  as  beneficent.  The  serpent,  we  know,  was 
among  the  Greeks  and  Romans  the  emblem  of  a  beneficent  genius, 
and  the  author  from  whom  Eusebius  derived  this  statement  may 

1  Wilkinson,  2,  289.  5  Euseb.  Praep.  Ev.  3,  p.  115. 

8  Rosellini,  M.  del  C.  151.  To  such  a  figure  Porphyry  seems  to  allude, 
when  he  describes  a  statue  at  Elephantine,  in  human  shape,  of  dark  blue 
color,  the  head  of  a  ram,  the  horns  of  a  goat,  and  a  circular  disc  upon 
them ;  KdOtjrai  c5£,  napaKeifiivov  Kepafieov  ayye'iov  t<p'  ov  dvOpunov  dva  nld- 
ooeiv.    Euseb.  3.  12. 

Birch.  Gall,  of  Ant.  p.  9,  10.  6  Praep.  Evang.  1,  10. 


SECT.  I. — THEOLOGY. 


315 


have  had  in  view  the  serpent  with  the  winged  globe,  placed  by  the 
Egyptians  over  the  doors  and  windows  of  their  temples  as  a  tute- 
lary god1.  This  emblem  however  belonged  not  specially  to 
Kneph.  The  asp,  which  was  a  royal  emblem,  appears  to  have 
been  appropriate  to  him,  and  was  the  ' '  horned  serpent, ' '  which 
according  to  Herodotus2  was  sacred  to  Jupiter  in  the  Theban  dis- 
trict. Jupiter  indeed  was  in  his  interpretation  Araun  ;  he  knows 
nothing  of  Kneph  ;  but  this  is  only  a  fresh  instance  of  the  confu- 
sion of  these  two  divinities.  Antipater  of  Sidon,  in  an  epigram  in 
the  '  Anthologia3, '  calls  Amnion  ' 1  the  renowned  serpent. ' '  The 
cerastes  is  often  found  embalmed  in  the  Thebaid,  especially  in  the 
tombs  of  Qoorneh. 

Khem  or  Amun  Khem  is  the  ithyphallic  god,  whose  representa- 
tion occurs  so  frequently  among  the  sculptures  at  Thebes4.  His 
head-dress,  of  long  straight  feathers,  shows  his  identity  or  at  least 
connexion  with  Amun,  as  the  peculiarity  of  his  form  is  only  a 
coarser  indication  of  creative  power.  His  right  hand  is  lifted  up, 
not  holding  a  scourge,  but  with  a  scourge  bent  in  an  angle  over 
the  fingers  ;  the  face  is  human,  like  that  of  Amun  ;  the  body 
including  the  left  arm,  is  wrapped  in  bandages.  He  is  supposed 
to  be  the  Pan  of  the  Greeks,  partly  from  his  form,  partly  from  an 
inscription  on  the  Kosseir  road,  in  which  he  is  called  the  Pan  of 
the  Thebans6,  partly  from  a  passage  in  Stephanus  Byzantinus8,  in 
which  the  statue  of  the  god  of  Panopolis  is  described  with  circum 
stances  corresponding  with  the  ordinary  representations  of  Khem. 
No  such  name  as  Khem  has  been  found  connected  with  the 

1  See  p.  219  of  this  volume.  iEgyptios  dracunculos  Romse  habuit  quos 
illi  Agathodcemojias  vocant.    M\.  Lampr.  Heliogabalus,  28. 

2  2,  74.  3  Jacobs,  vol.  2,  p.  6. 
4  Wilkinson,  M.  &  C.  4,  258.  5  Ibid.  4,  263. 

6  Ilavdc  7r6/U5 .  'Eart  61  nai  tov  deov  ayakfia  fiiya  opQianov  lxov  T°  a^°* 
lov  eU  ^TTTa  daKTvTiovc  kTraipei  <5£  /idartyag  ry  6e%id  aeXyvy  yc  el6u?.6v 
0acxcv  elvat  tov  ITdfa  [ol  6'  "ElTcqvcs  elduXov  tyaciv  elvai  tov  Uav6f].  Steph. 
Byz. 


316 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


figures  of  this  god  ;  when  a  phonetic  name  is  placed  beside  him,  it 
is  Amun,  or  Amunra  ;  or  a  group  of  characters,  whose  pronuncia- 
tion is  uncertain,  but  which  includes  2  bolt.  That  his  name  was 
Khem  or  Khemmo  is  inferred  from  the  circumstance  that  Diodo- 
rus  says  the  town  of  Chemmis  in  the  Thebaid  bears  the  same  name 
as  the  god,  and  is  interpreted  Panopolis1.  On  the  authority  of 
Herodotus2,  it  has  been  supposed  that  Khem  is  the  god  whom 
the  people  of  Mendes  represented  with  the  head  and  legs  of  a 
goat.  He  adds  that  both  the  goat  and  Pan  are  called  in  the 
Egyptian  language  Mendes.  But  Khem  is  never  represented  with 
the  head  and  legs  of  a  goat,  nor  indeed  has  any  such  representa- 
tion been  found  on  the  monuments,  and  the  Coptic  for  goat  is  not 
Mendes,  but  Baampe.  The  goat,  however,  was  evidently  conse- 
crated to  the  god  of  Mendes,  if  not  employed  as  his  symbol,  since 
the  type  appears  upon  the  coins  of  the  nome  in  Greek  and  Roman 
times3  ;  nor  could  Herodotus  be  mistaken  as  to  the  honor  paid  to 
the  goat  in  the  Mendesian  nome.  The  Greeks  supposed  that  the 
Egyptians  called  a  cat,  Bubastis,  and  a  dog,  Anubis,  from  the  con- 
secration of  the  animals  to  the  divinities  of  these  respective  names, 
in  both  cases  incorrectly.  Pan,  however,  was  represented  with 
attributes  indicating  him  to  be  in  propensity  like  Khem*,  and 
hence  the  application  of  the  name  was  natural.  Their  place  in 
the  popular  mythologies  of  Greece  and  Egypt  was  indeed  very- 
different  ;  the  admission  of  Pan  into  the  list  of  gods  was,  accord- 
ing to  Herodotus,  one  of  the  most  recent  events  in  the  Greek 
religion  ;  whereas  the  Egyptian  Pan,  in  the  representation  of  the 
Mendesians,  was  one  of  the  eight  original  gods.  But  their  func- 
tions were  not  dissimilar  ;  both  evidently  represented  the  fertiliz- 
ing principle  ;  and  as  Khem  is  often  accompanied  by  plants  and 
trees,  and  kings  are  represented  in  his  presence  turning  the 

1  Diod.  1,  18.  2  Her.  2,  46. 

3  Tochon  d'Annecy,  Recherehes  sur  les  Medailles  des  Xomes,  s.  voc. 

4  Karuipepiji  not  avvovauicTiKvQ. 


SECT.  I. — THEOLOGY.  31? 

ground  with  a  hoe1,  it  may  fairly  be  inferred  that  Khem,  like  Pan, 
was  connected  with  agriculture  and  gardening.  The  description 
which  Suidas  gives  of  the  god  whom  he  calls  Priapus,  and  whom 
he  says  the  Egyptians  named  Horus2,  shows  that  he  is  the  same 
as  Khem,  who  sometimes  is  called  the  victorious  Horus,  though 
widely  different  in  his  attributes  from  he  god  who  commonly 
bears  that  name.  The  bull  which  generally  accompanies  Khem 
on  the  monuments  has  no  doubt  an  allusion  to  the  productive 
power  ;  the  vulture,  the  emblem  of  maternity,  sometimes 
follows.  His  worship  holds  a  conspicuous  place  among  the 
ceremonies  of  the  coronation  of  Rameses  Meiamoun,  represented 
on  the  walls  of  the  palace  of  Medinet  Aboo8.  The  king  stands 
before  the  shrine  of  Amun-Khem,  and  offers  him  incense  and 
libations  ;  and  his  statue  dismounted  is  afterwards  borne  by 
twenty-two  priests  on  a  rich  palanquin,  in  the  midst  of  fans  and 
branches  of  flowers.  The  king  walks  on  foot  before  the  god,  pre- 
ceded by  the  white  bull,  his  symbol,  to  which  a  priest  burns 
incense.  In  another  part,  the  statue  of  the  god  having  been 
replaced  in  his  shrine,  the  king  cuts  with  a  golden  sickle  the  ears 
from  a  sheaf  of  corn,  and  a  priest  offers  them  to  the  god,  in  allu- 
sion it  is  probable  to  that  connexion  of  Amun-Khem,  as  the  prin- 
ciple of  fertility4,  with  agriculture  which  has  been  noticed  above. 

1  Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  Pantheon,  pi.  26.  The  sceptre  of 
the  Ethiopian  kings,  according  to  Diodorus  (3,  3),  was  in  the  form  of  a 
plough  or  hoe.    See  p.  156  of  this  volume. 

2  To  uya\fia  rov  Hpiairov,  rod  'Qpov  Trapu  AiyvrcTtoiz  kekXij/iSvov,  dvQpu- 
iroeidtg  iroiovaiv,  kv  ry  de%ia  onijirTpov  narixov  kv  fie  r£  evuvvfxu  uparovv 
rb  aidoiov  avrov  ev~erafiivoi',  diore  tC  Kenpv(iu.£va  lv  ry  yij  a^epfiara  <pavtpa 
KaOicrrjci.  The  nrepd  which  he  says  he  bore  on  his  head  are  the  tall 
plumes  of  Amun-Khem,  which  have  sometimes,  as  Suidas  describes,  the  disk 
of  the  sun. 

3  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  pi.  76. 

4  Is.  et  Osir.  371  F.  Tlai  raxov  f5£  «ai  dvd{juirofxop<p6v  'Ooipitios  aya?.fxa 
detKvvovci  t£opBidfrv  ru  aldoiu  did  to  yovifiov  /cat  rd  rp6<pt[xov.  From 
another  passage  of  the  same  treatise  (305  E  ).  it  has  been  conc'_  !ed  that 


318 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


Amun-Khem  appears  to  be  really  the  god  whom  Plutarch 
describes  as  a  form  of  Osiris,  with  whom  he  might  the  more  easily 
be  confounded,  as  the  scourge  or  flail  which  appears  above  his 
raised  hand  is  the  same,  in  a  slightly  different  position,  as  that 
which  Osiris  commonly  holds.  The  inscription  ' 1  Amun-ra, ' '  fol- 
lowed by  the  bull  and  vulture,  is  also  found  over  a  figure  of  the 
god  with  the  head  of  the  ram,  so  that  here  we  have  the  three  gods 
Amun,  Kneph,  and  Khem  united  under  one  form.  Another  com- 
bination is  Amun-Hor,  with  the  head  of  a  hawk,  the  bird 
especially  consecrated  to  Horus  ;  and  on  the  Kosseir  road  is  a 
tablet  in  which  the  god  Khem  is  represented  as  a  hawk  with 
human  legs,  holding  up  the  flagellum  and  with  the  plumes  of 
Amun1. 

These  were  the  great  male  deities  of  Thebes  ;  the  chief  god  of 
Memphis  was  Ptaii  or  Pthah.  He  was  connected  with  those  of 
Thebes  by  the  legend  which  Eusebius  quotes  from  Porphyry3,  that 
Kneph  produced  an  egg  from  his  mouth,  from  which  Ptah  was 
born.  But  he  was  probably  as  much  an  independent  and  self- 
derived  god  to  the  Memphites,  as  Kneph  or  Amun  to  the  Thebans. 
The  representation  of  the  universe  by  an  egg,  however,  in  the 
Orphic  theology3,  makes  it  probable  that  the  Egyptians  used  a 
similar  figure  for  creation,  and  at  Philaa,  in  a  sculpture  of  a  late 
date,  Ptah  is  represented  as  ' 1  setting  in  motion  the  egg  of  the  sun 
and  moon4. ' '  According  to  Iamblichus,  the  Egyptians  held  him  to 
be  the  divine  artificer,  a  notion  which  the  Greeks  may  have  low- 
ered and  popularized  to  that  of  a  skilful  artist,  fashioning  all 
objects  by  means  of  the  element  of  fire.   A  figure  at  Dendera  is 

Osiris,  in  this  form,  was  called  'Apouffc  (Jabl.  1,  289),  but  this  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  Plutarch's  meaning. 

1  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  4,  265.    It  is  of  uncertain  age. 

2  Praep.  Evang.  3,  11,  p.  115. 

3  Jablonsky,  Pantheon  Eg.  1,41.    Aristoph.  Aves,  695. 

4  Rosellini,  Mon.  del  Culto,  p.  146,  tav.  xxi. 


SECT.  I.— THEOLOGY. 


319 


supposed  by  Wilkinson1  to  represent  him  sketching,  as  prelimi- 
nary to  the  act  of  creation. 

On  the  Rosetta  Stone  Ptolemy  is  described  as  beloved  by 
Hephaistos,  and  the  corresponding  shield  in  the  hieroglyphic 
inscription  (P.  322,  No.  5)  fixed  the  phonetic  group  for  Ptah.  He 
is  commonly  represented  with  a  cap,  fitting  close  to  the  skull  ;  the 
body  is  enveloped  in  bandages  from  which  the  hands  alone  pro- 
trude, holding  a  sceptre  or  staff.  Sometimes  he  is  standing  on  a 
pedestal  divided  in  steps,  and  carries  in  his  hand,  or  has  near  him, 
a  graduated  pillar  or  stand,  which  from  its  representing  on  the 
Rosetta  Stone  the  words  established  in  perpetuity"* ,  is  generally 
called  the  emblem  of  stability3.  A  figure  with  the  ostrich  feather 
on  her  head,  supposed  to  be  Truth  or  Justice,  is  seen  accompanying 
Ptah,  who,  according  to  lamblichus4,  "  perfects  everything  with 
truth."  He  is  also  found  bearing  in  his  hands  the  scourge  and 
hook  of  Osiris,  as  if  identified  with  this  god5.  Perhaps  the  swathed 
body  and  protruded  hands  may  symbolize  the  first  putting  forth 
of  a  creative  power  in  action,  which  had  been  previously  hidden  and 
quiescent.  The  idea  of  power  imperfectly  developed  may  be  con- 
veyed by  another  common  mode  of  representing  Ptah6.  When 
Cambyses  entered  the  temple  of  Hephaistos  at  Memphis, he  greatly 
ridiculed  the  statue  of  the  god,  which  resembled  the  pygmy  images 
called  pataikoi,  carried  by  the  Phoenicians  on  the  prows  of  their 
vessels  ;  the  images  of  the  Cabiri  also  resembled  those  of  the 
Hephaistos  of  Memphis.  It  is  probable  that  the  Pataikoi  derived 
their  name,  which  is  certainly  not  Greek,  from  the  word  Ptah. 
Pygmy  figures,  with  disproportioned  heads,  phallic,  bowlegged, 
with  a  physiognomy  approaching  the  Ethiopic,  are  found  in  great 

1  Manners  and  Customs,  4,  253.    Pantheon,  pi.  23,  5. 
3  Hierogl.  Text.  1.  5.    Greek,  L  6.  diafievovaris. 

3  Champ.  Diet.  p.  261.  4  De  Myst,  Eg.  8,  8. 

6  According  to  Suidas  he  was  identified  with  Dionusos.  'A(pSa;  6  Aiovvaoc. 
6  Her.  3,  37. 


320 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


numbers  at  Gizeh,  in  the  ruins  of  Memphis,  and  especially  in  the 
mummy-pits  of  Saccarah.  Though  not  accompanied  by  the  group 
of  characters  denoting  Ptah,  it  seems  probable  that  they  represent 
one  conception  of  him.  They  have  often  a  scarabaeus  on  the  head, 
an  emblem  particularly  consecrated  to  Ptah1.  At  Philae  the  scara- 
bieus  is  substituted  for  the  head2.  These  pygmy  figures  sometimes 
carry  in  their  hands  the  ostrich  feather,  which  is  the  emblem  of 
Truth3.  The  god  was  also  called  Ptah  Socari.  A  group  of 
characters  which  reads  thus  is  found  near  figures  which  partake 
of  the  attributes  of  Ptah  and  Osiris,  and  the  word  Socari  is  some- 
times joined  with  the  name  of  one,  sometimes  of  the  other,  and 
sometimes  of  both4.  The  epithets  which  are  added  appear  to 
indicate,  that  in  the  character  of  Socari,  Ptah  was  a  god  of  the 
unseen  world5. 

According  to  Horapollo,  Ptah  combined  both  sexes.  The  monu- 
ments give  no  countenance  to  this  statement,  which  however  was 
in  accordance  with  ancient  mythology,  and  especially  with  the 
Orphic  doctrines,  at  least  in  the  representations  of  them  by  which 
alone  they  are  known  to  usB.  Plutarch  says,  the  scarabaeus,  which 
was  the  emblem  of  Ptah,  had  no  distinction  of  sex7. 

In  Amun,  Khem,  Nouui,  and  Ptah  we  have  four  gods  of  the 
highest  rank.  Each,  except  perhaps  Ptah,  had  a  consort,  but  these 
generally  fill  inferior  places  in  the  Pantheon.  Amun  at  Thebes  is 
often  joined  with  a  goddess  named  Maut,  a  name  which  signifies 

-1  Horapollo,  1,  12.  The  monuments  do  not  confirm  what  this  author  adds, 
that  the  vulture  is  also  given  to  Ptah. 

2  Rosellini,  M*  del  C.  152.  3  Birch,  Gall.  Brit.  Mus.  pi.  9. 

4  Wilkinson,  pi.  24.    The  name  Uaajuvlrjc  was  given  by  the  Egyptians  to 
a  phallic  god,  who  was  also  called  loxaptc.    The  representations  of  Ptah 
Socari  are  sometimes  phallic.    Hesychius  s.  voc.  UaafivXj]c    Birch,  p.  15. 
Birch,  p.  15. 

8  Zevc  dparjv  ycvero,  Zevc  a<pBiTo<;  inhero  vvfi^rj.  Orph.  ap.  Euseb.  Praep. 
Ev,  3,  9. 

»  Is.  et  Osir.  355.  * 


SECT.  I. — THEOLOGY 


321 


mother,  and  is  expressed  by  a  vulture.  As  Araun  was  understood 
to  correspond  with  Jupiter,  Maut  would  be  Juno.  She  is  repre- 
sented with  the  pschent  on  her  head,  and  has  such  titles  assigned 
to  her  as  "  mistress  of  heaven,"  "  regent  of  the  world,"  &C.1 
According  to  Plutarch  Muth  signifies  mother,  but  he  identifies  the 
goddess  of  this  name  with  Isis.  As  the  divinities  of  Egypt  fre- 
quently resolve  themselves  into  one  another,  and  especially  into 
Osiris  and  Isis,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  Muth  and  Maut  are 
the  same.  1 1  Mother  of  the  world  "  is  an  epithet  of  the  moon  ;  but 
Isis  was  the  moon.  The  name  Bovtg),  Buto,  of  the  Greeks,  is 
nearly  allied  to  Muth,  M  and  B  being  interchangeable  letters  ;  but 
there  is  not  sufficient  evidence  to  identify  these  goddesses3. 

The  female  companion  of  Noum  or  Kneph  is  Sate.  The  Greek 
and  Roman  writers  have  not  preserved  her  name,  but  from  a  Greek 
inscription  discovered  by  Riippell  on  a  small  island  near  the  Cata- 
racts, she  appears  to  be  the  same  as  Here4.  As  Kneph  has  been 
confounded  with  Jupiter  Ammon,  Sate,  the  consort  of  Kneph, 
would  naturally  be  considered  as  the  wife  of  Jupiter.  The  name 
is  ascertained  by  the  hieroglyphics  which  accompany  the  figure,  an 
arrow  (in  Coptic  sat)  piercing  a  banner6  ;  the  arrow  is  supposed  to 
allude  also  to  the  sunbeams,  and  sate  in  Coptic  is  splendere. 

Khem  is  joined  in  worship  with  a  goddess  named  Thriphis, 
who  in  Greek  inscriptions  at  Athribis  and  Panopolis,of  the  Roman 
times,  is  called,  "  most  great  goddess  ;"  but  no  representation  of 
her  has  been  identified.  Sir  G.  Wilkinson"  supposes  her  to  be  one 
of  the  lion-headed  goddesses,  whose  special  names  have  not  been 
ascertained.  Nothing  indicates  that  she  stood  in  the  relation  or 
consort  to  Khem  ;  this  office  seems  rather  to  belong  to  a  female 
deity  whose  name  is  written  Amunt  or  Tamun,  and  who  is  often 
conjoined  with  him  in  a  triad  at  Thebes7.   Pasht,  the  Bubastis  of 

1  Birch,  pi.  4.        '2  Is.  et  Osir.  374.  3  Wilkinson,  Pantheon,  pi.  20. 

4  Minutoli,  Reisen,  p.  375.  6  Wilkinson,  Pantheon,  pi.  21 

6  M.  and  C.  4,  265.  7  Wilk.  M.  and  C.  5,  66. 

14* 


322 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


the  Greeks,  is  represented  with  the  head  of  a  lion  or  a  cat,  and 
frequently  accompanies  Ptah.  In  the  Pharaonic  times  the  figure 
has  commonly  the  lion's  head  ;  that  of  the  cat  is  found  in  later 
works.  The  disk  on  her  head,  as  well  as  the  lion,  is  supposed  to 
indicate  her  connexion  with  the  solar  deity1,  of  whom  among  the 
Egyptians  this  animal  was  the  symbol.  Xeither  her  attributes  nor 
the  inscriptions  connect  her  with  the  Moon,  though  the  Greeks  con- 
sidered her  as  the  same  with  their  Artemis2,  and  Artemis  as  the 
Moon.  The  Moon  in  the  Egyptian  mythology  was  a  male  deity. 
Pasht  appears  with  the  title  Toer-Mouth,  Great  Mother,  and  this 
has  been  supposed  to  be  the  origin  of  Thermuthis,  a  name  the 
Greeks  gave  to  one  of  the  goddesses  of  Egypt3.  The  name  of 
Merepthah,  "beloved  of  Pthah, "  is  frequently  given  to  Pasht4, yet 
it  does  not  appear  that  she  was  properly  his  consort.  She  some- 
times carries  the  emblems  of  life  in  her  hands5,  and  has  various 
titles,  according  to  the  different  forms  in  which  she  is  represented, 
which  do  not,  however,  give  any  clue  to  the#original  conception  of 
her  character.  According  to  Herodotus6,  Bubastis  was  the  Egyp- 
tian name  for  Artemis,  sister  of  Horns  (Apollo)  and  daughter  of 
Osiris  and  Isis, a  genealogy  which  would  refer  her  to  the  latest  fam- 
ily of  gods.  Amun  and  Mautare  frequently  accompanied  by  a  youth- 
ful figure,  their  son  Khons  or  Khonso  (PI.  III.  C.  6).  He  is  rep- 
resented under  the  form  of  a  mummy  with  protruded  hands  like 
Ptah,  and  carries  a  staff  with  the  emblem  of  stability  ;  but  he  has 
also  a  crescent  and  globe  on  his  head,  as  if  in  allusion  to  the  Moon7. 
The  author  of  the  Etymologicum  Magnum"  says  that  the  Egyptians 
called  Hercules  Chon,  and  the  similarity  of  the  sound  has  led  some 

1  Ml  Hist.  An.  5,  39.    Horapollo,  1,  17. 

3  Pasht,  lion  headed,  appears  as  the  tutelary  goddess  of  the  Speos  Arte, 
midos  or  grotto  of  Benihassan.    (Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  55.) 
a  Jablonsky,  1,  p.  116.    Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  iii.  1,  405. 
*  Birch,  p.  16.  5  Wilkinson,  Pantheon,  pi.  27.         6  2,  156. 

7  Wilkinson,  Pantheon,  pi.  20.  *  S.  v.  Xuie?. 


SECT.  I. — THEOLOGY. 


323 


authors  to  suppose  that  he  had  Chonso  in  view  ;  but  with  the 
exception  of  his  being  the  son  of  Amun,  the  Theban  Jupiter,  there 
is  no  resemblance  between  him  and  the  Grecian  Hercules.  His 
relation  to  Amun,  the  king  of  the  gods,  is  marked  by  the  manner 
in  which  his  hair  is  gathered  in  a  large  lock  falling  over  the  side  of 
the  head.  The  young  princes  are  distinguished  in  the  historical 
paintings  by  this  arrangement  of  the  hair  ;  and  in  the  case  of  the 
youthful  Horus,  also,  it  marks  his  relation  of  royal  son  to  Osiris 
and  Isis. 

A  goddess  named  Anouke  appears  as  the  companion  of  Noum 
or  Kneph  and  Sate  in  the  monuments  of  the  Thebaid,  especially 
near  the  Cataracts,  and  from  the  usual  relation  of  the  deities  who 
are  thus  grouped  together,  she  may  be  concluded  to  be  their 
daughter.  In  a  Greek  inscription  found  by  Ruppell1  on  a  small 
island  near  Phihe  she  is  called  Hestia  (Yesta),  a  goddess  who  was 
unknown  to  the  Egyptians2,  and  who  was  not  believed  by  the 
Greeks  to  be  a  daughter  of  Jupiter  and  Juno,  but  the  eldest  child 
of  Saturn3.  In  her  dress  and  general  attributes  Anouke  much 
resembles  Neith,  but  is  distinguished  by  a  head-dress  of  feathers, 
arranged  in  a  circular  form  and  placed  upon  a  cap. 

Khem  or  Amun  Khem  and  the  goddess  Amunt  are  accompanied 
by  a  youthful  god,  called  Harka4,  whose  attributes  are  nearly  the 
same  as  those  of  Horus  and  other  deities,  who  complete  the  triads 
found  in  the  principal  temples.  No  deity  appears  to  stand  in  such 
a  relation  to  Ptah. 

We  have  not  found  any  representative  of  Leto,  whom  Herodotus 

1  M  To  Chnubis,  who  is  also  Ammon,  and  to  Sate,  who  is  also  Hera,  and 
to  Anoukis,  who  is  also  Hestia,  and  to  Petempamentes,  who  is  also  Diony- 
sus, and  to  Petensetes,  who  is  also  Saturn,  and  to  Petensenes,  who  is  also 
Hermes,  great  gods,  and  to  the  other  daemons  of  the  cataracts."  (Minu- 
toli,  Reisen,  375.) 

a  Her.  2,  50.  3  Apollod.  Bibl.  1,  2,  5. 

4  Champollion,  Lettres,  p.  209. 


324 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


places  among  the  eight  gods.  In  some  points  she  resembles 
Athor,  whom  the  Greeks  identified  with  their  Aphrodite1.  There 
was  a  temple  at  Atarbechis3  in  Lower  Egypt  consecrated  to  Aphro- 
dite, and  as  the  termination  bechis  represents  the  Coptic  baki, 
1  town,'  it  is  probable  that  the  first  syllable  is  derived  from  Athor. 
At  Chusse,  a  village  in  the  nome  of  Hermopolis,the  Celestial  Aphro- 
dite was  worshipped,  and  a  white  cow  was  honored  as  her  repre- 
sentative3. The  Celestial  Aphrodite  was  the  oldest ;  her  worship 
prevailed  extensively  in  Assyria,  Phoenicia,  Arabia  and  Libya,  with- 
out our  being  able  to  say  which  of  these  countries  was  its  original 
seat.  At  Momemphis  in  Egypt,  according  to  Strabo4,  a  sacred  cow 
was  maintained  in  honor  of  Venus,  as  Apis  at  Memphis,  and 
Mnevis  at  Heliopolis.  And  he  adds  the  remark,  that  these  three 
were  held  divine,  in  distinction  from  the  bulls  and  cows  kept  in 
many  other  temples,  which  were  held  sacred,  but  not  divine.  In 
all  these  cases  it  is  probable  that  Athor  was  the  goddess  really 
meant.  It  was  so  at  Tentyra  ;  Strabo5  says  that  the  Tentyrites 
worshipped  Venus.  Now  the  larger  of  the  beautiful  temples  which 
remain  at  Denderah  has  the  capitals  of  its  pillars  composed  of 
heads  of  the  goddess  Athor,  and  is  covered  with  sculptures  in  her 
honor.  She  is  generally  represented  wearing  a  head-dress  sur- 
mounted with  horns  and  a  solar  disk,  and  is  figured  under  the  form 
of  a  cow.  In  the  temple  of  Aboosimbel  she  appears  in  this  form, 
and  receives  libations  and  flowers  from  the  king  and  queen.  The 
representations  of  Athor  at  Denderah,  Gebel-el-Birkel  and  Aboo- 
simbel, with  a  human  face  and  the  ears  of  a  cow,  as  well  as  those 
with  cows'  horns,  have  been  generally  given  to  Isis,  but  they  are 
discriminated  by  the  name.    That  of  Athor  is  expressed  by  the 

1  Etym.  M.  s.  voc.  'Advp.    Tr)v  'AcppodiTijv  AiyvTTTLOi  nalovaiv  AQup. 
3  Her.  2,  61. 

3  2E\.  Hist.  Anim.  10,  27.  TltTzinTEvnaaiv  avruc  Trpoarjutiv  ry  61  Trj  dai. 
fiovi.    Tlvoiav  yuQ  eig  a<pQO<ticia  taxvpuv  exet  tKelvoq  ftovc  OyXvg. 

4  Strabo,  17,  803.  '  Strabo,  17,  815.    See  p.  37  of  this  volume. 


SECT.  T.  — THEOLOGY. 


325 


hawk  of  Horus  in  a  square  enclosure  (PI.  III.  C.  8),  the  whole 
being  read  Tei-hor  or  Eit-hor,  "habitation  of  Horus."  She 
appcarr.  also  in  the  form  of  a  spotted  cow1. 

Athor  had  very  little  resemblance  to  the  Greek  Aphrodite.  It 
has  indeed  been  remarked,  that  setting  aside  the  cow's  ears,  there 
is  more  beauty  in  the  face  of  Athor  than  any  other  of  the  Egyp- 
tian divinities  ;  and  she  is  said  to  be  called  the  mistress  of  sports2, 
but  her  ordinary  titles  are  very  different,  and  seem  to  connect  her 
with  the  region  of  the  West3.  Jablonsky  endeavored  to  assign  a 
cause  for  this  in  the  character  which  he  supposed  the  Greek 
Celestial  Venus  to  have  sustained,  viz.  Primaeval  Night,  the  parent 
of  all  things4.  *\Ve  learn  indeed  from  Ilesychius5  that  there  was 
a  temple  in  Egypt  to  'AdpodLTTj  Sfioria,  but  that  by  this  epithet 
primaeval  darkness  was  intended  does  not  appear.  The  Orphic 
Hymn  to  Xight6  gives  her  the  epithet  of  Venus,  but  it  would  be 
too  bold  an  inference  that  this  doctrine  must  have  been  originally 
Egyptian.  It  is  not  wonderful  that  Athor  should  have  been  so 
frequently  confounded  with  Isis,  and  that  the  Greeks  should  have 
referred  to  Isis  the  figures  with  the  head  or  horns  of  a  cow,  and 
have  founded  upon  them  the  legend  of  Io  and  her  identifica- 
tion with  Isis  ;  for  without  their  respective  names  it  is  difficult 

1  Rosellini,  M.  del  C.  pi.  29,  3.  3  Birch,  Gall.  B.  M.  p.  20. 

3  The  western  part  of  Thebes  was  called  Pathyris,  and  the  nome  Pathy- 
rites  (the  Pathros  of  Gen.  x.  14,  Is.  xi.  11),  and  is  supposed  to  have  taken 
its  name  from  Athor.  (Wilk.  M.  and  C.  4,  3ST.  Peyron,  Pap.  Gr.  P.  2, 
p.  30.) 

4  Panth.  Eg.  L.  1,  c.  1. 

J  Hes.  Lex.  s.  v.  2/cor/a.  Another  explanation  was  given  of  the  name, 
"ZKoria;  'Aopodi-TjS  £v  <t>aioTu  Upbv  elvac  <paai  wc  KpvpnroQov.  (Etym.  M. 
voc.  Kvdqpeia.) 

6  Nikra  Oeuv  ysvereipav  aelao/xac  rjdl  nal  avdquv, 
Ni)£  ytveoiq  Traviuv,  r/v  nal  KvTrpiv  Kahecufiev. 
(Orph.  H.  3,  1.)    The  second  line  seems  out  of  its  place,  but  it  is  probably 
Orphic. 


326 


ANCIENT  EGYPT 


to  discriminate  them.  A  figure  in  the  British  Museum1  with 
horns  and  a  disk  upon  her  head,  placed  upon  the  Vulture  or  fowl 
(see  p.  208),  would  from  its  attributes  be  supposed  to  be  Isis  ; 
but  the  name  beside  it  is  11  Athor,  mistress  of  heaven."  Athor 
appears  combined  in  a  triad  with  various  gods  ;  at  Apollinopolis 
Magna  with  Hor-hat  or  Horus,  and  a  youthful  god,  Hor-Sened- 
To  ;  at  Ombi  with  Sevek,  the  crocodile-headed  god,  and  Khonso  ; 
the  same  whom  at  Thebes  we  saw  as  the  son  of  Amun  and 
Maut. 

Neith,  the  goddess  of  Sais,  is  another  of  great  celebrity. 
Though  her  principal  temple  and  the  chief  seat  of  her  worship 
was  at  Sais,  it  is  evident  that  it  extended  through  the  whole 
country  ;  for  on  the  night  on  which  those  who  had  assembled  at 
Sais,  to  her  panegyry,  lighted  lamps  in  her  honor  around  the 
houses,  the  same  rite  was  celebrated  in  every  part  of  Egypt2. 
Plato,  in  the  Timajus,  assures  us  that  the  tutelary  deity  of  Sais  was 
called  in  Egyptian  Neith,  and  this  is  confirmed  by  other  authors3. 
Nat  in  Coptic  signifies  a  web,  and  as  weaving  was  one  of  the 
principal  functions  of  Minerva,  according  to  the  Greek  concep- 
tion, it  has  been  thought  that  it  gave  origin  to  the  name.  It  is 
written  NT,  and  a  figure  accompanies  these  letters  (PI.  III.  C.  4), 
which  has  been  taken  for  a  shuttle4  ;  but  it  has  not  the  form  of  the 
shuttle,  as  represented  in  the  paintings,  nor  indeed  from  its  long 
curved  ends  does  it  seem  very  capable  of  being  applied  to  such  a 
use.  Neith  does  not  appear  on  any  monument  exercising  the  art 
of  weaving,  but  is  sometimes  armed  with  a  bow  and  arrows,  cor- 

1  Gall.  Brit.  Mus.  pi.  11,  fig.  36.  5  Herod.  2,  59. 

3  See  Jablonsky,  Panth.  Eg.  L.  1,  c.  3.  It  is  a  most  improbable  notion 
that  Athene  was  derived  from  Neith  by  inversion  of  the  letters,  when  the 
Greek  mode  of  writing  was  substituted  for  the  Egyptian.  Athene  was 
known  to  the  Greeks  by  her  present  name,  long  before  they  began  to  write 
from  left  to  right ;  nor  are  languages  learnt  from  written  characters. 

4  Wilk.  plate  28,  5. 


SECT.  I. — THEOLOGY. 


327 


responding  to  the  warlike  Minerva  of  the  Greeks.  If  the  Egyp- 
tians really  conceived  of  her  as  weaving,  it  was  probably  in  a 
figurative  sense  for  creating.  In  the  Egyptian  theology  she  held  a 
much  higher  character  than  the  Greek.  According  to  Plutarch1 
and  Proclus2  her  temple  at  Sais  contained  this  inscription  ;  4  ? 1  am 
the  things  that  have  been  and  that  are,  and  that  will  be  ;  no  one 
has  uncovered  my  skirts3  ;  the  fruit  which  I  brought  forth  became 
the  Sun."  That  while  she  declares  her  perpetual  virginity,  she 
also  calls  the  Sun  her  fruit,  may  be  explained  from  what  Hora- 
pollo  says,  that  the  Egyptians  considered  her  (and  Ptah)  as  uniting 
both  sexes  in  themselves4.  One  of  her  titles  is,  "  the  great  cow, 
engenderer  of  the  Sun*. ' '  She  is,  however,  not  always  to  be  dis- 
tinguished from  the  other  goddesses  :  Plutarch,  in  the  passage 
which  we  have  just  quoted,  calls  her  Isis6  ;  and  she  is  sometimes 
confounded  with  Amunt,  Athorand  Maut.  Lower  Egypt  was  the 
chief  seat  of  her  worship,  and  she  wears  the  crown  of  the  lower 
country  ;  but  her  monuments  are  found  also  in  the  Thebaid,  and 
her  name,  Xeith,  is  of  early  occurrence  in  the  history  of  the  Pha- 
raohs, as  iWfocris  in  the  sixth  dynasty  of  Manetho,  and  Aseneth 
(worshipper  of  Xeith)  in  the  history  of  Joseph7.  The  Saites,  ac- 
cording to  Strabo,  paid  honor  to  the  ram,  like  the  Thebans  ;  and 
Proclus  says  that  the  constellation  Aries  and  the  whole  equinoc- 
tial circle  was  consecrated  to  her  ;  but  no  trace  of  such  a  con- 
nexion appears  in  the  monuments. 

1  Plut.  Is.  et  Os.  354,  with  Wyttenbach's  note. 

5  Proclus  in  Timasum,  p.  30. 

3  Tdv  kfibv  ireirlov  ovdeis  ttu  direKaXv\l>ev.  Comp.  Deut.  xxii.  30.  Plutarch 
seems  to  have  mistaken  the  meaning  of  the  words,  referring  them  to  the 
mvsterious  nature  of  the  goddess,  instead  of  her  virginity. 

4  Horapollo,  1,  12.  5  Birch,  Gall.  Brit.  Mus.  p.  12. 

6  The  hieroglyphic  epithets  of  Xeith  show  her  original  identity  with  Isis 
(Lepsius,  Einleitung,  p.  310,  note  4). 

'  Jablonsky,  t*.  «.  §  3. 


328 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


Many  of  the  Egyptian  gods  are  identified  with  the  Sun,  as  we 
find  that  in  later  times  those  of  Greece  and  Rome  were  ;  but  Ra 
or  Re  was  Helios,  the  physical  Sun.  Bra  or  Erra  is  the  Coptic 
name  for  "  king1,''  appropriated  to  the  Sun,  like  the  names  Baal, 
Mclek,  Adonai,  which  in  the  Syro-Arabian  languages  denote 
monarchy,  and  were  also  titles  of  the  Sun.  That  Ra  was  specifi- 
cally the  Sun,  as  a  portion  of  the  astronomical  system,  is  probable 
from  the  circumstance  that  Heliopolis  was  the  chief  seat  of  his 
worship,  and  that  here  solar  astronomy  was  specially  cultivated. 
The  phcenix  is  manifestly  a  symbol  of  some  astronomical  solar 
period  ;  and  it  was  to  the  temple  of  Heliopolis  that  he  was  reputed 
to  bring  his  father2.  The  name  which  is  read  Ba  is  not  a  phonetic 
character,  but  a  disk  symbolical  of  the  Sun,  and  therefore  it  is  by 
no  means  certain,  that  wherever  this  character  occurs,  it  is  to  be 
interpreted  of  the  God  of  Heliopolis  ;  on  the  contrary,  it  may 
mean  the  Sun  under  some  other  of  the  various  symbolical  charac- 
ters which  he  sustains  in  Egyptian  mythology.  The  same  sove- 
reign is  found  designated  as  the  Sun  (Ra),  and  as  "  approved  by 
the  Sun,"  showing  that  such  phrases  as  "  bora  of  the  Sun,"  ap- 
plied to  other  gods,  cannot  be  considered  a  proof  of  filiation  from 
the  god  of  Heliopolis.  The  name  Ba  does  not  occur  in  the  Greek 
authors,  but  it  is  probable  that  they  have  substituted  Apollo  for 
him,  whom  the  later  Greeks  identified  with  the  Sun.  The  hawk 
is  his  symbol  ;  he  often  appears  with  the  head  of  a  hawk  and  the 
disk  of  the  sun,  the  urseus-serpent,  the  scarabaeus.  His  attributes 
closely  resemble  those  of  Horns,  and  it  is  only  by  the  subjoined 
characters  that  the  two  can  always  be  discriminated. 

In  speaking  of  Xoum  or  Kneph,  we  have  mentioned  the  god 
whose  symbol  is  the  disk  of  the  sun,  supported  by  two  asps  and  the 

1  With  the  Coptic  article  prefixed,  it  becomes  Phra  or  Phrc.  Jablonsky 
(Proleg.  §  ix.)  interprets  the  name  of  Potipherah  priest  of  On  (Heliopolis^ 
Gen.  xli.  45.  Phont  phre,  sacerdos  Solis. 

2  Herod.  2,  73. 


SECT.   I. — THEOLOGY. 


329 


extended  wings  of  a  vulture,  so  frequently  sculptured  over  door- 
ways, propylaea  and  other  openings  of  buildings,  as  to  make  it 
probable  that  it  represents  a  tutelary  genius.  The  temple  of  Edfou, 
or  Apollinopolis  Magna,  was  especially  dedicated  to  him  as  Hor- 
hat-kah,  or  the  ' '  Horus  of  the  land  of  Hat, ' '  the  name  of  this 
region.  As  Horus,  his  type  is  the  hawk,  also  an  emblem  of  the 
Sun  ;  and  the  sculptures  of  the  temple  of  Apollinopolis1,  which 
represents  the  progress  of  the  Sun,  called  Phre-Hor-hat,  Lord  of 
Heaven,  in  his  bark  or  bari  through  the  hours,  point  to  the  same 
character.  As  an  emblem  of  dominion,  the  hawk  has  the  pschent, 
or  crown  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt.  He  is  also  represented  as 
of  a  human  figure,  hawk-headed.  "With  the  addition  of  oer  (puer 
Copt,  quantus),  great",  the  name  Haroeris  or  Aroeris,  Horus  the 
Great,  seems  to  have  been  formed,  whom  the  Greeks  identified 
with  their  Apollo.  He  was  worshipped  at  Ombi3,  and  there  form- 
ed a  triad  with  a  goddess  Tsenenofre  and  a  youthful  god,  Penebto. 
At  Edfou,  Horhat  forms  a  triad  with  the  goddess  Athor  and  Hor- 
sened-to.  These  youthful  gods,  who  are  represented  pointing  their 
finger  towards  their  mouths,  all  passed,  before  the  discovery  of 
the  hieroglyphic  character,  as  figures  of  Harpocrates,  with  whom 
indeed  they  are  closely  allied. 

Sebek  or  Sevek,  the  crocodile-headed  god,  was  principally  wor- 
shipped at  Ombi,  Silsilis  and  Crocodilopolis  in  the  Arsinoitic 
nome.  According  to  Strabo,  the  Egyptian  name  of  the  crocodile, 
worshipped  in  this  latter  place,  was  Souckos*  ;  and  as  the  Egyp- 
tian b  seems  to  have  been  vocalized  into  ou,  the  name  is  probably 
the  same  as  Sebek,  denoting  the  god,  or  the  animal  worshipped 

1  Rosellini,  Hon.  del  Culto,  p.  240,  tav.  xxxviii. 

3  'Apufjoei  6e€>  fieyd?.^  'X-oaauvl.  (Inscr.  at  Ombi,  Ham.  ./Eg.  p.  75.  Plut. 
Is.  et  Os.  355  E.) 

3  Rosell.  Mon.  del  C.  p.  201. 

4  The  zoological  name  of  the  crocodile  was  x°-H-H>a'  Her.  2,  69  (Copt 
tnsali). 


330 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


as  the  symbol  of  the  god1.  The  disk  of  the  sun,  joined  to  his 
titles,  seems  to  indicate  some  relation  to  this  luminary*  ;  which 
may  have  consisted  in  this,  that  the  ancients  believed  the  croco- 
dile, when  out  of  the  water,  to  be  the  most  sharp-sighted  of  all 
animals3.  What  ./Elian  and  other  writers4  say  of  the  crocodile's  lay- 
ing sixty  eggs,  which  are  sixty  days  in  being  hatched,  living  sixty 
years,  &c,  as  it  has  no  foundation  in  the  natural  history  of  the 
animal,  has  probably  been  invented,  because  it  was  supposed  to 
be  sacred  to  the  sun,  and  this  was  an  astronomical  number.  Tamed, 
the  crocodile  seems  to  have  been  considered  as  an  emblem  of  gen- 
tleness and  justice5  ;  in  its  natural  state,  of  rapacity  and  cruelty, 
whence  it  was  the  symbol  of  Typhon6.  In  the  former  character  it 
seems  to  have  been  a  natural  emblem  of  the  gently  swelling  and 
beneficent  Nile7  ;  and  Wilkinson  observes  after  De  Pauw8,  that 
the  places  in  which  it  was  worshipped,  and  therefore  of  course 
tame,  were  those  to  which  the  Nile  could  only  reach  by  the 
maintenance  of  the  canals  which  diffuse  the  inundation. 

Atmoo  or  Athom9  is  one  of  the  manifold  deities  having  refer- 
ence to  the  Sun,  and  as  he  does  not  appear  to  have  any  particular 
connexion  with  the  Osirian  circle,  we  place  him  in  the  second 
class.  He  probably  represented  the  western  setting  or  nocturnal 
sun,  i.  e.  the  sun  below  the  horizon,  or  in  Amenthe,  the  Egyptian 
Hades.  In  paintings  he  is  colored  red,  and  he  wears  the  crowns 

1  Str.  lib.  17,  p.  811.  3  Wilk.  M.  and  C.  5,  36. 

■  Her.  2,  68.   Arist.  H.  Anim.  2,  10.  4       Nat.  An.  10,  21. 

6  Damasc.  ap.  Phot.  Bibl.  242.  Sov^oc  dUaioc  ovofta  dl  tcpoKodeilov  nai 
eldoc  6  lovxoc'  ov  yd.g  adinei  faov  ovdev. 

6  Plut.  Is.  et  Os.  371  C.  7  Euseb.  Praep.  Evang.  3,  11. 

8  M.  and  C.  5,  533. 

8  It  is  written  Atmoo,  but  according  to  a  remark  of  Lepsius  (Lettre  a  M. 
Rosellini,  p.  40),  the  vowel  which  was  written  at  the  end  was  often  pro- 
nounced in  the  middle,  e.  g.  Anpu,  Anubis,  Chnsou,  Chons.  The  name  is 
very  commonly  written  only  TM. 


SECT.  T. — THEOLOGY. 


331 


of  the  upper  and  lower  region,  placed  one  beside  the  other.1  He 
has  sometimes  the  prefix  of  Nofre  or  1  the  good, '  in  which  case 
his  head  is  adorned  with  a  lotus  or  two  straight  feathers3. 

Month  or  Mandoo  appears  also  to  have  a  reference  to  the  sun, 
since  his  name  is  sometimes  followed  by  the  solar  disk,  or  the 
figure  of  the  god  Ra,  and  he  is  represented  with  the  head  of  a 
hawk.  He  has  been  supposed  to  be  the  same  as  the  Mendes  of 
the  Greeks,  but  if  the  names  have  any  connexion,  the  attributes 
of  the  two  deities  are  entirely  different.  There  is  a  deity,  Man- 
doulis  or  Maloulis,  mentioned  in  some  Greek  inscriptions,  whose 
name  suggests  his  identity  with  Mandoo,  but  it  is  written  with 
entirely  different  characters,  nor  do  their  attributes  agree.  Ac- 
cording to  Champollion,  he  appears  at  Kalabsche  or  Talmis  as  the 
son  of  Isis  by  Horus  (who  would  thus  be  the  husband  of  his  moth- 
er), and  with  the  attributes  and  ornaments  of  Khons3.  Nor  is 
there  anything  in  the  attributes  of  Mandoo  to  identify  him  with 
Mars,  to  whom  he  has  been  supposed  to  answer1.  In  inscriptions, 
however,  the  kings  of  Egypt  are  said  to  style  themselves  u  Man- 
doo towards  the  nations, ' '  from  which  it  would  seem  as  if  the 
office  of  protector  or  avenger  belonged  especially  to  him. 

Of  the  direct  personification  and  deification  of  the  parts  of  na- 
ture, we  find  few  traces  in  the  Egyptian  theology.  We  have  seen 
that  the  sun  was  worshipped  as  Ra  ;  the  Moon  as  a  male  deity 
was  connected  with  Thoth,  and  as  a  female  with  Isis,  both  be- 
longing to  the  Osirian  circle  ;  but  neither  of  them  appears  to 
have  been  primarily  or  exclusively  the  representative  of  the  Moon. 
The  starry  heavens,  in  Coptic  Tpe,  were  personified  and  repre- 
sented as  a  female  figure,  of  which  the  trunk  formed  a  horizontal 
line,  the  arms  and  legs  depending  parallel  to  each  other,  and  stars 
covering  the  intermediate  space.  The  day  and  the  year  also  ap- 
pear to  have  been  represented  in  a  corporeal  form.  The  Greeks, 

1  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  5,  25.  1  Birch,  Gall.  Brit.  Iffus.  1,  21. 

s  Lettres,  p.  156.  4  Wilk.  M.  and  C.  534. 


332 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


who  call  Isis  Demeter,  must  have  understood  her  to  represent  the 
Earth,  but  this  was  not  her  exclusive  nor  probably  her  primary 
character.  Osiris  was  also  said  to  be  the  Nile1,  equally  without 
foundation,  as  regards  the  primary  conception  ;  but  the  river  was 
certainly  personified  and  received  divine  honors2.  A  festival  call- 
ed Niloa  was  celebrated  at  the  time  of  the  first  rise  of  the  waters3, 
i.  e. ,  about  the  summer  solstice,  with  sacrifices  and  universal  re- 
joicing, the  amount  of  the  inundation  and  consequently  the  fertility 
of  Egypt  being  supposed  to  depend  on  the  performance  of  these 
rites  in  an  acceptable  manner.  A  priesthood  specially  dedicated 
to  him  must  have  existed  in  several  parts  of  Egypt,  since  we  learn 
from  Herodotus  that  it  belonged  to  them  exclusively  to  bury  the 
corpse  of  one  who  had  been  drowned  in  the  Nile.  It  does  not 
appear  that  any  of  the  existing  temples  were  devoted  to  his  sole 
worship  ;  but  Hecataeus  mentions  one,  in  the  town  called  Nilus4, 
which  stood  in  the  tleracleopolite  nome,  near  the  entrance  of  the 
Fyoum.  Several  stela)  in  the  quarries  at  Silsilis  are  inscribed  with 
acts  of  adoration  to  the  river,  who  is  joined  withPhre  and  Ptah5. 
On  the  Egyptian  monuments,  the  god  is  designated  by  a  group  of 
characters,  the  last  of  which  is  a  symbol  of  the  waters",  and  is 
read  Moou  ;  the  others  are  phonetic  and  have  been  read  Hapi  or 
Phe.  He  is  represented  usually  of  a  blue  color,  of  a  round  and 
plump  figure,  sometimes  with  female  breasts,  indicative  of  his 

1  Tibull.  Eleg.  1,  7,  27.    Plut.  Is.  et  Osir.  says  the  Nile  was  'OoiqiSoc 

2  Heliod.  J&th.  9,  9.  QeoirXacrovoi  tov  Nellov  AlyvnTiot  nal  tcpecTTovuv 
tuv  fiiyioTov  ayovaiv.  Schol.  Pind.  Pyth.  4,  99.  6  Ne^of  irapa  tolq  Aiyv~. 
riOLQ  riudrai  uc  Ocoq. 

J  ITeliodorus,  ibid.  4  Steph.  Byz.  s.  voc.  NeiJlof. 

b  Rosellini,  M.  del  C.  214. 

c  According  to  Lucian  (Jup.  Trag.  §  42),  the  Egyptians  sacrificed  to  the 
element  of  Water,  and  this  was  not  a  local  but  universal  worship  among 
them. 


SECT.  I. — THEOLOGY. 


333 


efficacv  in  nourishing  vegetable  and  animal  life1.  Two  figures 
sometimes  appear,  as  on  the  base  of  the  throne  of  Amenophis- 
Memnon  at  Thebes,  similar  in  other  respects,  but  one  crowned 
with  lotus  to  denote  the  upper  course  of  the  river,  the  other  with 
papyrus  to  denote  the  lower. 

The  later  Greek  and  Latin  writers  speak  of  ^Esculapius  as  one 
of  the  gods  of  Egypt,  but  he  was  not  identified  among  the  sculp- 
tures till  a  Greek  inscription  was  found  at  Philse  in  which  his 
name  occurs.  It  is  written  Eimopth2,  and  he  is  called  the  son  of 
Ptah  ;  his  attributes,  also,  have  some  resemblance  to  those  of  the 
great  god  of  Memphis3  ;  he  wears  the  same  close-fitting  skull- 
cap, which  probably  gave  occasion  to  his  being  said  to  be  bald4. 
His  arms  and  limbs,  however,  are  free,  instead  of  being,  like  those 
of  Ptah,  involved  in  bandages.  The  Greek  mythology  made 
^Esculapius  the  son  of  Apollo  ;  but  according  to  the  Phoenician, 
^Esculapius  was  one  of  the  Cabiri5,  whose  worship  at  Memphis 
and  elsewhere  was  connected  with  that  of  Yulcan  or  Ptah6.  The 
Egyptian  Eimopth  has  no  attribute  which  specially  refers  to  the 
art  of  healing,  and  it  may  have  been  an  arbitrary  interpretation  of 

1  Birch,  p.  25.  In  Rosellini,  Mon.  del  Culto,  tav.  lxxiv.,  the  Nile  is 
represented  of  a  blue  color,  bringing  offerings  of  aquatic  plants,  flowers  and 
birds.  A  female  figure  alternates  with  the  males,  which  Rosellini  supposes 
to  denote  the  regions  of  Egypt.  The  original  is  in  the  tomb  of  Rameses 
Meiamoun. 

8  Salt's  Essay,  p.  50.  'larptKT/c  KaOrjyrjr^q  6  ' AaK?^7jTztbc  6  'HQcc'hjtov. 
Herm.  Stob.  Heeren,  p.  1090, 1092.  "'kculn  Tribe  6  'Ipovdqe.,  Utivoe  /ecu  'H^tu- 
aro3ov7.Tje.  Herm.  ap.  Stob.  Heeren,  p.  392.  Elsewhere  (1092)  he  is  made 
the  author  of  poetry. 

3  Amm.  Marcell.  22,  14.  From  the  mention  of  Memphis  as  celebrated 
for  his  worship,  it  should  seem  as  if  he  had  confounded  him  with  his  father 
Ptah. 

4  Synesius,  quoted  by  Jablonsky,  P.  3,  p.  196. 
'Euseb.  Pr.  Evang.  1,  p.  39. 

•  Kenrick,  Egypt  of  Herodotus,  p.  254. 


334 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


the  Greeks  which  gave  him  the  name  of  ^Esculapius,  as  some 
applied  the  same  name  to  Serapis1. 

The  name  of  Seb  was  not  known  from  the  Greek  or  Roman 
writers,  but  has  been  found  on  the  monuments  and  in  the  enume- 
ration of  the  gods.  He  is  called  "  the  father  of  Osiris,3"  and  as 
Osiris  was  said  to  be  the  son  of  Cronos3,  Seb  has  been  identified 
with  Cronos,  but  there  appears  no  particular  analogy  between  their 
attributes4.  He  is  also  called  "  father  of  the  gods,"  which  may- 
have  led  the  Greeks  to  call  him  Cronos,  but  this  title  seems  to 
have  a  special  reference  to  his  connexion  with  the  gods  of  the 
Osirian  circle.  Netpe6  answers  to  Rhea  in  the  same  way  as  Seb 
to  Saturn,  i.  e.  as  the  mother  of  Osiris.  They  form  therefore  the 
natural  transition  to  the  Osirian  mythe. 

Herodotus  observes  that ' 1  all  the  l^yptians  do  not  worship  the 
same  gods  in  a  similar  manner,  except  Isis  and  Osiris,  the  latter 
of  whom  is  said  to  be  Dionusos  ;  these  all  worship  in  a  similar 
manner"."  His  words  do  not  imply  that  there  was  a  diversity 
of  belief,  but  of  worship  manifesting  itself  in  the  sacrifice  of  cer- 
tain animals  in  some  of  the  nomes,  which  in  others  were  held 
sacred  to  particular  gods,  and  therefore  never  used  for  victims. 
The  inference  which  has  been  drawn  from  this  passage,  that  the 
other  deities  were  merely  local,  Oisris  and  Isis  national,  is  not 
warranted  by  his  words,  and  the  difference  was  probably  owing 
to  the  later  origin  of  the  Osirian  worship,  which  was  diffused 
from  some  one  point  with  a  rapid  development  and  a  uniform  sys- 
tem. Such  an  event,  though  relatively  late,  still  lies  beyond  the 
historical  times  of  Egypt  ;  for  we  find  the  proofs  of  his  worship 

1  Tac.  Hist.  4,  84.    Jabl.  P.  3,  p.  197. 
a  Wilkinson,  4,  311.    Panth.  pi.  31. 
3  Diod.  1,  27.    Plut.  Is.  et  Os.  p.  355. 

*  "  I  give  you  the  years  of  Seb,"  is  said  to  be  a  frequent  address  of 
gods  to  sovereigns.    Wilk.  u.  s. 

6  Wilkinson,  4,  312.    Pantheon,  pi.  32.  e  2,  42. 


SECT.  I.  — THEOLOGY. 


335 


on  the  oldest  monuments.  •  "  The  tombs  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
Pyramids,"  says  Sir  G.  "Wilkinson1,  "  belonging  to  individuals 
who  were  contemporary  with  their  founders,  show  that  Osiris  had 
at  that  time  the  same  offices  as  in  the  age  of  the  Ptolemies  and 
Caesars. "  This  remark,  however,  does  not  apply  to  the  Typho- 
nian  history  and  phallic  rites  of  Osiris.  They  appear  to  have  been 
of  decidedlv  later  origin.  Herodotus2  ascribes  the  introduction 
of  the  Egyptian  gods  into  Greece  to  the  age  of  the  Pelasgi  ;  that 
of  Dionusos-Osiris  to  Melampus,  much  later.  This  is  good  evi- 
dence of  relative  antiquity.  With  the  worship  of  Osiris  was 
connected  that  of  Isis  and  Horus,  their  son  ;  and  Anubis,  Thoth 
and  Typhon  bear  part  in  his  mythic  history. 

The  names  of  Osiris  and  Isis  give  us  no  insight  into  tho  primary 
conception  of  these  divinities  ;  the  Greek  etymologies  possess  no 
authority,  nor  does  the  Coptic  language  furnish  any  on  which  we 
can  rely3.  Herodotus  tells  us  that  Isis  was  the  Demeter  of  the 
Greeks  ;  and  without  urging  this  as  a  proof  that  the  worship  of 
Dionusos  and  Demeter  originated  in  Egypt,  we  may  at  least  infer 
a  marked  similarity  of  attributes.  Dionusos,  from  the  variety  of 
his  own  attributes  and  the  uncertain  etymology  of  the  name,  affords 
us  no  means  of  fixing  the  attributes  of  Osiris  ;  but  the  name  De- 
meter is  "  Mother  Earth."  It  is  probable,  therefore,  from  the 
usual  relation  of  male  and  female  divinities,  that  Osiris  had  an  orig- 
inal connexion  with  the  earth.  We  find  a  Solar  character  attrib- 
uted to  Dionusos,  but  only  in  later-  times  ;  and  the  idea  that 
Osiris  represented  the  Sun4,  is  not  supported  by  the  monuments. 

1  Wilk.  M.  and  C.  4,  323.  a  2,  49,  50. 

3  See  PI.  III.  C.  2,  7.  The  throne  in  both  groups  was  once  considered  as 
a  symbol  of  dominion,  the  eye  in  that  of  Osiris  of  providence.  Now  the 
throne  is  read  phonetically  Hes  (Isis),  the  eye,  iri  (Osiris  or  Hesiris).  No 
such  word  as  Hes  exists  in  the  Coptic ;  Oss  is  a  seat.  See  Peyron  s.  voc. 
Plutarch  (Is.  et  Os.  355  A.)  says  os  signifies  many,  and  iri  eye.  Osh  in 
Coptic  does  signify  '  many,'  but  iri  is  1  to  do.'  Hellanicus  said  the  Egyp- 
tian priests  pronounced  the  name  Usiris. 

*  It  was  the  opinion  of  the  age  of  Diodorus,  1,10. 


330 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


He  is  indeed  occasionally  identified  with  the  Sun,  by  the  titles 
under  which  he  is  invoked  :  but  so  are  most  of  the  other  gods. 
The  Greeks  regarded  Dionusos  chiefly  as  the  giver  of  the  vine  ; 
but  this  seems  not  likely  to  have  been  the  original  character  of 
Osiris,  since  the  vine  was  very  partially  cultivated  in  Egypt  ;  and 
there  is  nothing  in  his  attributes  or  mythic  history  to  assimilate 
him  to  Bacchus,  considered  in  this  character.  The  gift  of  the 
vine  appears  indeed  to  have  been  attributed  to  Bacchus,  as  repre- 
senting generally  the  principle  of  fertility  residing  in  the  earth 
and  manifesting  itself  in  the  luxuriance  of  vegetable  nature1.  Isis 
again  has  been  identified  with  the  Moon,  and  the  appropriation 
to  her  of  the  cow  or  heifer  as  a  symbol  has  been  supposed  to 
have  a  reference  to  her  horned  shape.  The  cow,  however,  is  a 
very  natural  emblem  of  productiveness.  Herodotus2,  speaking 
of  the  sacrifice  of  swine  by  the  Egyptians,  says  it  took  place  only 
on  the  day  of  the  full  moon,  and  in  honor  of  the  Moon  and 
Dionusos  ;  but  as  he  has  elsewhere  declared  Isis  to  be  the  Greek 
Demeter,  it  is  not  probable  that  he  here  means  the  same  divinity 
by  the  Moon. 

If  Osiris  originally  represented  the  Earth,  we  can  readily  under- 
stand how  he  may  have  acquired  the  character  which  is  most 
prominently  his  in  the  Egyptian  mythology,  of  a  ruler  of  the 
unseen  world,  and  judge  of  the  dead.  The  earth  is  the  repository 
of  bodies  from  which  life  has  departed,  and  its  deep  and  gloomy 
caverns  realize  the  idea  of  a  land  of  darkness  and  silence.  Here 
the  Hebrews  placed  their  SheoP,'m  which  the  dead  rested  in  insen- 
sibility ;  here  was  the  Tartarus  of  classic  and  the  Ilela  of  northern 
mythology.  The  UXovtcjv  of  the  Greeks  appears  to  have  been  the 
same  as  UXovrog*,  and  to  have  acquired  his  name  either  from  the 

1  Ttiv  uKpodpvuv  nal  6Xwf  tQv  (pVTevTintiv  rj  6vvci{iir1  &l6vvgo<;  6\  9/j.dfyrai. 
Euseb.  Praep.  Evang.  3,  11,  from  Porphyry. 

2  2,  47.  3  Isaiah  xiv.  9. 

4  See  Hesych.  voc.  TITiovroc.  Msch.  Prom.  V.  806.  Aristoph.  Plut.  727. 1 
The  Greek  name  of  Proserpine  is  explained,  as  meaning 1  the  produce  of  the 


SECT.  L  THEOLOGY.  f  337 

mineral  riches  of  the  earth,  or  more  probably  from  its  productive 
power.  The  Bis  of  the  Latins  is  contracted  from  Dives1.  1\ 
seems  to  have  been  in  virtue  of  his  original  connexion  with  the 
earth,  that  Dionusos  became  identified  with  Pluto*. 

The  reserve  with  which  Herodotus  always  speaks  of  the  gods, 
and  especially  of  Osiris,  makes  it  difficult  to  know  what  concep- 
tion he  had  formed  of  him,  or  what  were  the  grounds  on  which 
the  Greeks  identified  him  with  Dionusos.  It  is  probable,  however, 
that  the  chief  point  of  resemblance  was  the  sufferings  which  each 
god  was  said  to  have  undergone  and  which  were  set  forth  in  their 
respective  mysteries'.  What  he  mentions  of  Melampus  and  his 
doctrines4,  shows  plainly  that  he  had  introduced  into  Greece  the 
story  of  the  death  of  Osiris  and  the  mutilation  and  discerption  of 
his  body6.  Whatever  this  might  imply,  it  had  a  strict  analogy  in 
the  mythic  history  of  Bacchus,  who,  under  the  name  of  Zagreus, 
was  said  to  have  been  torn  limb  from  limb  by  the  Titans8.  This 
was  an  Orphic  doctrine7,  and  we  know  from  Herodotus,  that  the 

year.'  Hesyeh.  $tpat<p6vtia.  The  root  of  LTXotiros  and  U\ovrco>  h  probably 
qkico,  which  signifies  'to  be  fruitful/  Hes.  ip\siv  tvKapwr.Tv.  Hence  <p\eo)V  or 
$\K$y  an  epithet  of  Dionusos.     JEL  V.  H.  8,  41.    Etym.  Mag.  s.  voc. 

3aoi\t6s. 

1  Cic,  N.  D.  2,  26.  Terrena  vis  omnis  atque  natura  Diti  Patri  dedicata 
est ;  qui  Dives,  ut  apud  Gnecos  nXovrwv,  quia  et  recidant  omnia  in  terras 
et  oriantur  e  tenia.  Trophonius  (rj»^),  the  son  of  Phoronis  ((>opf,):  who 
was  the  subterranean  Mercury  (N.  D.  3,  22),  appears  to  represent  the  same 
idea 

■  *2ard{  Si  'AiSm  Kal  Aidwvns     Clem.  Alex.  Coh.  p.  30,  ecL  Potter. 

*  'Ek  rj  Huvr)  ravrif  ra  Jtf«>?Xa  rd5»  vadcuv  airov  vvktos  iroicvai}  ra  xaliovoi  pvo- 
rfipta  AiytiTTiot.     Her.  2,  171. 

4  2,  49. 

*  These  were  the  usual  subjects  of  the  mysteries.  Min.  Felix,  0.  21,  196. 
Considera  sacra  ipsa  et  mysteria  ;  in  denies  exitus  tristes,  fata,  funera  a  ike 
rorum  deorura. 

*  Lobeck,  Aglaoph.  p.  653.    Schol  Pind  Isthm.  7,  &. 

*  Macrob.  ia  Soma.  8cip.  I,  12.  « 
vol.  L  15 


338  ANCIENT  EGYPT. 

Orphic  and  Bacchic  doctrines  and  usages  were  really  Egyptian 

The  description  of  a  Roman  poet1  can  have  little  weight  in  decid- 
ing, whether  Osiris  originally  represented  the  principle  of  fruitful- 
ness  as  existing  in  the  earth  and  manifested  in  vegetation  ;  but  the 
mode  in  which  he  is  figured  on  the  monuments  gives  countenance 
to  this  opinion.  He  bears  in  his  hands  two  instruments,  a  flail 
and  a  hook,  or  pedum,  one  connecting  him  with  agriculture,  the 
other  with  pasturage3 ;  or  if  the  former  should  be  considered  as  a 
scourge,  rather  than  a  flail,  the  allusion  to  agriculture  will  remain, 
since  this  scourge  appears  from  the  paintings  to  have  been  used 
for  urging  and  guiding  oxen  in  the  plough.  Possibly  the  hook 
may  also  belong  to  agriculture,  as  it  appears  that  the  reapers 
carried  such  an  instrument  to  collect  the  ears  of  corn  for  the 
sickle.  The  mystic  van  of  Bacchus  was  also  an  emblem  of  agri- 
culture, being  the  basket  in  which  the  corn  was  shaken,  that  die 
wind  might  separate  the  grain  from  the  chaff.  The  other  attri- 
butes of  Osiris  throw  little  light  upon  the  original  conception  of 
his  character.  His  body  is  swathed,  because  in  his  character  of 
the  King  of  Hades,  he  is  the  type  of  all  the  deceased.  He  wears, 
in  colored  monuments,  a  white  crown,  which  is  said  to  represent 
the  celestial  hemisphere.  The  title  which  is  often  given  to  him  in 
inscriptions,  "  Manifester  of  good4,"  suits  well  with  the  notion  of 
his  originally  representing  the  productive  power  of  the  earth  ; 
and  it  is  easy  to  explain  how,  from  such  a  primary  conception,  the 
idea  that  Osiris  was  the  Nile  or  the  Sun  should  arise  ;  since  each  of 

1  Her.  2,  81. 

*  Priraus  aratra  manu  solerti  fecit  Osiris, 

Et  tenerarn  ferro  solliciUvit  humum. 
Primus  inexpert®  cornmisit  semina  terne, 

Poraaque  non  notis  legit  ab  arboribus. — Tib.  Eleg.  1.  7.  29. 
Wilkinson,  Pantheon,  pL  83. 

•  Ouon-nofre,  "  the  opener  of  good."  Plut  Is.  et  Os.  868  B.  says  Ompha 
was  a  title  of  Osiris. 


SECT.  L  TIIEOLOGT. 


389 


these  is  in  itself  a  principle  of  fertility.  Those  who  philosophised 
more  deeply  made  Osiris  to  be  not  only  the  Nile,  but  the  humid 
principle  generally,  as  the  source  of  production1.  The  notion  that 
he  represented  the  Sun  was  thought  to  be  countenanced  by  his 
hieroglyphic  containing  an  eyea.  The  appellations  said  to  be  given 
to  him  in  the  hieroglyphic  inscriptions,  if  rightly  interpreted;  are 
of  that  general  kind  which  would  be  applicable  to  any  chief 
divinity  ;  one  of  them,  "  Lord  of  Ebot "  or  Abydos,  has  reference 
to  his  worship  in  this  ancient  town  of  the  Thebais,  which,  as  the 
place  of  his  supposed  burial,  was  chosen  for  their  interment  by 
his  votaries  throughout  Egypt.  The  various  legends  of  his  birth 
or  burial  here  or  at  Memphis,  Philae,  Busiris,  Taphosiris', 
have  no  historical  significance.  The  two  latter  rest  on  fanci- 
ful etymologies ;  the  former  indicate  only  the  importance  of 
the  sacred  establishments  in  his  honor  at  these  places,  and  the 
desire  of  his  worshippers  to  exalt  the  glory  of  their  respective 
temples. 

The  character  of  Isis  must  depend  on  that  which  we  assign  to 
her  eonsort  Osiris,  since  in  the  ancient  religions  the  male  and 
female  divinities  who  are  thus  paired  together  represent  usually 
the  same  principle,  considered  in  that  difference  of  relation  which  a 
difference  of  sex  suggests.  If  Osiris  were  the  Sun,  it  was  natural 
that  Isis  should  be  the  Moon  ;  or  the  Earth,  to  which  he  commu- 
nicates his  fertilizing  power ;  if  Osiris  were  the  Nile,  the  land  of 
Egypt  which  he  overspreads  and  impregnates  would  be  represented 

1  Plut  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  863  D,  364  A. 

•  "  Osirin  ^Egyptii,  ut  Solem  esse  asserant,  quotiens  hieroglyphicis  litem 
exprimere  volunt,  insculpunt  sceptrum,  inque  eo  speciem  oculi  exprimunt" 
(Macrob.  Sat  1,  21.)  See  note'  on  page  335.  The  sceptre  is  the  hooked 
staff  which  is  found  in  the  hands  of  Osiris,  but  not  as  a  part  of  the  hiero- 
glyphic, as  Macrobius  erroneously  supposed.  See  also  Plut  Is.  et  Oa.  p 
ttl  E. 

•  Plut  Is.  et  On  859  ^ 


840 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


as  his  consort1 ;  w  hile  those  who  made  Osiris  to  be  the  Reason  and 
Intellect  which  rules  and  guides  all  good  things',  conceived  of  Isia 
as  the  material  nature  which  receives  impression  and  form.  Ac- 
cording to  the  simpler  view  which  wo  have  taken  of  the  original 
conception  of  Osiris,  Isis  would  represent  merely  the  power  of 
nature,  sustaining  the  part  of  the  female  in  the  work  of  production, 
receiving  and  nourishing  the  germ  of  life.  The  representation  of 
her  which  is  the  most  common  and  popular,  as  nursing  tho  infant 
Horus,  the  joint  offspring  of  herself  and  Osiris,  agrees  well  with  this 
view,  and  the  horns  of  the  cow  were  placed  upon  her  head8,  pro- 
bably to  symbolize  the  same  conception.  Its  very  vagueness 
favored  the  extension  of  the  worship  of  these  divinities,  since  every 
devotee  could  identify  them  with  what  god  he  pleased.  "  Some," 
says  Diodorus  (1,  25),  "  think  the  same  goddess  to  be  Isis,  some 
Demeter,  some  Thesmophoros  (the  Eleusinian  Ceres),  some  the 
Moon,  some  Juno,  and  some  call  her  by  all  these  appellations. 
Some  think  Osiris  to  be  Serapis,  some  Dionusos,  some  Pluto,  some 
Ammon,  some  Jupiter,  some  Pan."  Each  could  allege  some  cir- 
cumstance in  favor  of  his  opinion. 

But  that  which  made  the  Osirian  worship  so  popular  in  Egypt 
in  the  times  of  the  Pharaohs,  as  it  served  afterwards  to  diffuse  the 
Isiac  religion  through  the  Roman  empire,  was  its  connexion  with 
the  mysterious  subject  of  the  state  of  man  after  death.  To  other 
gods,  as  Ptah  or  Athom,  the  office  of  presiding  in  Amenthe,  the 
unseen  world,  was  attributed  only  occasionally  and  by  substitution  ; 
Osiris  was  the  Pluto  of  Egyptian  mythology,  and  bore  the  title  of 
Pethempamenthes,  or  president  of  Amenthe4.  It  is  in  this  charac- 
ter that  we  find  him  so  generally  represented  in  the  papyri  which 

1  Tdi>  plv  *0npiv  ttf  vSoip  utraXafiBavovai,  ri)v  Si  *\<tiv  tii  yfjv.  Origen  c  Cels. 
6,  p.  257. 

■  Plut  la.  et  Oa.  371  A.  ■  Herod.  2,  41. 

4  See  the  Inscription  in  Minutoli,  Reiaen,  870,  where  he  is  identified  with 
Dionusoe. 


6ECT.   I.  THEOLOGY. 


841 


accompany  the  mummies.  In  these  delineations  Osiris  appears 
seated  on  a  throne,  attended  by  the  goddesses  Isis  and  Nephthyg, 
Near  him  are  the  four  genii,  as  they  are  called,  of  Amenthe,  vari- 
ously represented,  sometimes  in  the  form  of  mummies,  sometimes 
of  short  vases,  which  antiquaries  have  called  Canopi,  in  which  the 
different  viscera  are  supposed  to  have  been  preserved,  embalmed. 
Each  has  a  different  head  ;  one  with  a  human  head,  called  Amset, 
held  the  stomach  and  larger  intestines ;  Hapi,  with  the  head  of  a 
cynocephalus,  the  smaller;  Smautf  or  Sioutmauf,  the  lungs  and 
heart;  KebhsnauJ]  the  liver  and  gall-bladder1.  It  has  been  con- 
jectured that  these  genii  really  represent  the  god  himself,  as  we 
find  them  at  Philse  armed  with  the  crook  and  flail  which  belong 
to  Osiris3.  It  seems  however  more  natural  to  consider  them  as 
belonging  essentially  to  the  scene  of  the  judgment.  The  intestines 
had  according  to  the  Egyptian  notion  a  very  important  connexion 
with  the  moral  qualities  of  the  individual,  and  upon  them  the 
blame  was  laid  of  any  sin  of  which  he  might  have  been  guilty.  It 
is  true,  that  according  to  Porphyry3  and  Plutarch  the  bowels  were 
cast  into  the  Nile.  But  this  is  certainly  inconsistent  with  the 
account  of  Herodotus,  who  says  that  the  bowels  when  taken  out 
were  washed  with  palm  wine  and  pounded  spices,  a  process  evi- 
dently designed  for  their  preservation4 ;  and  in  the  paintings  which 
represent  the  process  of  embalming6,  these  four  vases  are  placed 
beneath  the  table  on  which  the  dead  body  is  laid.  If  therefore 
they  did  not  always  contain,  they  may  be  considered  as  represent- 
ing the  viscera  in  the  judgement-scene,  and  thus  the  whole  body 
was  brought  before  Osiris.  They  are  frequently  placed  on  the 
.otus,  which  grows  out  of  the  water  over  which  the  throne  of  Osiris 
*tfands6.    At  the  opposite  end  is  the  deceased,  introduced  by  Horus, 

1  Wilkinson,  Pantheon,  pL  61.    Birch,  Gall,  of  Brit.  Mus.  pL  22. 

s  Bunsen,  1,  p.  601,  Germ.  •  Porphyr.  de  Abstin,  4,  10. 

4  2,  86.    So  Diodorus,  1,  91. 

Roeellini,  Mon.  del  Cult,  xxiii.  xxvi.  Mon.  Civ.  cxxix.  Sext.  Emp.  p.  174. 
'  UoseHini,  Mon.  Civ.  cxxxv.    Wilkinson,  Pantheon,  pL  87,  83. 


342 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


or  by  the  goddess  of  Truth.  The  centre  is  occupied  by  a  largo 
scale-beam  which  Anubis  has  erected ;  in  the  one  scale  is  a  vase? 
shaped  like  a  heart,  and  supposed  to  represent  the  moral  qualities 
of  the  deceased ;  in  the  other  is  a  figure  of  the  goddess  of  Truth, 
with  the  ostrich -feather  on  her  head,  and  the  emblem  of  life  in  her 
hands.  Thoth,  standing  by,  notes  the  result  of  the  weighing  in  a 
tablet  or  roll  of  papyrus.  Horus  then,  holding  Thoth's  record  in 
his  hand,  advances  towards  Osiris,  who  is  supposed  to  pronounce 
sentence  of  reward  or  punishment,  according  to  his  report.  In 
some  of  the  judgement-scenes  other  figures  are  introduced,  repre- 
senting the  assessors1  who  aided  in  the  judgement.  Their  full 
number  was  forty-two,  after  the  analogy  of  the  number  of  the 
earthly  judges,  by  whose  sentence  it  was  to  be  determined,  whether 
the  deceased  should  be  conveyed  to  the  tomb  of  his  ancestors,  or 
remain  in  his  own  house2.  The  figure  of  some  voracious  animal, 
called  by  the  Egyptian  antiquaries  a  Cerberus,  but  not  triple-headed, 
appears  in  some  of  the  judgement-scenes,  keeping  watch  over  the 
entrance  of  a  sepulchre.  It  more  resembles  a  hippopotamus,  and 
as  Eusebius  tells  us3  that  this  animal  represented  the  West,  and 
was  supposed  to  swallow  the  Sun,  it  would  be  an  appropriate 
symbol  of  the  world  of  darkness  and  of  the  western  side  of  the 
Nile,  in  which,  with  very  few  exceptions,  the  Egyptian  tombs  were 
placed.  We  shall  have  to  speak  elsewhere  of  these  things  in  con- 
nexion with  the  Egyptian  doctrine  of  a  future  life ;  at  present  we 
consider  them  only  in  reference  to  the  functions  of  Osiris. 

Osiris  is  the  only  Egyptian  god  who  has  a  detailed  mythic  his- 
tory, similar  to  the  legends  of  the  Greek  mythology ;  and  doubt/ 
less  this  analogy  to  their  own  religion  recommended  the  Osirian 
and  Isiac  rites  to  the  Greek  and  Roman  devotees.  It  is  thus 
related  by  Plutarch  : — 

"  Rhea  having  secretly  united  herself  with  Saturn,  the  Sun,  who 
was  indignant,  laid  upon  her  a  curse,  that  she  should  not  bring 

Diod.  1,  49.  *  DicxL  1,  92. 

"  Euseb.  Pnop.  Hvnn^.  3,  12. 


SECT.  I.  THEOLOGY. 


343 


forth  in  any  year  or  month.  Mercury,  however,  who  was  also  s 
lover  of  Rhea,  playing  at  dice  with  the  Moon,  took  away  the  seven- 
tieth part  of  each  period  of  daylight,  and  from  these  made  five  new 
days,  which  are  the  epagomenai  or  intercalary  days.  (Seventy  here 
stands,  as  elsewhere,  a  round  number  instead  of  the  precise  one, 
for  seventy-two  ;  five  being  the  seventy-second  part  of  three  hun- 
dred and  sixty.)  On  each  of  these  five  days  Rhea  bore  a  child. 
On  the  first  was  born  Osiris,  the  son  of  the  Sun,  at  whose  b!rth  a 
voice  was  heard  proclaiming  that  the  Lord  of  all  was  coming  to 
light ;  or,  according  to  another  version,  Paamyles,  drawing  water 
in  the  temple  of  Jupiter,  heard  a  voice  which  enjoined  upon  him 
to  proclaim  that  the  great  and  beneficent  king  Osiris  was  born. 
This  Paamyles  received  him  to  nurse,  and  hence  the  festival  of  the 
Paamylia,  which  was  a  phallephoria.  On  the  second  day  was 
born  Aroeris,  son  of  the  Sun,  whom  they  call  Apollo,  and  the 
Elder  Horus.  On  the  third  was  born  Typhon,  not  in  the 
usual  course,  but  bursting  out  with  a  sudden  stroke  from  the  side 
of  Rhea.  On  the  fourth  day  was  born  Isis1,  the  daughter  of  Her- 
mes ;  on  the  fifth  Nephthys,  who  was  called  Teleute  (the  end),  and 
Aphrodite,  and  according  to  some,  Nike.  Typhon  and  Nephthys 
were  the  children  of  Saturn,  and  married  to  each  other8.  In  con- 
sequence of  the  birth  of  Typhon,  the  third  day  of  the  epagomenai 
was  a  dies  nefastus,  and  the  kings  of  Egypt  neither  transacted 
public  business,  nor  took  the  usual  care  of  their  persons  till  night. 
Isis  and  Osiris  united  themselves,  even  before  their  birth,  and  their 
son  was  called,  according  to  somej  Aroeris,  or  the  Elder  Horus. 
The  more  common  account,  however,  made  the  son  of  Osiris  and 
Isis  to  be  the  Younger  Horus. 

"  Osiris  being  king,  instructed  the  Egyptians  in  the  arts  of 

1  According  to  the  text  of  Plutarch  (Is.  et  Os.  355  E.)  Isis  was  born  t# 
iravvypoa  (in  pracriguis  locis  palustribus).  The  reading  is  doubtful,  and  Bun- 
een  conjectures  iv  navnyv[j^u 

'  According  to  the  probable  reading  y^jtaadai  for  rifiaadat. 


344 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


civilization,  teaching  them  agriculture,  enacting  laws  for  them, 
and  establishing  the  worship  of  the  gods,  and  afterwards  traversed 
the  world  for  the  same  purpose,  subduing  the  nations,  not  by 
arms,  but  by  persuasion,  and  especially  by  the  charms  of  music 
and  poetry,  which  gave  occasion  to  the  Greeks  to  identify  him 
with  Dionusos.  In  his  absence  Isis  administered  the  regency  so 
wisely,  that  Typhon  was  unable  to  create  any  disturbance  ;  but 
on  his*  return  he  conspired  against  Osiris  with  seventy-two  men 
and  the  Ethiopian  queen  Aso ;  and  having  secretly  obtained  the 
measure  of' Osiris,  caused  a  coffer  splendidly  adorned  to  be  brought 
into  the  banqueting-room,  promising  to  give  it  to  the  guest  whom 
it  should  fit.  Osiris  put  himself  into  it  to  make  the  trial,  and 
Typhon  and  his  associates  immediately  pegged  and  soldered  down 
the  case,  and  set  it  afloat  on  the  river.  It  floated  to  the  Tanitic 
mouth,  which  on  that  account  the  Egyptians  held  accursed.  These 
things  were  done  on  the  seventeenth  of  the  month  Athyr,  in 
which  the  Sun  enters  the  Scorpion,  and  in  the  twenty-eighth  year 
of  the  reign,  or  as  some  said  of  the  age,  of  Osiris.  The  Pans  and 
Satyrs  who  lived  about  Chemmis,  hearing  of  these  events,  and 
being  agitated  by  them,  sudden  terrors  obtained  the  name  of 
Panics :  Isis  cut  off  her  hair  and  put  on  mourning,  at  the  place  at 
which  she  first  heard  the  news;  whence  it  obtained  the  name 
Coptos1.  Meeting  some  boys,  she  heard  from  them  to  what  place 
the  coffin  had  been  floated,  and  hence  the  Egyptians  deemed  the 
words  of  boys  to  carry  with  them  a  divine  meaning.  Osiris  had 
by  mistake  united  himself  with  Nephthys,  and  a  son  had  been 
born  to  him,  whom  Nephthys  hid  immediately  upon  his  birth. 
Isis  sought  him  out,  and  found  him  by  the  guidance  of  a  dog,  who 
attended  her  thenceforth,  and  was  called  Anubis. 

"  Meanwhile  the  chest  had  been  floated  to  Byblos,  and  cast 
ashore;  the  plant  erica  had  grown  up  about  it  and  enclosed  it, 
and  in  this  state  it  had  been  made  use  of  as  a  pillar  to  support 

1  K&nrtcdat,  p'angere,  is  the  Greek  word  for  *  to  mourn  for  the  dead.' 


8ECT.  I.  THEOLOGY. 


345 


the  palace  of  the  king.  Isis  arrived,  divinely  conducted,  in  search 
of  it,  and  recommending  herself  to  the  queen's  maidens,  had  the 
charge  of  the  young  prince  committed  to  her.  She  thus  obtained 
possession  of  the  chest,  and  opening  it,  carried  it  to  Buto,  where 
Horus  was  being  brought  up.  The  event  of  her  return  was 
celebrated  by  sacrifices  on  the  seventeenth  day  of  the  month  Tybi, 
and  the  figure  of  a  hippopotamus  bound  was  impressed  upon  the 
sacrificial  cakes,  as  an  emblem  of  the  defeat  of  Typhon1.  Here 
she  deposited  the  body  in  secresy,  but  Typhon,  hunting  by  moon- 
light, found  it  and  cut  it  into  fourteen  pieces.  Isis,  in  a  baris 
made  of  papyrus,  traversed  the  marshes,  and- when  she  found  one 
of  the  members,  buried  it  there ;  whence  the  number  of  reputed 
places  of  interment  of  Osiris.  In  the  end  she  found  all  the  mem- 
bers but  one,  which  had  been  devoured  by  the  fishes  phagrus  and 
lepidotus.  Isis  therefore  made  an  emblem  of  it,  whence  the 
honors  still  paid  to  it  by  the  Egyptians.  (Probably,  though  Plu- 
tarch does  not  expressly  say  so,  Isis  was  conceived  to  have  recom- 
posed  the  body  from  the  limbs  thus  recovered.)  Osiris  returned 
from  Hades  and  gave  his  aid  to  Horus,  who  was  preparing  to 
overthrow  the  power  of  Typhon.  •  Typhon  fell  into  the  hands  of 
Isis,  but  she  released  him,  at  which  Horus  was  so  enraged  that  he 
plucked  his  mother's  diadem  from  her  head,  and  Mercury  supplied 
its  place  by  a  helmet  in  the  form  of  a  cow's  head.  Two  other 
battles  took  place  before  Typhon  was  finally  subdued.  Harpocra- 
tes  was  born  from  the  union  of  Isis  and  Osiris,  after  the  death  of 
Osiris,  and  was  consequently  imperfect  with  a  weakness  in  his 
lower  limbs." 

Such  is  the  mythe  as  related  by  Plutarch,  who  intimates  that 
there  were  other  portions  of  it  more  revolting2,  which  lie  had  sup- 
pressed, as  the  discerption  of  Horus  and  the  beheading  of  Isis.  If 

*  Plut  Is.  et  Os.  371  D. 

*  P.  858  E.     Twj>  6v(T'l>r^toiaTuiv  i£aipt9it>ru)v. 

15* 


848 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


has  evidently  been  framed,  like  many  of  the  Greek  mythes,  to 
account  for  existing  religious  usages  and  ideas.  In  the  first  place, 
it  clearly  assumes  that  the  worship  of  Osiris,  in  connexion  with  the 
other  personages  of  this  mythe,  is  subsequent  to  the  formation  of 
the  Egyptian  pantheon.  "  The  Egyptians,"  says  Herodotus,  "  were 
the  first  people  who  assigned  every  day  in  the  year  to  the  god  to 
whom  it  was  appropriated."  Three  hundred  and  sixty  days  origin- 
ally composed  their  year,  and  the  memory  of  this  number  was  pre- 
served in  religious  rites;  at  Philae  360  cups,  which  were  every  day 
filled  by  the  priests  with  milk,  and  360  priests  were  employed  in 
carrying  daily  water  from  the  Nile,  to  be  poured  into  a  perforated 
cask  at  Acanthus1.  The  year  being  thus  filled  up,  it  was  necessary 
to  find  a  new  time  for  the  new  gods.  Mercury,  that  is  Thoth,  the 
god  of  numbers  and  science,  gained  this  at  play  with  the  Moon ; 
the  Egyptian  months  being  twelve,  all  of  thirty  days,  a  seventy- 
second  part  of  each  made  in  the  whole  five  entire  days'2.  Though 
the  fiction,  however,  proceeds  upon  the  assumption  that  the  Osirian 
circle  was  later  than  the  rest  of  the  gods,  it  by  no  means  follows, 
as  an  historical  fact,  that  its  introduction  was  coincident  with  the 
addition  of  five  days  to  the  calendar.  There  are  other  traces  of  a 
connexion  with  astronomy,  in  the  number  72  assigned  to  the 
fellow-conspirators  of  Typhon ;  and  28,  the  days  of  a  lunation, 
assigned  as  the  year  of  the  reign  or  life  of  Osiris,  at  the  time  of  his 
destruction  by  Typhon ;  and  in  the  Sun's  entrance  into  the  Scor- 
pion, assigned  as  the  season  of  the  year  when  this  took  place,  being 
that  at  which,  after  light  and  darkness  have  been  equally  balanced 
at  the  equinox,  darkness  appears  to  triumph  through  the  months 
of  winter.  The  order  in  which  the  different  events  of  the  mythe 
succeed  to  each  other,  accords  very  well  with  the  supposition,  that 
they  relate  to  the  disappearance  of  the  sun  from  the  northern 
hemisphere,  and  the  train  of  consequences  which  it  produces  to  the 
earth.  His  burial  and  disappearance  took  place  in  autumn ;  the 
1  Diod.  1,  22,  97.  a  See  p.  278  of  this  volume. 


SECT.  I. — THEOLOGY. 


347 


voyage  of  Lis  to  discover  his  remains  in  the  month  of  December ; 
the  search  for  them  in  Egypt  about  midwinter ;  and  in  the  end  of 
February,  Osiris,  entering  into  the  Moon,  fertilizes  the  world1. 

The  representation  of  Osiris,  as  god  of  the  invisible  world,  and 
his  being  figured  as  a  mummy,  naturally  produced  an  explanatory 
mythe.  It  accounts  for  an  immortal  god  being  subjected  to  death, 
and  for  the  association  of  Thoth  and  Horus,  Isis  and  Nephthys 
with  him  in  his  capacity  of  ruler  of  Amenthe.  The  erection  of  th'e 
coffin  at  Byblos  alludes  to  the  use  of  Osiride  pillars  in  Egyptian 
architecture.  (See  pp.  216,217.)  The  story  of  the  discerption  of  his 
body  explained  the  circumstance  that  the  honor  of  his  interment 
was  claimed  by  so  many  different  places  in  Egypt,  and  the  cere- 
mony of  the  phallephoria  in  his  honor.  The  co-operation  of  a 
queen  of  Ethiopia  in  the  plot  against  his  life  is  significant  of  the 
national  hostility  of  that  people  against  the  Egyptians,  and  the 
prevalence  of  female  dominion.  The  plotting  against  him  in  his 
absence  may  have  been  borrowed  from  the  history  of  Sesostris,  as 
the  account  of  his  expeditions  to  distant  countries  for  the  purpose 
of  civilizing  them,  betrays  its  origin  in  times  when  the  Egyptians 
had  become  acquainted  with  foreign  nations,  and  were  disposed  to 
glorify  themselves  as  the  original  source  of  knowledge  and  the 
arts.  The  story  of  the  dog,  who.  assisted  Isis  to  discover  the  son 
of  Nephthys,  and  attended  her  ever  afterwards,  explained  the  form 
of  the  god  Anubis,  who  belongs  to  the  Osirian  circle :  that  the 
animal  with  whose  head  this  god  is  represented  is  not  a  dog,  but 
a  jackal,  shows  that  the  mythe  was  accommodated  to  the  general 
conception,  not  to  the  fact  The  respect  paid  by  the  Egyptians  to 
the  words  of  children,  a  feature  of  their  excessive  superstition,  is 
explained  by  the  aid  which  children  gave  to  her  in  her  researches. 

Another  object  of  the  mythe  was  to  explain  the  affinity  which 
existed,  or  was  believed  to  exist,  between  the  worship  of  Isis  in 
Egypt,  and  that  of  the  same  or  a  similar  divinity  in  Phoenicia,  and 
1  See  Prichard's  Analysis,  p.  103    Plut  Is.  et  Os.  43. 


348 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


especially  at  Byblos.  The  identity  of  these  goddesses  was  believed, 
and  was  the  foundation  of  the  legend  of  Io's  wanderings.  There 
was  at  all  events  a  close  resemblance  between  the  7'ites  whioh 
related  to  the  death  and  revival  of  Adonis  at  Byblos,  and  of  Osiris 
in  Egypt1.  Some  of  the  people  of  Byblos  claimed  to  have  the 
sepulchre  of  Osiris  among  them,  and  maintained  that  all  the  rites 
commonly  referred  to  Adonis  properly  related  to  Osiris.  Their 
connexion  appears  from  the  story  related  by  Lucian2,  that  a  head 
formed  of  papyrus,  or  a  vessel  of  papyrus  containing  a  letter,  was 
annually  thrown  into  the  sea  at  Alexandria,  and  floated  to  Byblos ; 
and  by  its  arrival  there  informed  the  women  of  Byblos  that  Adonis 
was  found.  Now  this  mourning  for  Adonis  is  evidently  the  same 
as  the  mourning  for  Thammuz,  spoken  of  by  Ezekiel  (viii.  14),  and 
therefore  the  Egyptian  mourning  was  probably  an  ancient  custom, 
not  one  introduced  by  the  Greeks  at  Alexandria.  Since  the  papy- 
rus grew  in  Phoenicia  as  well  as  in  Egypt3,  it  would  be  easy  to 
keep  up  this  ceremony  of  the  annual  exhibition  of  the  head,  or  the 
vessel  of  papyrus  at  Byblos. 

We  do  not  find  any  representation  of  the  mythical  history  of 
Osiris  on  the  older  monuments  of  Egypt,  and  this  confirms  the 
suspicion  that,  at  least  in  the  form  in  which  we  have  received  it 
from  Plutarch,  it  is  comparatively  modern.  The  most  remarkable 
sculptures  illustrative  of  this  history  are  found  at  Philae,  but  in  a 
building  which  belongs  to  the  latest  age  of  the  Ptolemies  and  the 
commencement  of  the  Roman  dominion.  They  are  preserved  on 
the  walls  of  an  interior  secret  chamber  over  the  temple4.  Osiris  is 
first  seen  in  his  usual  form,  as  god  of  the  invisible  world,  namely 
as  a  mummy  with  the  crook  and  flail,  and  with  the  inscription 

1  Movers  die  Phonizier,  vol.  1,  c.  7. 
a  De  Syria  Dea,  9,  89,  ed.  Bipont. 

•  Steph.  Byz.  s.  v.  Bv/3\as.  The  name  Byblos  seems  to  indicate  its  abun- 
dant  growth  there. 

*  Roseilini,  Mon.  del  Culto,  Lav.  xxi-xxvu. 


8SCT.  L  THEOLOGY. 


349 


Osiris  Petkempamentes.  In  a  succeeding  compartment  the  head 
of  Osiris  is  represented  placed  on  the  short  column  or  stand,  called 
a  Nilometer,  or  the  emblem  of  Stability,  and  two  female  figures  are 
before  it,  probably  ministers  of  the  temple.  A  third  compartment 
exhibits  the  limbs  of  the  dismembered  god,  upon  which  a  head  is 
placed,  as  if  to  indicate  that  the  life  of  the  entire  body  is  still  sub- 
sisting in  it.  Isis  and  Nephthys  stand  one  at  each  end.  Next 
comes  a  mummy,  borne  by  the  four  genii  of  Amenthe,  succeeded 
by  the  representation  of  a  funeral  chest,  in  which  are  the  lower 
limbs  and  torso  of  the  god,  while  two  genii  stand  by  and  receive 
in  a  vessel  the  fluid  which  spirts  from  it.  In  the  .following  com- 
partment the  body  appears  extended  upon  its  funeral  bed,  but  the 
motion  of  the  limbs  gives  evident  signs  of  life1.  Isis  and  Nephthys 
stand  by  as  before.  It  should  seem  as  if  here  some  transposition 
had  taken  place  in  the  order  of  the  scenes,  for  the  next  exhibits 
the  mummy  in  its  usual  state,  with  Anubis  standing  by;  and 
another  scene  follows  in  which  it  lies  amidst  a  bed  of  twenty-eight 
lotus  flowers2,  while  Anubis  pours  water  over  it.  In  the  last  com- 
partment a  goddess  with  the  head  of  a  frog  stands  at  the  feet,  and 
the  mummy  exhibits  partial  signs  of  revival3.  The  frog  was  em- 
blematic of  the  embryo  stage  of  life4,  and  is  found  at  the  bottom 
of  the  notched  palm-branch  which  represents  human  life.  There 
was  a  male  as  well  as  female  divinity  with  the  head  of  a  frog8. 
It  is  remarkable  that  Typhon,  who  acts  such  an  important  part 
-  in  the  mythe  of  Osiris,  as  related  by  Plutarch,  does  not  appear 
committing  violence  upon  him,  nor  indeed  in  any  special  relation 
to  him,  either  in  this  or  any  other  Egyptian  monument.  It  is  even 
doubtful  what  was  his  specific  representation.    The  deformed  an  l 

1  The  figure  is  idvfaMacds. 

■  Wilkinson,  4,  189.    See  p  346  of  this  volume.  "  It  is  idvfaMirds 

*  Horap.  1,  25.     'AxXokttou  avQpuTrov  ypatpovrcs  0dTpa%oy  faypafoioi  twtt6il  4 
tovtov  ytvcoit  ck  Trjc  rov  nurapov  iXvos  aTroTcXeTrau, 
Wilkinson,  4,  256.    Pantheon,  25. 


350 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


pigmy  god  who  appears  in  the  sculptures  of  some  temples,  which 
have  kence  been  called  Typhonia,  is  now  considered  to  be  the 
representative  of  Ptah-Socari,  not  of  Typhon.  There  is  a  figure  of 
a  god  with  square  ears,  supposed  commonly  to  be  those  of  an  ass, 
but  by  Lepsius  of  a  giraffe,  which  has  been  effaced  from  the  monu- 
ments in  which  it  occurred,  as  on  the  Flaminian  Obelisk  at  Rome, 
where  it  forms  one  of  the  characters  in  the  shield  of  the  king, 
whose  name  has  been  read  Setei  Menephthah.  It  remains 
untouched  in  the  pyramidion  and  in  the  compartment  immediately 
below1,  apparently  because  it  was  not  deemed  worth  while  to  raise 
a  scaffolding  so  high  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  it,  but  wherever 
it  could  be  reached  it  was  chiseled  out  and  the  character  of  another 
god  substituted.  Now  this  same  god  appears  on  other  monuments 
in  relations  and  offices  which  are  inconsistent  with  the  idea  that 
he  represented  the  evil  principle  and  murderer  of  Osiris.  Thus  he 
is  seen,  in  conjunction  with  Horus2,  placing  a  crown  on  the  head 
of  Rameses  the  Great,  and  elsewhere  instructing  a  young  king  in 
archery3.  From  these  circumstances  combined  it  has  been  con- 
cluded that  a  change  took  place  in  the  Egyptian  worship  subse- 
quently to  the  reign  of  the  king  in  whose  shield  his  name  last 
appears,  and  that  this  god  became  odious  to  his  former  worshippers. 
This  however  is  not  the  only  instance  in  which  the  figure  of  a  god 
has  been  erased  from  the  monuments.  The  figure  of  Amun  has 
been  treated  in  this  way  on  the  obelisk  of  the  Lateran4;  yet  Amun 
retained  his  high  rank  among  the  gods  to  the  latest  period  of 
Egyptian  history.  Nor  is  it  probable  that  a  god  originally  of 
beneficent  attributes  should  be  all  at  once  converted  into  a  repre- 
sentation of  the  principle  of  Evil.  The  name  which  commonly 
appears  over  the  head  of  the  god  has  been  read  by  Sir  G.  Wilkin- 

1  See  Bonomi's  drawing,  Trans.  Roy.  Soc  Lit  1,  177.  The  margin  showi 
how  the  substitution  has  been  made. 

■  Wilkinson,  plate  78.  1  Ibid,  plate  89. 

*  See  p.  812  of  this  vol. 


SECT.  I.  1HE0L0GT. 


son  Obtaut  or  Ombte,  by  Lepsius  Nubei.  The  same  figure,  bow- 
ever,  is  sometimes  accompanied  by  a  phonetic  group  which  reads 
Set1,  and  as  this  appears  to  have  been  the  name  of  a  deity  wor- 
shipped not  only  by  the  Egyptians  but  by  the  neighboring  Asiatic 
nations2,  some  circumstance  connected  with  their  hostilities  may 
have  led  to  his  disfavor.  This  figure  occurs  it  is  true  in  a  group 
with  those  of  Osiris  and  Isis,  Nephthys  and  Aroeris,  in  the  same 
relative  position  in  which  Plutarch  mentions  Typhon3.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  different  names  which  this  divinity  bore,  according 
to  the  explanations  of  Plutarch,  all  denoted  violence,  turbulence 
and  opposition,  and  therefore  indicate  that  the  nature  of  the  god 
was  also  conceived  of  as  something  antagonistic  to  the  principle 
of  good.  The  animals  which  were  emblematic  of  Typhon,  the  ass, 
the  hippopotamus,  the  crocodile  and  the  bear,  all  suggest  the  same 
idea  of  stupidity  and  malice,  cruelty  and  rudeness.  The  god  with 
the  head  of  a  giraffe,  notwithstanding  the  apparent  coincidence  of 
Set  and  Seth,  must  therefore  be  distinguished  from  Typhon,  who 
from  the  first  origin  of  the  Osirian  mythe  denoted  hostility  to 
Osiris,  the  good  and  beneficent  principle. 

This  idea  is  capable  of  assuming  a  great  variety  of  forms,  accord- 
ing to  the^  aspect  under  which  we  view  Osiris.  And  free  scope 
seems  to  have  been  given  to  the  fancy  by  the  Greeks  and  later 
Egyptians  in  devising  physi-cal  and  metaphysical  explanations  of 
the  mythe.  So  general  a  contrast  between  the  good  and  evil  prin 
ciples  as  that  between  Ormuzd.and  Ahreiman  in  the  Zoroastrian 
mythology  does  not  appear  to  belong  to  the  Egyptian  system,  or 
we  should  find  other  gods  whose  attributes  are  beneficent  assailed 
by  other  Typhons.  It  is  probable,  therefore,  that  we  are  to  seek 
the  explanation  in  some  special  character  of  Osiris.    Though  this 

1  Typhon  was  called  Bubys,  Bebon,  Suiu,  Set/u  Tint  Is.  et  Os.  p.  371  B, 
C.  367.  Hellanieus  ap.  Athtn.  15,  p.  679  F.  Ses  or  Scth  is  Coptio  for 
pullus.  axince.    Comp.  Pint.  Is.  et  Os.  p.  862  F. 

•  Oeburn's  Egypt,  p.  91.  »  Wilkinson,  M.  i  C.  4.  p.  415,  41* 


352 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


god  originally  may  not  have  represented  the  Nile,  it  is  certain  that 
he  was  identified  with  it  in  the  minds  of  the  Egyptians,  as  the  Nile 
was  with  the  principle  of  moisture,  to  which  everywhere,  but  most 
obviously  in  Egypt,  vegetable  life  and  fertility  are  due.  The  Greek 
word  Typhon  denoted  a  fiery  and  mephitic  blast,  a  violent  wind ; 
"  the  Egyptian  priests1,"  says  Plutarch,  "  call  Typhon  everything 
that  is  arid  and  fiery  and  dry  and  hostile  to  moisture,  and  the  con- 
spiracy and  dominion  of  Typhon  is  the  power  of  the  drought  which 
dissipates  the  moisture  of  the  Nile,  the  source  of  production  and 
increase."  The  month  of  Athyr,  or  November,  is  fixed  upon  for 
the  enclosure  of  Osiris  in  the  soros  or  coffer,  because  it  is  in  that 
month  that  the  Nile  after  the  inundation  retires  within  its  channel3. 
The  general  explanation  will  suit  equally  well  with  the  supposition 
that  Osiris  is  the  Sun  and  Typhon  the  power  of  darkness,  since  the 
time  of  low  Nile  is  that  in  which  the  influence  of  the  Sun  is  with- 
drawn. Other  nations  represented  this  luminary  as  in  a  state  of 
feebleness  and  suffering  during  the  winter  ;  the  Phrygians  thought 
that  he  slept  at  this  time,  and  celebrated  his  wakening  with  joyful 
rites ;  the  Paphlagonians  represented  him  as  bound  in  winter  and 
loosed  at  the  return  of  spring8.  Others  explained  Typhon  of  the 
fiery  heat  of  the  solar  rays,  by  which  the  earth's  moisture  is  exhaled 
and  large  portions  of  it  made  arid  and  uninhabitable.  The  oppo- 
sition of  moisture  and  drought  seems  likely  to  have  been  the  pri- 
mary idea  of  the  mythe.  It  offered,  however,  a  ready  symbol  of 
those  antagonist  forces  which  are  everywhere  found  in  nature ; 
Plutarch  declares  it  to  be  his  opinion  that  Typhon  was  not  drought, 
causing  the  Nile  to  shrink,  or  the  sea-water,  swallowing  it  up,  or 
wind,  or  darkness,  absorbing  the  light  of  the  sun,  but  whatever  in 
nature  was  destructive  and  injurious  was  a  part  of  Typhon.  This 
was  probably  an  extension  of  the  original  conception ;  and  when 
the  same  author  makes  Typhon  the  principle  of  Evil  generally, 

1  01  aofwrepot  ruiv  hpcaw.     Plut  Is.  et  0&  p.  364,  366  C. 

p.  10  of  this  volume.  ■  Hut  p.  US  ¥. 


/ 

BICT.  L  THEOLOGY.  353 

which  always  resists  Good,  but  is  always  overcome  by  it,  he  con- 
fesses that  he  accommodates  the  theology  of  the  Egyptians  to  the 
philosophy  of  Plato  and  the  doctrines  of  Zoroaster1. 

Two  divinities  appear  under  the  name  of  Horus,  and  are  con- 
nected with  the  Osirian  mythe.  The  elder  Horus  was  the  brothe: 
of  Osiris,  bom  on  the  second  day  of  the  epagomenai.  The  Greeks 
identified  him  with  Apollo2 ;  and  Apollo,  at  least  in  later  times, 
was  held  to  be  the  same  with  the  Egyptian  Aroeris3.  As  Har  is 
the  Egyptian  name  for  Horus,  and  oer  is  great,  it  is  probable  that 
Aroeris  means  "  Horus  the  Great."  He  is  represented  with  the 
head  of  a  hawk,  and  being  a  personification  of  the  Sun  (which  led 
the  Greeks  to  consider  him  as  Apollo),  it  is  probable  that  this 
bird  was  chosen  as  his  emblem  from  the  brilliancy  of  its  eye.  Many 
of  the  titles  attributed  to  Horus  in  the  inscriptions,  indicate  his 
relations  to  the  Sun4.  He  is  called  Horus  the  son  of  Isis  (Hor  si 
Usi),  but  he  was  properly  the  brother  of  Isis ;  no  consistency  is 
observed  in  these  fanciful  relationships.  In  the  judgment-scenes  in 
Amenthe,  he  appears  introducing  the  deceased  or  presenting  him 
to  Osiris,  probably  because  the  Sun,  from  his  wide  range  and  pierc- 
ing vision5,  might  naturally  be  supposed  cognizant  of  all  the 
actions  of  mankind.  A  hawk,  as  his  representative,  was  often 
placed  in  the  tombs8.  He  does  not  appear  in  the  Typhonian  mythe, 
as  related  by  Plutarch,  in  the  capacity  of  a  defender  or  avenger  of 
Osiris ;  but  he  is  represented  in  the  monuments  as  piercing  with  a 
spear  the  serpent  Apop,  who  is  connected  with  the  giant  Apophis, 
said  to  have  made  war  on  Jupiter,  another  version  probably  of  the 

1  'Qs  rii  CTTtovra  6r}\utrti  rav  \6yov,  rnv  AiywTi'aj*  QtoXoyiav  /idAtera  ravrf  rj 
fiXoarofia  avvoiKtioivrou     Is.  et  Ofl.  p.  870,  871. 

*  Herod.  2,  156. 

■  Hamilton,  Egypt  p.  76.  'Apa>^«t  0iy  /uyiAai  'ArtAXwn,  Plut  U  «t  Of 
855  E. 

*  Birch,  Gallery  of  Antiquities,  p.  86. 

■  Eurip.  Med  1247.  Soph.  Ajax,  845.  •  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  4,  401 


354 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


story  of  Typhon's  attack  on  Osiris6.  At  Hermopolis,  Typhon  was 
represented  by  a  hippopotamus,  on  which  was  mounted  a  hawk, 
fighting  with  a  serpent2. 

The  avenger  of  Osiris,  the  youngest  of  the  gods,  and  the  last  of 
them  who  reigned  over  Egypt,  was  the  youthful  Horus,  the  son  of 
Isis  and  Osiris.  He  is  represented  as  a  boy,  naked,  having  his  skull 
entirely  bare,  except  a  single  lock  which  is  plaited  and  worn  on  the 
.right  side.  For  this,  a  mystical  reason  was  assigned3 ;  but  as  the 
princes  of  the  blood-royal  were  distinguished  by  this  fashion  of 
wearing  the  hair4,  it  probably  was  only  designed  to  characterize 
him  as  a  youthful  prince.  He  sometimes  appears  with  the  hook 
and  flail  to  indicate  his  relation  to  Osiris,  and  with  the  royal  cap  or 
pschent.  His  finger  is  raised  towards  his  mouth,  a  gesture  which 
the  Greeks  interpreted  as  enjoining  silence,  and  called  him  Harpo- 
crates,  the  god  of  Silence6.  The  first  syllable  of  this  name,  which, 
notwithstanding  its  apparent  Grecism,  must  be  of  Egyptian  etymo- 
logy, is  evidently  ITar,  Horus,  the  two  last  peckret  (Copt,  hrot 
Jilius),  the  son6.  He  often  appears  with  his  limbs  bent,  and  this 
the  Greeks  supposed  to  be  indicative  of  lameness ;  and  Plutarch 
accounted  for  it  from  the  peculiar  circumstances  under  which  the 
union  of  his  parents  had  taken  place.  Jablonsky7,  assuming  the 
correctness  of  the  Greek  opinion,  hence  explained  Harpocrates,  as 
Ar-phoch-rat,  lame  in  the  feet,  and  supposed  him  to  be  an  emblem 
of  the  Sun,  weak  and  just  beginning  to  recover  his  power,  at  the 

1  Plut.  p.  365.    Wilkinson,  Pantheon,  pi.  42.    Diod.  1,  36. 
5  Plut.  371  D. 

8  Macrob.  Sat.  1,  ch.  21.  JSgyptii,  volentes  ipsius  Solis  nomine  dicare 
fimulachrum,  figuravere  raso  capite,  sed  dextra  parte  crine  remanente. 
Servatus  crinis  docet  Solera  naturae  rerum  nunquarn  esse  in  operto;  dempti 
outera  capilli,  residente  radice,  monstrant  hoc  sidus,  etiam  tempore  quo  non 
visitur  a  nobis,  rursum  emergendo,  uti  capillos,  habere  substantiara. 

*  See  p.  208  of  this  volume. 

*  Varro,  Ling.  Lat.  4,  p.  17,  ed.  Bip.    "St  Harpocrates  digito  Kgnificat" 

*  Barren's  Egypt,  1,  p.  434,  Eng.  1  Pantk  iEg.  2,  247 


8ECT.   I.  THEOLOGY.  '3 1)5 

winter  solstice.  But  this  all  rests  on  misapprehension.  The  finger 
of  Horus  pointing  to  the  mouth,  is  expressive  of  his  having  acquired 
the  power  of  speech  ;  a  human  figure  with  the  hand  raised  towards 
the  mouth  being  the  general  determinative  of  verbs  which  have  a 
relation  to  the  ideas  voice,  mouth,  speech,  wTiting' ;  and  a  youthful 
figure  in  this  attitude  specifically  represents  a  child3.  The  most 
common  representation  of  Horus  is  being  nursed  on  the  knee  of 
Isis,  or  suckled  at  her  breast ;  she  is  then  frequently  figured  with 
the  horns  of  a  cow  on  her  head.  Sometimes  he  is  seated  on  an 
opening  lotus,  which  is  supposed  to  be  an  emblem  of  the  opening 
day,  or  in  the  sepulchral  scenes  of  the  return  to  life.  The  Christian 
fathers  speak  of  a  mourning  of  Isis  for  the  loss  of  her  child,  but 
they  mean  Osiris,  not  Harpocrates3. 

NEPirmYs.is  another  personage  wTho  belongs  to  this  series  of  the 
Osirian  gods,  and  the  last  in  order  of  birth.  There  is  a  goddess 
who  appears  very  generally  united  with  Isis,  in  the  judgment- 
scenes  in  Amenthe  and  the  representation  of  the  suffering  of 
Osiris,  wearing  on  her  head  an  emblem  composed  of  a  basket  and 
the  representation  of  a  house,  which  is  read  phonetically  J\Tebtei\ 
As  a  sister  of  Isis  she  shared  her  functions,  and  is  scarcely  to  be 
distinguished  from  her.  Thus  she  appears  with  the  cowVhorns 
and  disk  and  the  vulture  cap,  which  are  the  usual  insignia  of  Isis6. 
According  to  Plutarch,  Nephthys  represented  that  which  was 
unseen  and  below  the  earth,  and  Isis  that  which  was  conspicuous 
and  above  it8,  thus  dividing  the  earth  as  it  were  between  them. 

1  Champ.  Diet  Egyptien,  p.  33.  .  *  Champ,  p.  31. 

8  Min.  Fel.  c.  21.  Isiaci  miseri  cagdunt  pectora  et  dolorem  infelieissiniai 
matris  imitantur;  raox  invento  parvulo  gaudet  Isis,  exultant  sacerdotes. 
Lactant  Ep.  Div.  Inst  c.  23.  filium  parvum,  qui  dicitur  Osiris,  perdidit  et 
invenit 

*  Wilkinson,  Panth.  pi.  35. 

*  This  close  resemblance  explains  what  Plutarch  relate*,  that  Isis  dis- 
covered uvyyeyovevai  6i  ayvoiav  rj  d6e\<p^  wf  iavTy  Tdv"Oaipiv, 

'  Plut  p.  863. 


35H 


ANCIENT  EG.YPT. 


According  to  the  same  authoi,  Nephthys  was  married  to  Typhon 
and  was  the  mother  of  Anubis.  This  may  be  explained  from  her 
character  as  representative  of  the  dark  and  unseen  part  of  the 
earth ;  as  Anubis  was  the  guardian  and  emblem  of  the  invisible 
world,  and  Typhon  the  enemy  of  the  light.  Isis  represented  the 
beginning  and  Nephthys  the  end1,  and  when  a  dead  body  is  intro- 
duced, Isis  stands  at  the  head  and  Nephthys  at  the  feet.  She 
appears  to  have  been  confounded  by  the  Greeks  with  Athor  or 
Aphrodite,  which  is  not  wonderful,  since  Isis  and  Athor  have  been 
very  generally  mistaken  by  them  for  the  same. 

Anubis  alone  remains  of  the  five  gods  included  in  the  Osirian 
mythe.  He  is  not  mentioned  by  Herodotus,  but  among  the  later 
Greeks  and  Romans  none  of  the  Egyptian  gods  attracted  more 
notice.  His  image  formed  a  part  of  the  ritual  processions  which 
accompanied  the  diffusion  of  the  worship  of  Isis  throughout  the 
Roman  world" ;  and  those  who,  either  as  philosophic  theists,  or  as 
adherents  to  the  established  religions  of  Greece  and  Rome,  disap- 
proved of  the  animal  worship  of  Egypt,  found  an  especial  sub- 
ject for  their  contempt  in  a  god  represented  under  the  form  of  a 
dog*.  It  is  indeed  doubtful  whether  the  animal  whose  head  forms 
a  mask  for  Anubis  were  a  dog  or  a  jackal ;  the  nocturnal  habits 
of  the  latter  animal,  and  its  feeding  on  dead  bodies,  make  it  a  more 
natural  emblem  of  a  deity,  whose  seat  was  the  world  of  darkness 
and  the  repositories  of  the  dead.  The  ancients,  however,  univer- 
sally conceived  of  Anubis  as  represented  by  the  dog,  and  we  have 
seen  that  Plutarch  explains  the  Osirian  mythe  in  conformity  with. 

1  Plllt  U.  8. 

1  Ovid,  Met  9,  689.  A.puL  Met  11.  p.  262,  quoted  by  Jablonsky,  Pantk 
&g.  lib.  6,  p.  13,  15. 

1  Virg.  yEn.  8,  698. 

Omnigenumque  deuni  monstra,  et  latrator  Anubis, 
Contra  Neptunum,  et  Venerem,  contraque  Minervum 
Tela  tenent 


SECT.  I.  THEOLOGY. 


357 


this  idea.  His  name  is  phonetically  spelt  Anep  or  Anepo  (P).  III. 
C.  5),  and  his  chief  function,  according  to  the  popular  theology, 
was  to  bear  a  part  in  the  embalmment  of  Osiris,  aud  assist  in  the 
#  judgment  of  the  dead,  when  he  commonly  appears  along  with 
Thoth,  adjusting  the  balance  in  which  the  merits  of  the  deceased 
are  weighed.  Some  of  his  titles  allude  to  his  funereal  functions ; 
thus  he  is  styled  "chief  of  the  hills1,"  the  dead  being  usually 
deposited  in  sepulchres  excavated  in  the  rocky  banks  of  the  Nile ; 
ind  in  interment-scenes  in  the  funereal  papyri,  he  appears  at  the 
ioor  of  the  tomb,  receiving  the  mummy  in  its  case  from  the  mourn- 
ers. He  also  took  charge  of  the  soul  in  Am  en  the  and  conducted 
.t  on  the  way  of  its  wanderings2.  Hence  it  was  natural  that  he 
ihould  be  identified  by  the  Greeks  with  their  Hermes  4'U^o<7r'o|x<7ro£. 
¥rom  the  accounts  of  later  writers  it  would  seem  as  if  Anubis 
had  been  represented  under  a  double  character,  as  a  subterranean 
and  also  as  a  celestial  god ;  and  that  his  images  were  sometimes 
black  and  sometimes  of  a  golden  hue,  to  represent  these  opposite 
relations8.  According  to  Plutarch,  Anubis  was  the  horizon,  the 
line  which  separates  between  light  and  darkness ;  and  according 
to  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  the  two  dogs  by  which  he  was  repre- 
sented were  the  upper  and  the  lower  hemisphere4.  These  concep- 
tions may  seem  to  derive  some  support  from  the  monuments  in 
which  the  jackal  of  the  north  and  the  jackal  of  the  south  are  dis- 
tinguished, the  former  the  guardian  of  the  terrestrial  world,  the 
latter  lord  of  heaven* :  but  they  hardly  belonged  to  the  popular 
religion. 

The  last  personage  to  be  mentioned  as  taking  part  in  the  judg- 
ment-scene in  Amenthe,  is  Thoth,  the  ibis-headed  god,  who  stands 
beside  the  scales  and  notes  the  result  of  the  weighing.    He  is  con- 

1  Birch,  Gallery  of  Antiq.  p.  44.  *  Birch,  u,  *. 

■  Apulvius,  Metam.  xi.  p.  775,  ed.  Elmend.    Hie  superam  comraeator  et 
ioferftm,  nunc  atra  nunc  aurea  facie  sublimit,  altollens  canis  cervices  arduaa 
*  Jablonsky,  Pantb.  /Eg.  lib.  6,  p.  26.        »  Birch  GalL  of  Ant  |>.  48. 


358 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


nected  with  the  Osirian  mythe  as  having  gained  from  the  Moon 
the  five  days  in  which  the  gods  were  born,  but  he  appears  in  these 
scenes  in  his  capacity  of  the  god  of  writing.  The  Greeks,  in  their 
endeavors  to  find  an  historical  origin  for  the  personages  of  mytho-  , 
logy,  represented  Thoth  as  a  divine  man,  if  not  a  god1,  who 
invented  the  distinctions  of  articulate  language  into  vowels  and 
consonants,  and  fixed  the  numbers  and  letters  of  the  alphabet, 
besides  arithmetic,  geometry  and  the  game  of  tables3,  and  made  his 
inventions  known  to  the  contemporary  king  of  Egypt,  Thamus.  This 
Thoth,  sometimes  called  Tat,  was  the  same  as  the  Hermes  of  the 
Greeks.  The  fifth  Mercury,  says  Cicero8,  is  he  who  is  said  to  have, 
taught  laws  and  letters  to  the  Egyptians ;  they  call  him  Thoyth, 
and  the  first  month  of  the  year  among  them  bears  the  same  name. 
According  to  Diodorus,  Hermes  was  the  hierogrammat  of  Osiris, 
and  having  invented  language,  music,  letters,  the  gymnastic  art 
and  astronomy,  accompanied  his  master  in  his  progress  over  the 
world  and  communicated  these  inventions  wherever  he  came4.  It 
is  evident  that  Thoth  is  only  a  personification  of  the  inventive 
powers  of  the  human  mind  :  the  dispute  whether  he  were  Hermes 
simply  or  Hermes  Trismegistus6,  whether  he  invented  letters  or 
only  arithmetic,  in  what  king's  reign  and  in  what  year  of  the  world 
he  lived,  proceeds  upon  a  groundless  assumption  that  he  was  an 
historical  personage.  The  name,  which  the  Alexandrians  spelt 
Thoth  and  the  other  Egyptians  Thouth8,  denotes  in  Coptic  a 
column  or  stele1 ;  and  the  historical  fact  that  the  oldest  specimens 

1  Eire  tis  Otds  drs  koI  dtio;  av9pu>irog.    Plato,  Phileb.  2,  18,  cd.  Steph. 

s  Comp.  Plat.  Phileb.  2,  18.    Phaidr.  3,  274. 

8  N.  D.  3,  22.  *  1,  16. 

8  Hermes  Trismegistus  appeirs  to  have  been  specially  worshipped  at 
P^elcis  (Dakkeh,  see  p.  22  of  this  vol.)  in  Nubia,  with  the  title  of  Patnviir 
v/iis ;  but  all  the  inscriptions  are  of  the  Roman  times.  Wilkin?on,  Mod 
Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  320. 

8  Philo-Byblius  apud  Euseb.  Preen*  Evang.  1,  9. 

T  Peyron,  Lex.  Copt.  s.  voo. 


SECT.   I.  THEOLOGY. 


359 


of  the  art  of  writing  were  preserved  on  stone  was  expressed  by 
giving  this  appellation  to  its  supposed  inventor.  The  art  of  writ- 
ing is  immediately  connected  with  arithmetic  and  musical  notation, 
with  geometry  and  astronomy  ;  that  Hermes  was  also  the  inven- 
tor of  gymnastic  was  an  addition  to  the  Egyptian  my  the  made  by 
the  Greeks,  among  whom  the  office  of  presiding  in  the  Palaestra 
was  assigned  to  him.  Thoth  appears  to  have  been  especially  the 
symbol  of  the  knowledge  possessed  by  the  sacerdotal  caste  in 
Egypt,  which  was  comprised  in  forty-two  books  of  Hermes,  and 
included,  besides  properly  sacred  literature,  astronomy  and  geo- 
graphy. 

The  ibis  was  consecrated  to  Thoth,  and  the  figure  of  this  bird 
stands%s  a  phonetic  symbol,  with  the  sound  of  Thoth  or  Tet,  in 
the  shield  of  several  kings  of  the  name  of  Thothmes  or  Tethmo- 
sis1,  though  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  it  is  the  Coptic  word 
for  ibis.  The  name  Athothis  (ha-thoth),  interpreted  by  Erato- 
sthenes 'Epjxoyg'vrjff,- occurs  as  the  second  in  his  list  of  Egyptian 
kings,  proving  that  this  deity  belongs  to  the  oldest  period  of  the 
monarchy.  With  a  name  nearly  similar,  Taut,  he  appears  also  in 
the  Phoenician  history,  and  in  the  same  character  of  the  inventor 
of  letters. 

Thoth  in  the  Egyptian  monuments  commonly  has  the  head  of 
the  ibis,  and  holds  a  tablet  and  reed  pen  in  his  hand,  or  the 
notched  palm-branch,  which  is  said  to  be  an  emblem  of  the  month3 
or  of  time.  Why  the  ibis  was  chosen  as  the  emblem  of  this  god 
is  uncertain  ;  various  fanciful  reasons  have  been  assigned  for  the 
selection  ;  perhaps  the  most  obvious  may  be  the  most  true — that 
the  contrast  of  black  and  white,  which  is  remarkable  in  the  plu- 
mage of  this  bird,  made  it  a  suitable  symbol  of  writing,  and  also 
of  the  bright  and  dark  parts  of  the  moon.    The  Cynocephalus  or 

1  See  PL  II.  No.  9,  and  p.  252  of  this  volume. 

9  Horapollo,  1,  4,  Mfj^a  ypdi/wrrj  0aiv  $u>yptnpovoi.  According  to  the  earn* 
author,  the  palm  put  forth  a  branch  every  month,  twelve  in  the  year. 


360 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


Ape  was  an  emblem  of  the  same  god  ;  it  appears  both  holding 
the  tablet  and  pen,  and  with  the  disk  of  the  moon  upon  its  head ; 
answering  to  the  double  character  of  Thoth.  A  multitude  of  rea- 
sons, manifestly  absurd  and  having  no  foundation  in  the  natural 
history  of  the  ape,  have  been  assigned  for  this  selection1.  Pro- 
bably the  near  approach  which  this  animal  makes  to  the  possession 
of  reason,  and  its  power  of  imitating  the  actions  of  man,  suggested 
it  as  a  fit  representative  of  the  rational  faculty,  Thoth  being  not  ' 
merely  the  inventor  of  writing,  but  the  author  and  patron  of  all 
the  exercises  of  the  human  intellect.  For  the  connexion  of  the 
Cynocephalus  with  the  moon,  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  any  special 
reason  ;  but  astronomy  belongs  naturally  to  the  god  who  invented 
arithmetic,  and  the  earliest  and  simplest  form  of  astroHomy  is 
derived  from  the  changes  of  the  moon. 

Hermopolis  (Eshmoon)  was  a  principal  seat  of  the  worship  of 
Thoth,  and  the  ibis  and  the  cynocephalus  were  among  the  conspi- 
cuous ornaments  of'  the  portico  of  its  temple,  now  destroyed. 
The  name,  which  in  Coptic  signifies  eight,  is  supposed  to  allude  to 
some  function  of  Thoth,  who  is  called  in  nscriptions  "  the  Lord 
of  Eshmoon,"  but  no  satisfactory  explanation  of  this  title  has  been 
given. 

The  hall  in  which  the  judgment-scene  takes  place  is  called  the 
"  Hall  of  the  two  Truths,"  and  the  region  of  the  West,  Amenthe, 
"  the  land  of  the  two  Truths2."  Thmei,  the  goddess  of  Truth,  is 
represented  by  a  sitting  figure,  with  an  ostrich-plume  on  her  head  ; 
an  emblem  of  truth  or  equity,  because  the  filaments  of  the  feathers 
were  said  to  be  all  of  the  same  length.  Sometimes  she  appears 
blindfolded,  like  the  image  which  the  chief  judge  in  the  Egyptian 
courts  wore  around  his  neck. 

We  have  not  attempted  to  discriminate  the  gods  of  the  second 
and  third  order,  but  have  enumerated  those  to  whom  temples  were 

1  They  may  he  seen  in  Horapollo,  1,  14. 

■  Birch,  Gallery  Brit.  Mus.  P.  1.  p.  28. 


SECT.  I.  THEOLOGY.  361 

consecrated,  or  who  occupy  a  prominent  part  in  religious  repre- 
sentations. Egypt  had  also  its  Dii  minorum  gentium,  objects  of 
limited  and  local  veneration,  whose  nature  is  usually  even  more 
obscure  than  those  whom  we  have  described.  Some  appear  to  owe 
their  existence  to  the  custom  of  matching  together  a  male  and 
female  divinity,  whose  union  was  supposed  to  result  in  the  hirth 
of  a  juvenile  god.  Others  are  slight  variations  of  the  attributes 
of  the  greater  deities  ;  others,  personifications  of  towns  and  dis- 
tricts and  parts  of  nature.  Since  the  number  of  Egyptian  gods 
was  so  great,  that  every  day  in  the  year  was  consecrated  to  one, 
and  every  sign  and  subdivision  of  the  zodiac  had  its  own  genius, 
we  may  suppose  that  there  were  many  who  were  not  even  the 
objects  of  local  and  limited  veneration,  bnt  were  introduced  for 
the  sake  of  symmetry  and  completeness.  Their  multiplication 
to  supply  the  demands  of  poetry,  art  or  superstition  is  character- 
istic of  the  expansion  which  the  simple  elements  of  a  popular 
theology  receive  in  process  of  time1. 

The  Egyptians  are  commonly  said  to  have  had  nothing  answer- 
ing to  the  hero-worship  of  the  Greeks.  They  did  not  believe  in 
those  unions  of  gods  with  mortals,  which,  according  to  the  Greeks, 
gave  birth  to  a  race  half  human,  half  divine2  v  But  they  paid 
religious  honors  to  eminent  persons  after  their  decease,  not  unlike 
the  Greek  hero-worship  in  those  ages  in  which  the  notion  of  a 
divine  descent  had  long  ceased,  and  when  Miltiades,  Brasidas  and 
Aratus  had  each  his  heroum3.  Thothmes  III.  on  the  tablet  of 
Karnak  presents  offerings  to  his  predecessors  ;  so  does  Rameses  on 
the  tablet  of  Abydos.  Even  during  his  lifetime  the  Egyptian  king 
was  denominated  "beneficent  god." 

1  In  the  earlier  books  of  the  Old  Testament  we  find  no  enumeration  of 
angels  and  no  distinction  of  their  offices,  as  after  the  Captivity. 

3  II.  //,  23.    Her.  2,  143.    The  Egyptian  priests  denied  dird  Otov  yufria* 

\vQpU3T0V. 

3  Wachsmuth.  Hell.  Alt.  II.  2,  103. 
vol  I.  16 


362  ANCIENT  EGYPT. 

We  have  not  found  among  the  gods  of  the  Pharaonic  times  any 
representative  of  Serapis,  whose  worship  was  introduced  from 
Sinope  in  the  reign  of  the  first  Ptolemy,  and  who  became  very 
celebrated,  along  with  Osiris  and  Isis,  in  the  Greek  and  Roman 
times1.  According  to  the  narrative  of  Tacitus,  derived  from  the 
Egyptian  priests8,  Ptolemy,  when  he  was  adorning  Alexandria, 
then  recently  built,  with  temples  and  other  religious  edifices,  wae 
warned  in  a  dream  to  fetch  from  Sinope  in  Pontus  the  statue  of 
Jupiter  Dis,  who  was  held  ill  great  reverence  there.  He  accord- 
ingly sent  emissaries,  who  succeeded  in  bringing  off  the  statue,  in 
spite  of  the  reluctance  of  the  inhabitants  to  part  with  their  god. 
When  it  reached  Egypt,  Timotheus,  the  Greek  exegetcs,  and  Mane- 
tho,  the  high  priest  of  Sebennytus,  being  consulted  by  the  king, 
pronounced  that  the  statue  represented  the  god  Serapis,  arguing 
from  the  Cerberus  and  the  serpent  which  were  its  accompaniments. 
It  is  evident  from  this  that  Serapis  was  a  god  previously  known  in 
Egypt;  and  according  to  Tacitus  there  had  been  a  temple  at 
Rhacotis,  the  site  of  Alexandria,  of  small  dimensions,  from  ancient 
times  consecrated  to  him.  There  was  also  a  still  more  celebrated 
temple  of  the  same  god,  under  the  title  Zeus  Sinopites*,  near 
Memphis,  and  according  to  one  account  it  was  from  this  place,  and 
not  from  Sinope,  that  the  god  was  transferred  to  Alexandria.  The 
nature  of  the  god  himself  was  variously  interpreted ;  "some  deemed 
him,  from  his  healing  powers,  to  be  JSsculapius ;  others  Osiris,  the 
very  ancient  deity  of  the  Egyptians  ;  many  Jupiter,  the  chief  ruler 
of  all  things ;  but  the  majority  Dispater,  arguing  from  his  insignia, 
or  from  doubtful  indications."  The  temple  appears  to  be  tha< 
which  Strabo  describes  under  the  name  of  a  Serapeum,  near  Mem- 

1  Clem.  Alex  1,  p.  42,  Pott.  Tdv  fitya\oSaiyi6va  Sv  *ar'  t^r)*  *P°f  vavTtM 
cefiaofiov  Kuri)£iu)fi£vav  d<ovofxev  tov  A-lyvirriov  Tidpamy. 

*  Tac.  Hist.  4,  83.  Serapidis  dei,  quem  dedita  superstitionibuB  gens  anU 
olios  colit„ 

•  Dion.  Perieg.  255.    Eustath.  ad  lcxx 


SECT.   I.  THEOLOGY. 


868 


pbis,  which  in  his  time  was  nearly  buried  in  the  sand,  so  that  only 
the  heads  of  the  sphinxes  in  the  dromos  were  visible1.  Such  was 
its  sanctity,  that  no  stranger  was  allowed  to  set  his  foot  within  it, 
nor  was  it  visited  even  by  the  priests,  except  for  the  interment  of 
Apis3.  This  appropriation,  and  the  circumstance  that  the  temples 
of  Serapis  were  placed  without  the  walls  of  towns3,  indicate  a  god 
who  was  connected  with  the  invisible  world4,  and  suggest  that  Apis 
may  be  the  last  part  of  the  name.  It  is  difficult,  however,  to  refer 
him  to  his  exact  representative  in  the  old  Egyptian  pantheon.  The 
statues  and  coins  of  Serapis,  which  are  chiefly  of  Asiatic  cities,  and 
all  of  the  Greek  or  Roman  times,  usually  exhibit  him  with  the 
lineaments  of  Pluto,  and  accompanied  by  Cerberus,  but  distin- 
guished from  that  god  by  having  a  modius  on  his  head6,  to  indicate 
his  being  the  author  of  abundance,  a  character  well  suited  to  the 
primary  meaning  of  Dis  and  IlXoorojv.  He  also  carries  a  cubit, 
supposed  to  have  a  reference  to  the  rise  of  the  Xile6,  or  else  to  his 
function  as  judge  in  the  infernal  regions.  None,  however,  of  the 
representations  of  the  ancient  Egyptian  gods  at  all  correspond  with 
this  description,  nor  do  we  know  with  what  attributes  the  Serapis 
of  Memphis  or  Rhacotis  had  been  figured,  before  the  influence  of 
Greek  art,  and  the  mixture  of  Greek  mythology.  That  he  was 
considered  to  be  ^Esculapius  was  owing  to  the  multitude  of  cures 
which  were  performed  in  his  temple,  rather  than  to  any  peculiar 

1  Strabo,  1.  17,  p.  807.  a  Pausanias,  lib.  1,  c.  18. 

3  Macrobius  (Sat.  1,  7)  says  this  was  owing  to  the  reluctance  of  the  Egyp- 
tians to  receive  a  strange  god;  but  he  must  have  been  very  ignorant  of  the 
old  Egyptian  religion  to  assert  "  nunquam  fuit  fas  JSgyptius  pecudibus  aut 
sanguine  sed  precibus  et  ture  solo  placare  deos." 

*  The  statues  of  Serapis  were  painted  black  (Clem.  Alex.  1,  p.  48,  ed. 
Potter). 

6  Millin,  Galerie  Mythologique,  PI.  lxxxvil  No.  846.  Visconti,  Mua  Pio- 
Ciem.  2,  1. 

•  Suidas,  Zapams.  The  graduated  pedestal  of  Ptah  is  supposed  to  refer  to 
the  rise  of  *he  Nile  (Birch,  Gallery  of  Antiquities,  pi  6.). 


364 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


correspondence  in  their  attributes.  The  Greeks  and  Latins  cob 
eluded  probably  from  the  sound,  that  the  name  was  connec*ed 
with  Apis,  Osirapis  or  Soroapis,  "the  coffin  of  Apis;"  we  find  a 
representation  of  Osiris  in  the  character  of  Apis,  that  is,  with  a 
bovine  head1,  but  with  none  of  those  insignia  which  the  Greek  and 
Latin  authors  attribute  to  Serapis.  This  god  was  known  to  the 
Macedonians  before  the  death  of  Alexander;  after  his  illness  at 
Babylon,  Python,  Seleucus  and  several  of  his  attendants  slept  in 
the  temple  of  Serapis,  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining8  whether  if 
would  be  better  to  remove  him  to  the  temple  for  the  chance  of  his 
recovery ;  and  the  god  replied  that  it  was  better  he  should  remain 
where  he  was.  There  was  at  Seleucia3  in  Syria  a  temple  consecrated 
to  a  divinity  of  this  name.  If  Ptolemy,  partaking  in  this  reverence 
for  Serapis4,  wished  to  introduce  his  worship  into  Egypt,  it  was 
natural  that,  to  avoid  offending  the  religious  feelings  of  his  ne\T 
subjects,  he  should  identify  him  with  some  former  object  of  theii 
worship,  and  Manetho  appears  to  have  lent  his  aid  for  this  purpose. 
If  this  god  were  Osiris,  it  will  be  easily  understood  how  Serapi» 
should  be  considered  as  corresponding  with  Pluto,  with  the  Sun 
and  the  Nile,  all  these  attributes  being  combined  in  Osiris5. 

There  are  some  gods  mentioned  by  the  ancients,  to  whom  we 
find  it  difficult  to  assign  representatives  among  the  figures  on  the 
monuments.  Herodotus  says9  that  Mars  was  worshipped  at  Papre- 
mis,  and  describes  the  bloody  affray  which  occurred  when  one 
body  of  his  priests  endeavored  to  force  their  way  with  his  statue 

1  Wilkinson,  pi.  31,  Part  2. 

1  Suet  Vesp.  7.  The  blind  man  and  the  cripple  whom  Vespasian  healo<l, 
had  been  encouraged  in  a  dream  by  Serapis  to  apply  for  his  aid. 

•  Tac  4,  84. 

•  Comp.  Arrian,  Exped.  Alex.  7,  26.    Plut  Alexand.  §  73. 

•Soli  Saeapi,  HA1S2  EAPAIIIAI,  are  common  in  Latin  and  Greek 
inscriptions.  Jablonsky,  P.  1.  p.  226.  Serapis,  sol  inferua.  Id  P.  %  p.  284. 
Orelli,  Inscr.  c  4,  §  82. 

•  2,  68,  04 


BKCT.  I.  THEOLOGY. 


305 


into  the  temple,  and  another  resisted  his  entrance.  A  figure  of  the 
same  deformed  proportions  as  Ptah-Socari,  armed  with  a  sword 
and  shield,  has  received  the  name  of  Mars,  but  with  little  probabi- 
lity \  An  armed  male  figure,  having  the  name  of  Ranpo,  seems 
more  exactly  to  answer  to  the  character  of  Mars2.  The  river-horse 
was  held  sacred  in  the  Papremite  nome3,  and  therefore  from  analogy 
we  should  conclude  was  sacred  to  the  god  of  Papremis ;  but  it  was 
an  emblem  of  Typhon4,  and  perhaps  the  god  whom  Herodotus 
calls  Mars  may  have  been  a  form  of  the  Evil  principle.  Hercules 
again  is  repeatedly  mentioned  as  an  Egyptian  god ;  but  Chons, 
with  whom  he  has  been  identified  (see  p.  322),  has  nothing  resem- 
bling his  Greek  attributes.  It  is  uncertain  what  goddess  answered 
to  the  malignant  Tithrambo6,  whom  Epiphanius  calls  Hecate,  or  to 
Thermuthis8,  who  appears  to  have  been  a  divinity  of  the  same 
unfriendly  character.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  several  figures 
which  appear  from  their  attributes  to  be  divine,  whose  functions  it 
is  difficult  to  assign,  and  who  have  no  correspondence  with  any 
divinity  mentioned  by  the  Greek  and  Roman  authors. 

Upon  the  whole,  we  have  abundant  evidence  that  the  Egyptian 
theology  had  its  origin  in  the  personification  of  the  powers  of 
nature,  under  male  and  female  attributes,  and  that  this  conception 
took  a  sensible  form,  such  as  the  mental  state  of  the  people 
required,  by  the  identification  of  these  powers  with  the  elements 
and  the  heavenly  bodies,  fire,  earth,  water,  the  sun  and  moon,  and 
the  Nile.  Such  appears  everywhere  to  be  the  origin  of  the  object- 
ive form  of  polytheism ;  and  it  is  especially  evident  among  the 

1  Birch,  Gall.  p.  48.  This  figure  is  evidently  not  of  the  Pharaonio  times. 
Comp.  Wilkinson,  Pantheon,  pL  24,  A  4. 

a  Wilkinson,  pi.  69,  70.  *  Her.  1,  71. 

4  Prichard,  Analysis,  p.  122.  Comp.  Her.  (2,  63),  "iQeXovra  rp  p^rpl  av^ 
l*it;ai"  with  Horap.  1,  56,  "lips  rhv  tavrov  jirjTEpa  Im  yapov  t\<ti"  of  the  hippo* 
potamus. 

•  Jablonsky,  P.  1,  p.  108-121.  ■  Ibid.  P.  1,  p.  lie 


366 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


nations  most  closely  allied  to  the  Egyptians  by  position  and  general 
character — the  Phoenicians,  the  Babylonians ;  and  in  remoter  con- 
nexion, the  Indians  on  the  one  side  and  the  Greeks  on  the  other. 
The  conception  of  a  god,  however,  is  formed  within  man  himself; 
it  is  from  his  own  consciousness  that  he  derives  the  idea  of  power, 
which  he  transfers  to  the  outward  world,  along  with  the  ideas  of 
volition  and  intelligence,  which  in  himself  are  inseparable  from 
power.  He  is  hence  subjected,  in  the  formation  and  expression  of 
his  religious  conceptions,  to  two  counteracting  influences,  which 
variously  predominate,  according  to  individual  and  national  cha- 
racter ;  one  leading  him  to  multiply  the  objects  of  his  worship,  as 
his  knowledge  of  the  powers  of  nature  extends ;  the  other  suggest- 
ing the  idea  of  one  spiritual  essence,  informing  the  material  world, 
in  analogy  with  that  by  which  the  human  body  is  animated  and 
controlled.  Of  the  extent  to  which  the  latter  prevails,  it  is  impos- 
sible that  we  should  have  satisfactory  evidence  in  regard  to  an 
extinct  people  who  have  left  us  no  written  record  of  their  senti- 
ments. The  material  symbol  of  the  most  refined  religious  concep- 
tion, when  it  comes  to  stand  alone  and  without  commentary,  neces- 
sarily appears  anthropomorphic  or  even  idolatrous.  If  we  had  no 
other  means  of  judging  of  Christrian  doctrine  but  by  Christian  arty 
we  should  suppose  that  its  Deity  was  represented  under  a  human 
form,  or  that  it  admitted  more  than  one  object  of  worship.  It  will 
not  therefore  follow,  that  the  Egyptian  Kneph  did  not  represent  the 
spiritual  essence  which  pervades  all  nature,  or  even  the  Intellect 
which  presides  over  all,  because  he  is  figured  as  a  man,  with  the 
head  of  a  ram. 

If  in  the  absence  of  positive  information  we  might  venture  to 
draw  a  distinction,  we  should  say  that  the  older  gods,  to  whom 
Kneph  belongs,  appear  to  represent  rather  the  principles  and  pow* 
ers  to  which  the  world  owes  its  existence ;  while  Osiris  and  Isia 
more  distinctly  and  palpably  personify  the  parts  and  elements  of 
the  material  world,  and  perhaps  from  this  circumstance,  among 


8ECT.   I.  TITEC LOOT. 


367 


other*,  oecime  the  gods  of  the  whole  nation,  and  representatives  to 
foreigners  of  the  whole  Egyptian  theology.  It  might  have  been 
expected  that  the  discovery  of  the  hieroglyphic  character  would 
have  produced  more  certainty  in  regard  to  the  original  conceptions 
of  the  Egyptians  respecting  their  gods,  but  they  have  added  little 
to  out  knowledge.  Even  if  correctly  interpreted,  they  do  not  exhi- 
bit a  more  spiritual  system  of  belief  than  we  had  previously  cause 
to  attribute  to  them. 

We  can  find  no  sufficient  evidence  for  the  opinion  that  the  vari- 
ous gods  of  Egypt  are  but  symbols  and  personifications  of  the  attri- 
butes and  powers  of  one  Being,  whom  the  priests,  if  not  the  people, 
recognised  as  the  only  true  god.  This  opinion  seems  to  have  been 
adopted  not  so  much  from  any  direct  evidence,  as  from  its  appear- 
ing the  necessary  consequence  of  another  assumption,  that  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Unity  of  God,  being  the  primaeval  belief  of  mankind, 
must  have  been  held  by  the  original  population  of  Egypt.  The 
only  approach  to  the  idea  of  Unity  which  we  find  is  that  the  func- 
tions of  a  supreme  god  appear  to  be  assigned  to  subordinate  deities, 
as  if  all  were  really  but  the  manifestation  of  one  power.  Of  the 
ancients,  some  represent  the  Egyptians  as  believing  in  no  other 
gods  than  the  elements  of  nature  and  the  heavenly  bodies ;  others 
as  being  the  source  whence  Orpheus  and  Pythagoras  derived  their 
doctrine,  that  God  dwells  in  the  world  as  the  soul  in  the  human 
body.  Each  opinion  may  have  been  held  in  Egypt  when  the 
Greeks  became  acquainted  with  it,  and  the  partisans  of  each  have 
claimed  it  to  be  the  genuine  sense  of  their  religion.  The  recogni- 
tion of  God,  however,  as  the  intellectual  principle,  wholly  distinct 
from  matter,  which  presided  over  creation  (the  clear  doctrine  of  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures),  appears  to  have  been,  as  regards  the  Pagan 
world,  the  original  and  independent  merit  of  the  school  of  Anaxa- 
goras1.    Thk  is  the  only  kind  of  monotheism  which  has  any  definite 


1  Ar.  Met  lib.  1,  c.  8.    Others  say  Thales,  Cio.  N.  D.  1,  10. 


368 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


character  or  moral  value ;  the  rest  are  a  pantheism,  which  is  easily 
changed  into  polytheism  on  the  one  side,  or  atheism  on  the  other. 

SECT.  II.  SACRIFICIAL  RITES.  TIIE   SACERDOTAL  ORDER. 

Sacrifice,  the  universal  expression  of  the  religious  sentiments  in 
the  ancient  world,  has  a  natural  origin  in  the  transference  of  his 
own  feelings  from  the  worshipper  to  the  object  of  his  worship.  He 
takes  for  granted  that  his  god  is  pleased  with  a  costly  gift,  and 
demands,  as  a  proof  of  his  gratitude  for  an  abundant  harvest,  a 
fruitful  season,  or  the  increase  of  his  flocks  and  herds,  the  offering 
of  the  best  and  choicest  of  what  he  has  bestowed.  If  his  gift  be  of 
an  imperishable  nature,  he  suspends  it  in  his  temple;  if  capable  of 
being  consumed,  it  is  either  laid  upon  the  fire  of  the  altar,  or 
poured  out  in  a  libation,  or  given  to  the  priest  as  the  visible  repre- 
sentative of  the  divinity.  These  are  eucharistic  sacrifices,  express- 
ing gratitude  for  benefits  received,  in  a  mode  analogous  to  that  in 
which  it  would  be  manifested  towards  an  earthly  benefactor.  Such 
sacrifices  are  also  naturally  supposed  to  be  propitiatory,  and  to 
produce  towards  the  worshipper  a  kindly  feeling  on  the  part  of  his 
god,  disposing  him  to  bestow  further  benefits.  The  darker  passions 
of  humanity,  however,  are  transferred  to  the  heavens,  as  well  as 
those  of  benevolence  and  pity  ;  occasions  arise,  when  the  conscious- 
ness of  guilt  or  the  experience  of  calamity  produces  the  belief,  that 
the  god  is  angry,  and  has  inflicted  or  is  preparing  to  inflict  evil  on 
the  object  of  his  displeasure.  Human  resentment  in  similar  cir- 
cumstances is  not  discriminating.  It  is  not  always  to  be  mollified 
by  submission  and  repentance,  but  its  vengeance  may  be  diverted 
to  some  other  than  the  person  by  whom  the  offence  has  been  com- 
mitted. If  the  penalty  of  divine  displeasure  is  not  wholly  to  be 
avoided,  it  may  be  commuted ;  an  expiatory  sacrifice  less  costly 
than  the  life  of  the  offender  may  be  accepted ;  the  shedding  of  the 
blood  of  animal  victims  may  procure  for  him  a  remission  of  the  sen* 


SECT.  II.  SACRIFICIAL  RITES. 


369 


tence  against  himself ;  or  if  human  blood  must  absolutely  flow,  some 
life  over  which  he  has  power,  that  of  a  slave,  a  captive,  or  a  child, 
may  be  offered  for  his  own  ;  if  one  sacrifice  be  not  sufficient,  num- 
Ders  may  prevail,  and  divine  vengeance  be  averted  by  a  hecatomb. 

Human  sacrifices  were  so  common  in  the  ancient  world,  even 
among  nations  by  no  means  barbarous1,  that  it  is  in  itself  not  at 
all  incredible  that  they  should  have  been  practised  by  the  Egyp- 
tians, notwithstanding  the  humanity  which  generally  characterized 
their  institutions.  We  have  besides  the  positive  testimony  of 
Manetho8,  that  "  men  called  Typhonian  were  burnt  alive  in  the 
town  of  Idithya  (conjectured  to  be  Eilithya)  and  their  ashes  scat- 
tered to  the  winds."  Diodorus  informs  us  what  was  meant  by 
Typhonian,  namely  men  of  a  red  color,  which  was  believed  to  be 
that  of  Typhon.  This  color,  he  remarks,  was  rare  among  the 
Egyptians,  though  very  common  among  foreigners,  and  these 
Typhonian  men  were  sacrificed  by  the  ancient  kings  at  the  tomb 
of  Osiris3.  The  Greeks  believed  that  a  king  of  Egypt  of  the  name 
of  Busiris  had  rendered  himself  memorable  and  odious  by  this 
sacrifice  of  strangers  who  had  ventured  into  Egypt,  or  been  driven 
by  storms  on  the  coast.  As  no  such  king  is  found  in  the  lists, 
it  was  conjectured  that  Busiris  means  "  tomb  of  Osiris4 ;"  and 
whether  the  etymology  is  sound  or  not,  it  is  very  probable  that  the 
tale  originated  in  the  custom  of  offering  red-haired  strangers,  that 
is,  natives  of  northern  regions,  to  Osiris.  Manetho  adds,  that  a 
king  named  Amosis  abolished  the  custom,  and  substituted  a  waxen 

1  Of  this  practice  among  the  Phoenicians  and  Carthaginians,  no  evidence 
needs  to  be  offered.  Of  the  Arabs  see  Porphyr.  de  Abstin.  2,  p.  225.  Of 
the  Greeks,  "Wachsmuth,  Hellenische  Alterthumskunde,  ii.  2,  225.  Its  pre- 
.alence  among  the  inhabitants  of  Palestine,  and  its  abolition  by  Amosis, 
*ho  expelled  the  Hyksos,  may  lead  to  the  supposition  that  it  was  int'-o 
dncfed  by  the  Phoenician  Shepherds. 

*  Plut  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  380  D.    Athen.  4,  p.  172.  1  DiocL  1,  38. 

4  Diod.  1,  88. 

16* 


370 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


image  for  the  human  victim1.  There  6  no  conceivable  reason 
why  a  high-priest  of  Egypt  should  invent  a  story  so  little  credit- 
able to  his  nation;  while  it  is  quite  credible  that  an  inhuman 
custom,  time-honored  and  sanctioned  by  religion  should  have 
existed  along  with  civilized  manners,  and  institutions  in  their 
general  character  humane.  No  doubt  the  Egyptian  considered  a 
Typhonian  man  as  acceptable  a  sacrifice  to  his  god,  as  a  Jew  or  a 
heretic  was  deemed  by  a  Spanish  Inquisitor ;  nor  does  the  circum- 
stance that  in  the  latter  case  it  was  called  a  penalty,  and  not  a  sacri- 
fice, make  any  difference  in  the  quality  of  the  act.  Herodotus 
indeed  denies  the  existence  of  the  practice  at  any  time  in  Egypt; 
but  the  reason  which  he  gives  for  his  disbelief  is  not  convincing. 
"  How  is  it  likely,"  he  says,  "  that  the  Egyptians,  to  whom  it  is 
not  lawful  to  sacrifice  even  animals,  with  the  exception  of  sheep, 
and  pure  oxen  and  male  calves  and  geese,  should  sacrifice  men3  ?" 
He  has  himself,  however,  related  that  swine,  so  impure  commonly 
in  the  eyes  of  the  Egyptians,  that  a  touch  of  one  rendered  purifi- . 
cation  in  the  river  necessary,  were  nevertheless  on  one  day  in 
the  year  offered  in  sacrifice  to  the  Moon  and  Dionusos9.  It  is 
not  safe  to  apply  reasoning  to  a  thing  so  capricious  as  super- 
stition, or  to  conclude  that  a  custom  has  never  prevailed,  because 
it  is  incongruous  to  the  manners  of  a  people  as  we  see  them. 
The  Mexicans  were  a  highly  civilized  people  and  their  works 
of  art  not  unworthy  to  be  compared  with  those  of  Egypt;  yet 
we  know  that  their  teocallis  were  profusely  stained  with  the  blood 
of  human  victims,  even  of  their  own  countrymen.  The  Egyp- 
tian priests  had  contrived  to  retort  the  odium  of  human  sacri- 
fices upon  the  Greeks;  they  related  that  Menelaus,  when  driven 
into  Egypt,  seized  two  youths  of  the  country,  and  sacrificed  them 

1  Porphyr.  de  Abstin.  2,  p.  228.  Euseb.  Prsep.  Ev.  4,  c  16.  CoT2p. 
Ovid,  Fasti  5,  621,  of  the  custom  of  throwing  images  of  bulrushes  into  th« 
Tiber,  as  a  substitute  for  an  ancient  custom  of  dro wring  mea 

s  2,  45.  *  2,  47. 


SECT.  II.  SACRIFICIAL  RITES* 


371 


iO  obtain  a  favorable  wind  for  his  departure — a  story  evidently 
framed  when  they  had  heard  from  the  Greeks  of  the  sacrifice  of 
Iphigenia1.  The  monuments  give  us  no  positive  evidence  on  th.'s 
subject ;  for-  the  representation  of  kings  grasping  a  score  of  cap- 
tives by  their  hair,  and  preparing  to  strike  off  their  heads,  if  not 
altogether  symbolical,  has  reference  to  military  slaughter,  not 
to  sacrifice.  It  is  found  on  monuments  of  the  Ptolemies,  and 
therefore  certainly  represents  no  real  fact3.  It  is  remarkable,  how- 
ever, that  the  seal  which  the  sphragistes  placed  upon  the  victim, 
in  order  to  mark  it  as  lawful  for  sacrifice,  bore  according  to  Cas- 
tor3 "  the  figure  of  a  man  kneeling,  with  his  hands  bound  behind 
him,  and  a  sword  pointed  at  his  throat."  A  stamp  has  been  found 
on  which  three  bound  and  kneeling  human  figures  appear,  beneath 
the  jackal  of  Anubis,  the  emblem  of  the  infernal  world4.  Wil- 
kinson says  that  he  has  seen  in  the  sculptures  a  group  still  more 
exactly  corresponding  with  the  description  of  Castor5. 

The  period  of  the  abolition  of  human  sacrifices,  or  the  substitu- 
tion of  some  symbolical  rite  for  an  actual  shedding  of  the  blood  of 
life,  is  usually  placed  by  tradition  in  those  remote  ages,  in  which 
the  mythical  and  the  historical  element  are  with  difficulty  discrimi- 
nated. Thus  in  Greece,  while  the  narratives  of  the  heroic  age  are 
full  of  human  sacrifices,  in  the  historical  times  they  were  of  rare 
occurrence,  being  confined  to  a  few  localities8  and  exceptional  occa- 
sions7. When  they  had  ceased  in  ordinary  circumstances  in  Greece, 

1  Herod.  2,  119.  *  Rosellini,  Mon.  Reali,  clxv.  3. 

*  9  Plut.  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  363,  B.         4  Leemans'  Horapoll.  Hierog.  pi.  47  a. 

*  Manners  and  Customs,  5,  352.  This  author  disbelieves  the  accounts  of 
human  sacrifices  in  Egy  pt. 

•  If  the  eldest  born  of  the  family  of  Athamas  entered  the  temple  of  the 
Laphystian  Jupiter  at  Alos  in  Achaia,  he  was  sacrificed,  crowned  with  gar- 
lands like  an  animal  victim  vHer.  7,  197). 

'  Themistocles  sacrificed  three  Persians  to  Aiowaos  'Qnficrr^,  before  the 
battle  at  Salamis  (Plut  Them.  13).  The  omission  of  any  mention  of  this  by 
Herodotus  cannot  weigh  against  the  precise  account  by  Plutarch. 


372 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


the  Athenians  yearly  put  to  death  two  malefactors  at  the  festival 
of  the  Thargelia,  with  the  ceremonies  of  a  sacrifice1 ;  and  the  sacri- 
fice of  foreigners  in  Egypt,  who  were  forbidden  by  law  to  enter  the 
country,  exhibits  the  same  mixed  character  of  a  judicial  execution 
and  a  sacred  rite.  Those  who,  as  an  expiation  (dnrorpo'Xris  X"f  ,v)> 
were  precipitated  from  the  Leucadian  promontory,  were  in  later 
times  at  least  malefactors2. 

There  appear  to  have  been  few  sacrifices  exclusively  expiatory 
among  the  Egyptians,  but  whenever  a  victim  was  offered,  a  prayer 
was  repeated  over  its  head,  "that  if  any  calamity  were  about  to 
befall  either  the  sacrifieers  themselves,  or  the  laud  of  Egypt  gene- 
rally, it  might  be  averted  on  this  head."  The  head,  after  being 
cut  off,  was  not  eaten  by  the  Egyptians8,  but  thrown  into  the  Nile, 
or  sold  to  the  Greeks  in  towns  where  they  trafficked.  This  mode 
of  averting  evil  was  very  analogous  to  the  practice  of  the  Jews  in 
regard  to  the  scape-goat.  Aaron  was  commanded,  once  in  the 
year,  to  take  a  live  goat,  chosen  by  lot  for  the  purpose,  and  laying 
his  hands  upon  his  head,  to  confess  over  him  all  the  iniquities  and 
transgressions  of  the  children  of  Israel  and  put  them  on  the  head 
of  the  goat,  and  send  him  away  into  the  wilderness4.    By  this 

1  "Wachsmuth,  ii.  2,  227.    Ovid  relates  how  the  intended  command  of  a 
human  sacrifice  was  eluded  by  the  ingenuity  of  Numa  (Fasti,  8,  888): 
Cffide  caput,  dixit    Cui  Rex,  parebimus,  inquit; 

Caidenda  est  hortis  eruta  cepa  meis. 
Addidit  hie  hominis.    Surnmos  ait  Die  eapillos. 
Postulat  hie  animam.    Cui  Numa  phcis  ait. 
«  Strabo,  10,  p.  452. 

8  Wilkinson  observes  (M.  and  C.  2,  877),  that  the  head  sometimes  appears 
to  be  used  for  food  by  the  Egyptians,  There  may  have  been  exceptions  even 
in  the  time  of  Herodotus  (2,  39),  and  the  sculptures  in  general  belong  to  an 
age  much  earlier  than  his. 

*  Levit  xvi.  21.  Deufc.  xxi  1-9.  If  the  author  of  a  murder  could  not  be 
found,  a  heifer  was  to  be  brought  to  the  brink  of  a  torrent,  and  its  head 
■truck  off.    So,  according  to  Lev.  iv.  1-1 2,  the  high-priests  and  elders  were 


BKCT.  IX«r— ftACRIFICIAL  RITS8. 


873 


seremony  the  people's  apprehension  of  punishment  for  their  sins 
was  removed,  and  they  could  resume  their  worship  without  fear  of 
its  being  unacceptable. 

This  ceremony  was  practised  with  all  victims,  bat  the  eviscera 
tkm  and  burning  differed.  In  a  sacrifice  to  Isis,  which  was  one  of 
the  most  solemn  of  all,  the  animal  having  been  flayed,  and  the 
intestines,  but  not  the  other  viscera,  and  the  internal  fat  taken  out, 
the  neck  and  limbs  were  cut  off,  and  the  cavity  of  the  body  filled 
with  bread,  honey,  raisins,  figs  and  franki license,  with  other  odori- 
ferous gums.  The  whole  was  then  burnt,  being  plentifully  basted 
with  oil.  The  rites  of  Isis  were  partly  of  a  lugubrious  character, 
representing  the  death  as  well  as  the  recovery  of  Osiris.  A  fast, 
therefore,  preceded,  and  during  the  burning  the  worshippers  beat 
themselves.  When  it  was  over,  the  portions  of  the  victim  which 
had  been  reserved  were  eaten,  probably  by  the  priests  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  offerers.  Strabo1  observes  respecting  the  worship  of 
Osiris  at  Abydos,  that  no  music  was  used  in  the  rites  preliminary 
to  the  sacrifice,  which  was  elsewhere  the  usual  accompaniment,  as 
among  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  We  find  in  the  monuments  »© 
confirmation  of  the  opinion  that  the  Egyptians  originally  'made 
only  unbloody  offerings  to  their  gods'.  It  was  probably  a  fiction, 
illustrative  of  the  innocence  of  the  primitive  times,  when  the  shed- 
ding of  blood  even  in  sacrifice  was  avoided'.  They  exhibit,  how- 
ever, a  great  variety  of  unbloody  offerings.  Almost  all  the  cha- 
racteristic productions  of  the  country  appear  as  gifts  on  the  altars 

to  lay  their  hands  on  the  head  of  the  victim,  and  thus  transfer  to  it  the  sin 
of  ignorance. 

1  'Ei»  rjj  'Aa?i!<3«u  rtftioat  rdv  *Q(TiptV  iv  Si  no  Upas  rod  'Oalpidot  oi«  l^tirrtv  Qv*4 
wJilv  ovrs  aikriTvv  ovrc  ipdXrtjv  dnip^ta&at  ?u  6t<a  na$d  n  t.  p  r  ol  (  IXAoif  0  I  »  f  f 
ldo(.    17,  p.  814. 
*  Macrob,  Saturn.  1,  7,  p.  150.    See  p.  8fi8  of  tin*  volume,  Bote* 
Vetus  ilia  eetas  cui  fecimus  Aurea  nomen 
FcBtibua  arboreis  et  quas  humus  educat  herbit 
Fortunatn  fuit,  nec  polluit  ora  cruore. — Ov.  Mat.  15,  fT, 


374 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


of  the  gods,  especially  the  papyrus  and  the  lotus,  with  the  vegetables 
most  esteemed  for  food,  the  water-melon,  the  radish  and  the  onion, 
the  grape  and  the  fig,  cakes,  milk,  wine  and  ointment.  Birds, 
especially  the  goose  or  duck  of  the  Nile,  were  offered  in  sacrifice 
by  the  Egyptians,  as  by  the  Jews ;  a  practice  less  common  among 
the  Greeks  and  Romans.  Gifts  of  objects  not  to  be  consumed  were 
also  made  to  the  gods,  among  which  the  sitting  figure  of  Truth  is 
one  of  the  most  common,  emblematic  of  the  sincerity  of  the  wor- 
shipper. An  image  of  Thoth,  the  god  of  knowledge,  is  frequently 
presented,  or  the  sistrum  with  the  head  of  Athor,  a  sceptre,  a  fea- 
ther fan,  a  necklace1.  The  spoils  taken  in  war  were  also  offered 
to  the  gods  in  great  variety9,  and  ex  votos  suspended  in  their  tem- 
ples in  commemoration  of  benefits  conferred,  especially  in  the  cure 
of  diseases8.  The  statues  of  the  gods  were  anointed  with  perfumed 
ointment,  which  was  also  placed  in  vases  as  a  gift  before  their 
shrine.  The  Egyptians  were  celebrated  for  the  composition  of 
ointments,  among  which  were  the  Cyprine,  perfumed  by  the  Al- 
henneh  plant,  and  the  sagdas,  of  which  the  composition  is 
unknown4.  Wine,  besides  being  poured  in  sacrifice  over  the  head 
of  the  victim,  was  also  used  in  libations.  Incense  of  various  kinds 
was  burnt  before  the  images  of  the  gods.  In  the  temple  of  the 
Sun,  resin  was  burnt  in  the  morning,  myrrh  at  noon,  and  kuphi  at 
sunset6.  The  composition  of  this  last  was  complex  and  elaborate ; 
sixteen  fragrant  substances  entered  into  it,  and  those  who  were 
employed  in  compounding  it  read  a  formulary  from  the  sacred 
books9. 

1  RoselL  XL  R.  tav.  cxlvi.  cxx.  cxv.    Wilk.  M.  and  C.  6,  872. 

•  RoselL  M.  R.  Hi  lix.  lxxi  "  Wilk.  M.  and  C.  3,  895. 

4  Athen.  15.  p.  689.  The  sagdtu  was  also  called  psagdas,  p  being  tha 
Coptic  article.  '  Plut  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  383. 

•  In  the  composition  of  the  sacred  ointment  of  the  Jews,  myrrh,  cinnamon, 
sweet  reed,  cassia  and  olive  oil  were  employed  (Exod.  xxx.  22).  Stact«, 
onycha,  galbannm  and  frankincense  were  to  be  mixed  together,  for  the  per» 

-fame  w^hich  was  to  be  kept  in  the  Tabernacle  (ver.  34). 


SECT.  IL  SACERDOTAL  ORDER- 


375 


A  priesthood  numerous,  richly  endowed,  and  freed  front  the  care 
of  prodding  for  themselves,  like  that  of  Egypt,  naturally  employs 
itself  in  making  its  ritual  more  minute  and  elaborate,  in  multiply- 
ing ceremonies  and  processions1,  and  widening  the  separation 
between  itself  and  the  laity.  Frequent  and  careful  ablution  is 
enjoined  in  Egypt  by  a  regard  to  health  and  propriety ;  the  priests 
bathed  themselves  in  cold  water,  twice  every  day  and  twice  every 
night  They  shaved  their  bodies  every  other  day,  to  prevent  the 
possibility  that  vermin  should  harbor  upon  them,  and  wore  gar- 
ments of  linen  and  sandals  of  papyrus  only,  that  neither  wool  nor 
leather,  being  of  animal  origin,  should  be  in  contact  with  their 
persons.  Their  diet  was  chiefly  flesh  of  oxen  and  geese8 ;  fish 
they  were  forbidden  to  taste,  and  beans ;  both  probably  from  die- 
tetic motives  originally8,  though  the  sanitary  rule  grew  into  a 
religious  prohibition4,  and  mystical  reasons  were  devised  for  it,  so 
that  to  the  priest  even  the  sight  of  a  bean  was  a  pollution.  In 
regard  to  this  the  practice  of  different  temples  varied.  The  priests 
of  the  Casian  Jupiter  near  Pelusium  never  touched  onions,  nor 
those  of  the  Aphrodite  (Athor)  of  Libya  garlic ;  in  other  temples 
they  abstained  from  mint,  sweet  marjoram,  or  parsley6.  These 
refinements,  which  are  recorded  by  late  authorities,  indicate  a  state 

1  Their  ritual  was  comprised  in  ten  books,  "concerning  sacrifices,  first 
fruits,  hymns,  prayers,  processions,  festivals  and  such  like."  Clem.  AJ. 
Strom.  6,  758. 

'  Ov  ftdvov  av&v,  dWa  upoairi  aiyu>vy  ical  oidv  xai  flowv  (C0W8)  icai  iyOiuw  dnt^ov 

rai  ol  AiyvirTiojv  UpeTs.  Orig.  c  Cels.  5,  p.  264.  With  the  except' on  of  swine, 
cows  and  fish,  it  may  be  doubted  if  the  prohibition  extende(  beyond  the 
nomes  in  which  these  animals  were  sacred 

8  Herod.  2,  37.    Cic,  Div.  1,  80;  2,  58.    Fish,  though  not  absolutely  an 
( unhealthy,  is  an  impoverishing  food,  and  the  fish  of  the  Nile  are  watery  and 
insipid.    Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  1,  222. 

4  Plutarch,  Is.  et  Os.  p.  383  B.  Taif  Upovpyiati  «ui  reus  byvtlais  Kill  imiraif 
9i\  ^Td*  ^ffT<  Toi  iaiov  rd  iyuiv6v. 

*  Sext  Emp.  p.  178,  Bekker 


878 


ANCIKNT  EG1IT. 


in  which  the  leisure  of  the  priesthood  was  employed  in  systemati* 

ing  superstition. 

The  practice  of  circumcision  appears  in  its  origin  to  have  been 
national  and  not  sacerdotal,  and  to  have  had  no  religious  character1. 
According  to  Herodotus  it  was  first  introduced  in  Egypt,  and  imi- 
tated by  other  nations.  He  had  found  it  among  the  Colchians3, 
attesting  the  presence  of  the  army  of  Sesostris  in  his  Asiatic  expe- 
dition ;  and  from  them  it  had  been  learnt  in  recent  times  by  the 
Cappadocians  and  some  other  neighboring  tribes.  He  was  uncer- 
tain whether  the  Ethiopians  had  learnt  it  from  the  Egyptians  or  the 
Egyptians  from  the  Ethiopians,  but  inclined  to  the  latter  opinion. 
The  Syrians  in  Palestine,  among  whom  he  says  it  also  prevailed, 
are  evidently  the  Jews.  Among  the  Mesopotamian  Syrians  it 
appears  to  have  been  unknown.  The  Phoenicians,  who  practised 
it  generally,  had  abandoned  it  where  they  had  much  intercourse 
with  the  Greeks.  It  appears  from  Diodorus  (3,  31)  that  it  was  iu 
use  among  the  Troglodytes,  who  lived  chiefly  on  the  shores  of  the 
Red  Sea,  and  were  probably  of  Arabian  origin.  Besides  the  Jews, 
the  Idumseans,  the  Ammonites,  the  Moabites,  and  the  Ishmaelites8 
had  the  same  practice.  The  inhabitants  of  the  cities  of  the  Philis- 
tines4, however,  certainly  had  it  not,  nor  those  of  the  land  of 
Canaan  generally6.  The  Jews,  however,  appear  to  have  been  the 
only  people  in  ancient  times  among  whom  it  was  strictly  a  national 
religious  rite,  and  who  therefore  did  not  wait  like  the  Egyptians  till 
the  age  of  fourteen,  when  reasons  of  health  or  purity  might  prompt 
to  it,  but  submitted  infants  of  eight  days  old*  to  circumcision.  The 

1  Her.    %  87.     Wept riftvovrm   KadnptdrtiTOf  tlvtKt'  *y>orc/j<3vr«   KaOapoX  uvai  % 
tinpnlffTtpou 

*  Her.  2,  104.  •  Hieron.  ad  Jerem,  9,  25.  *  1  Sam.  jrviii.  27.  * 
1  Gen.  xxxiv.  14.    In  the  time  of  Josephus  (o.  Ap.  1,  42)  the  Jews  alone 

practised  it  of  all  the  nations  of  Palestine. 

•  The  narrative  of  the  circumcision  of  her  son  by  Zipporah  (Exod.  iv,  24f 
appear*  to  indicate  that  it  had  begun  to  be  neglected  by  the  Jews  in  Egypt, 


SKCT.  II.  SACERDOTAL  ORDER. 


311 


words  of  Herodotus  imply  that  it  was  general  among  the  Egyp- 
tians, but  not  that  it  was  strictly  universal  or  commanded  by  law1. 
From  the  language  of  the  book  of  Joshua  (v.  9),  in  which  uncir- 
cumcision  is  called  "  the  reproach  of  Egypt,"  it  should  seem  as  if 
then  it  was  held  disreputable  among  the  Egyptians  not  to  have 
undergone  this  rite  ;  in  later  times  it  appears  to  have  been  confined 
to  the  priests3,  and  to  those  who  devoted  themselves  to  science  and 
letters.  Upon  them  it  was  probably  imposed  by  the  priesthood,  as 
a  troublesome  initiation  which  would  assist  in  excluding  those  who 
had  no  other  motive  than  an  idle  curiosity9.  It  is  even  said  by 
Origen,  who  could  not  be  ignorant  o£  the  customs  of  Egypt  at  least 
in  his  own  time,  since  he  was  a  native  of  Alexandria,  that  without 
submitting  to  this  rite,  no  one  was  allowed  to  study  the  hiero- 
glyph ical  character4.    From  the  examination  of  the  mummies  it 

and  that  Moses  had  omitted  to  perform  it  on  his  own  sons.  It  must,  how- 
ever, have  been  known  to  Zipporah,  since  upon  the  sudden  and  dangerous 
illness  of  her  husband,  she  conceives  this  to  be  the  cause  of  the  displeasure 
of  Jehovah,  and  immediately  performs  the  rite  with  such  an  instrument  as 
she  had  at  hand. 

1  Just  before,  speaking  of  the  custom  of  washing  their  brazen  vessels,  he 
aays  very  emphatically,  oi*  b  plv  b  S"  ov'  i\\a  wres"  but  this  is  not  said  of 
circumcision. 

*  Tois  upiaf  hBait  fiiv  l\oK\npov$  vdfios 
Kivar  rap'  vplv  J",  o>f  loixtv  a-xtipyfjitvovs. 

Anaxandrides  Athen.  1,  55. 

'A*apxs<79ai  was  the  action  of  the  eacrificer,  who  cut  off  a  small  portion 
of  the  victim,  and  offered  it  to  the  god.  Her.  4,  61.  Horn.  Od.  /.  446,  £ 
422.    Joseph,  c  Apion.  1,  22 ;  2,  13. 

■  Pythagoras  is  said  to  have  been  compelled  to  submit  to  circumcision, 
before  the  priests  would  admit  him  to  the  knowledge  of  their  doctrines. 
Jablonsk  Pa  nth.  Proleg.  §  vii. 

*  Apud  JSgyptios  r  lllns  aut  geometrica  studebat,  aut  astronomije  aecreta 
rimabatur,  nisi  circumcisione  suscepta.  Sacerdos  apud  eos,  aruspex  aut 
quorumlibet  sacrorum  minister,  vel  ut  illi  appellant  prophetre,  omnis  circum- 
cisus  est.    Literas  quoque  sacerdotalea  veterum  .LEgyptiorum  quas  hieror 


378 


ANCIENT  K0T1T. 


appears  that  the  practice  was  very  limited,  not  extending  to  one  in 
fifty1 ;  but  it  must  be  remembered,  that  a  large  proportion  of  these 
are  not  of  very  high  antiquity. 

According  to  Diodorus*,  the  priests  married  only  one  wife,  while 
polygamy  was  allowed  to  the  rest  of  the  population.  The  sons 
were  brought  up  by  their  fathers  and  instructed  by  them  in  the  two 
kinds  of  writing,  the  sacred  and  the  demotic*.  It  appears  to  be 
implied  by  Diodorus4,  though  he  does  not  expressly  assert  it,  that 
the  study  of  geometry  and  astronomy  was  also  confined  to  the 
priests.  There  was  a  gradation  of  ranks  among  them.  Besides 
the  high  priest  there  was  an  order  of  prophetoe  who  were  the  pre- 
sidents of  the  temple,  and  whose  duty  it  was  to  commit  to  memory 
the  ten  sacerdotal  books,  which  contained  everything  relating  to 
the  laws  and  the  gods  and  the  education  of  the  priests.  To  them 
also  belonged  the  administration  of  the  temple  revenues.  The 
pastophori  had  the  charge  of  the  books  relating  to  medicine ;  the 
stolistes,  from  his  name,  must  have  had  the  superintendence  of  the 
sacred  vestments,  and  also  kept  the  vessel  for  libations  and  the  cubit  * 
of  justice,  the  standard  of  long  measure.  He  was  also  specially 
charged  with  the  books  which  contained  the  rules  for  the  sealing 
of  the  victims.  The  sacred  scribes,  or  hierogrammateis,  possessed 
the  knowledge  and  had  the  regulation  of  everything  relating  to  the 
feacred  utensils,  to  measures  of  capacity,  the  furniture  of  the  tem- 

glyphicas  appellant  nemo  discebat  nisi  circumcisus.    Origen,  Comm.  Ep. 
Rem.  2,  18. 

1  Madden,  as  quoted  by  Pettigrew  on  Mummies,  p.  168.  The  French 
Commission,  Mem  8,  83,  attest  its  existence.  Wilkinson  says — 44  The  anti- 
quity of  circumcision  in  Egypt  is  fully  established  by  the  monuments  of  the 
Upper  and  the  Lower  Country,  at  a  period  long  antecedent  to  the  Exodns 
and  the  arrival  of  Joseph,"  but  without  specifying  the  evidence  on  which 
he  relies.    M.  and  C.  5,  818. 

•  1,  80.  •  1,  81.    See  p.  274  of  this  voL 

*  01  iiiv  Uottf,  at  the  beginning  of  the  section,  appears  to  have  ita  correla- 
tive in  ri  &l  a\\o  v\fjdo(  twv  Atyvirriwv,  a  few  lines  from  the  end. 


SECT.  II.  SACERDOTAL  ORDER. 


379 


ple«  and  the  places  specially  consecrated  to  them  ;  the  course  of  the 
Nile  and  the  topography  of  Egypt,  the  order  of  the  sun,  moon,  and 
planets,  geography,  cosmography,  and  hieroglyphics.  The  horo- 
scopus  was  .required  to  be  familiar  with  the  four  books  of  Hermes 
which  treated  of  astronomy  (astrologia),  and  the  odos  or  singer 
with  those  which  contained  the  hymns  to  the  gods,  and  the  regu- 
lations for  the  life  of  the  king1.  It  appears  that  the  same  degree  of 
strictness  was  not  required  from  all  the  orders  of  priests.  Accord- 
ing to  Chaeremon,  quoted  by  Porphyry  (de  Abstin.  4,  8),  "  true 
philosophy"  was  found  in  the  prophetce,  the  hierostolistce,  the  hie- 
rogrammateis,  and  the  horologi  ;  the  rest,  including  the  pastophori 
(who  carried  shrines)  and  the  neocori  (who  had  the  charge  of  the 
edifice  and  its  cleanliness),  and  the  rest  of  the  subordinate  ministers, 
were  bound  to  personal  purity,  but  not  the  same  strict  abstinence 
as  the  others. 

Herodotus  says  that  in  Egypt  no  woman  was  invested  with  a 
sacerdotal  office2.  It  is  evident,  however,  that  women  were  not 
excluded  from  all  functions  about  the  temples,  since  he  explains  the 
origin  of  oracles  at  Dodona  and  Ammonium  by  the  carrying  off 
of  sacred  attendants  from  Thebes9.  The  monuments  confirm  his 
statement,  when  explained  with  this  limitation,  for  nowhere  does  a 
female  appear  discharging  a  properly  sacerdotal  office ;  nor  does 
the  hieroglyphic  for  priest  occur  with  the  feminine  termination. 
Women,  however,  are  found  making  offerings  to  the  gods  ;  under 

1  The  priests  of  Memphis  are  enumerated  on  the  Rosetta  Stone  as  ol 

dp%iep£~s  Kal  ol  irpotyrjrai  xai  ol  eis  rd  aivrov  tloiroptv6 [isvot  npdi  rdv  aroXiafiov  rolv  decoy 

kuI  TTT£po<p6poi  Ka\  UpoypafifxaTsTs.    Others  are  mentioned  by  the  general  name 
of  priests,  who  appear  to  have  come  by  delegation  from  the  other  templea 
of  Egypt 
*  2,  85. 

'  2,  54*    "Kfaffav  <A  Ipits  tov  Qriffuiov  Aids,  fco  yvv  at  k  a  s  1  p  rjt  a  s  U  QriBetat 

i^a^fl^ac  fad  4>o(vfita>p,    One  of  these  he  describes  afterwards  as  dftfi  roXii- 

ovaav  lp6v  At<5? 


380 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


the  Ptolemies,  in  imitation  of  the  Greeks,  they  were  invested  with 

the  office  of  priestesses1. 

When  Herodotus  (2,  83)  declares  that  the  art  of  divination  in 
Egypt  belonged  not  to  men,  but  to  some  of  the  gods,  we  learn  from 
his  words  that  the  Egyptian  priesthood  retained  in  their  own  hands 
that  powerful  instrument  for  governing  the  minds  of  men,  the 
power  of  predicting  the  future,  or  giving  commands  in  the  name 
of  the  Divinity.  In  other  countries  this  power  was  hereditary  in 
certain  families,  or  was  supposed  to  be  possessed  by  individuals, 
who  by  superior  sanctity  had  been  admitted  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  divine  mind,  or  by  mystic  rites  and  invocations  had  obtained 
it  from  superhuman  sources.  In  Homer,  for  example,  vre  find  that 
Calchas  among  the  Greeks,  and  IJelenus  among  the  Trojans,  are 
possessed  of  a  gift  of  divination,  which  proceeds  from  the  gods,  but 
is  so  far  inherent  in  themselves,  that  they  have  no  need  to  consult 
them  in  special  cases.  So  Tiresias,  though  he  appears  specially  as 
the  soothsayer  of  the  Ismenian  Apollo,  predicts,  commands  and 
threatens  by  virtue  of  the  divine  knowledge  inherent  in  him, 
without  consulting  Apollo.  The  gens  of  the  Iamidse,  the  Clytiadae, 
and  the  Telliadre  at  Elis,  appear  for  successive  generations  to  have 
exercised  the  office  of  diviners.  Others  wandered  through  Greece, 
offering  their  skill  to  individuals  or  communities.  These  practices 
seem  to  have  been  unknown  in  Egypt,  where  the  monopoly  of  the 
priesthood  would  have  been  encroached  upon,  by  the  interven- 
tion of  those  who  did  not  belong  to  it.  It  is  said  indeed  by  the 
prophet  Isaiah  (xix.  3),  describing  the  terror  and  confusion  of  the 
Egyptians,  that  they  should  seek  to  the  idlers,  and  to  the  charm- 
ers, and  to  them  that  have  familiar  spirits.  But  he  is  describ- 
ing a  time  of  general  panic,  when  "  the  spirit  of  Egypt  should  fail 
in  the  midst  thereof,  and  the  counsel  thereof  be  destroyed a 
state  in  which  men  are  tempted  to  try  new  and  forbidden  means 
of  delivering  themselves  from  their  perplexities  ;  as  Saul,  deprived 
of  the  oracle  of  God,  sought  the  witch  of  Endor. 

1  RosetU,  laser.  Hierag,  of  Egyptian  Soo.  j>L  K,  L  8. 


SECT.  II.  SACERDOTAL  ORDER. 


38\ 


The  most  celebrated  oracles  in  Egypt  were  those  of  Hercules, 
Apollo,  Minerva,  Diana,  Mars,  Jupiter,  and  above  all  that  of  La- 
tona  in  the  city  Buto1.  The  oracle  of  Hercules  was  probably  al 
Canopus,  where  the  god  had  a  temple,  and  its  fame  seems  after- 
wards to  have  been  transferred  to  that  of  Serapis.  The  chief 
oracle  of  Apollo  was  at  Apollinopolis  Magna  ;  of  Minerva  at  Sais  ; 
of  Diana  at  Bubastis  ;  of  Mars  at  Papremis  ;  of  Jupiter  at  Thebes 
and  Ammonium.  The  modes  of  divination  in  these,  Herodotus 
says,  were  different,  without  informing  us  what  they  were.  One 
probably  practised  in  ail  was  divination  by  sacrifices.  As  the 
Greeks  are  said  to  have  learnt  their  system  from  the  Egyptians, 
we  may  presume  that  in  the  country  in  which  it  was  indigenous, 
as  in  that  into  which  it  was  imported,  it  implied  the  examination 
of  the  entrails  of  the  victims,  as  well  as  the  manner  in  which  they 
burnt  away  upon  the  altar,  with  a  clear  and  steady  blaze,  or  a  dull, 
sputtering  and  divided  flame.  We  read  in  later  times  of  an  oracle 
at  Abydos,  in  which  a  god  named  Besa  was  consulted  by  means 
of  written  tablets2  containing  inquiries  or  petitions.  The  god  of 
Baalbek,  whose  worship  is  said  to  have  been  introduced  from  Heli- 
opolis  in  Egypt3,  was  consulted  in  the  same  way,  and  returned  his 
answers  in  writing ;  so  did  some  of  the  Grecian  oracles.  Ordinarily, 
however,  it  is  probable  that  the  votary  propounded  his  question, 
and  the  propheies  (who  derived  his  name  from  presiding  over  the 
oracle4,  not  from  foreseeing  or  foretelling)  gave  the  answer. 

It  does  not  appear  that  augury,  or  divination  from  the  flight  of 
birds,  was  in  use  in  Egypt ;  and  we  may  conjecture  the  cause  to 
have  been,  that  superstition  always  attaches  itself  to  something 
imperfectly  known,  and  that  in  a  country  like  Egypt,  without 
woods  or  other  hiding-places  for  birds,  their  habits  would  be  too 
familiar  to  influence  the  imagination.    Its  uniform  climate,  in 

1  Herod.  2,  lit,  138.  *  Ammian.  MarcelL  19,  12. 

•  Macrob.  Sat  1,  28. 

*  At  Delphi  and  Dodcma  Up^iarr  j  was  the  equivalent  title.  Herod.  % 
fTfi.  6,  6&.    Comp.  8,  136,  where  the  names  are  used  as  synonymonc 


382 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


which  rain  and  thunder  are  unknown,  prevented  divination  from 
celestial  phenomena,  which  in  the  electrical  atmosphere  of  Etrurit 
became  a  most  important  branch  of  the  art.  A  thunder-storm 
would  be  reckoned  among  the  prodigies,  which  Herodotus1  says 
they  most  carefully  recorded  in  writing  with  all  their  circumstances 
and  consequences,  inferring  that  whenever  the  prodigy  recurred  it 
would  bring  with  it  similar  results.  From  these  records  the  priests 
would  expound  to  the  people  those  events,  which  excite  the  curi- 
osity of  the  popular  mind,  such  as  monstrous  births,  the  speech  of 
auimals,  unusual  appearances  of  the  Nile.  The  vulgar  had  besides, 
no  doubt,  their  own  modes  of  judging  of  the  future.  Good  or  evil 
was  anticipated  from  the  actions  of  Apis,  and  from  his  accept- 
ing or  rejecting  the  food  which  visitors  offered  him  ;  and  pro- 
bably a  similar  superstition  attached  to  the  other  sacred  animals 
From  the  anecdote  which  Herodotus  relates  of  Amasis2,  it  appears 
that  the  oracles  did  not  disdain  to  answer  such  questions  as  with 
us  are  proposed  to  "  cunning  men  and  women3."  Before  he  came 
to  the  throne  he  had  supplied  himself  by  theft  with  the  means  of 
a  voluptuous  life,  and  had  been  often  brought  by  those  who  sus- 
pected him  before  different  oracles,  some  of  which  had  acquitted 
and  others  had  condemned  him.  Having  the  best  possible  evidence 
that  the  latter  were  correct,  after  his  accession  he  paid  all  honor 
to  their  gods  as  speakers  of  the  truth,  neglecting  the  former  as 
liars,  and  giving  nothing  for  the  repair  of  their  temples.  From 
the  books  of  Genesis  and  Exodus,  we  learn  how  great  was  the 
authority  of  dreams  in  Egypt,  and  that  the  inteipretation  of  them 
belonged  to  the  wise  men  and  magicians*,  the  hierogrammateis  and 

1  2,  82.     Tcocltii  a<pi  n\ea  dvevpr)Tai  ^  toicti  aWotcri  anaai  nuVpdcmiti, 

1  2,  174. 

s  Cora  p.  1  Sam.  ix.  6,  where  Saul  is  represented  as  resorting  to  Samuel, 
to  obtain  information  respecting  his  father's  asses. 

*  In  Hebrew  Q^O^H'  a  namQ  crobably  denoting  torit&rs.  Gen. 
MiU  8. 


SECT.  II.  CEREMONIES. 


388 


horoscojri  of  the  priestly  body.  Herodotus  relates  circumstances 
which  show  the  same  influence  of  dreams1. 

According  to  Champollion3,  the  tomb  of  Eameses  V.  at  Thebea 
contains  tables  of  the  constellations  and  of  their  influences  for  every 
hour  of  every  month  of  the  year.  Thus  in  the  latter  half  of  the 
month  Tobi}  "  Orion  rules  and  influences  at  the  first  hour  the  left 
arm ;  Sirius,  at  the  second,  influences  the  heart ;  the  Twins,  at  the 
third,  the  heart and  so  on8.  A  papyrus  in  the  British  Museum, 
of  the  age  of  liameses  III.,  contains  a  division  of  the  days  of  the  year 
into  lucky  and  unlucky4.  On  the  sarcophagus  of  Rameses  IV.,  the 
twenty-four  hours  are  represented,  showing  the  antiquity  of  this 
division.  Each  has  a  star  placed  above  it  and  a  figure ;  twelve 
male,  representing  the  day,  have  their  face  turned  towards  the  god 
Horus,  the  representative  of  the  Sun  ;  twelve  female,  towards  a 
crocodile,  the  symbol  of  darkness5.  In  a  great  astronomical  picture 
from  the  tombs  at  Bab-el-Melook,  a  variety  of  circumstances,  con- 
nected with  the  rising  and  setting  of  the  stars,  are  evidently  indi- 
cated6, but  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge  it  is  impossible  to 
give  the  meaning  of  the  Egyptian  characters. 

Herodotus7  enumerates,  besides  sacrifices  and  divination,  three 
religious  ceremonies  which  the  Egyptians  had  devised,  and  which 
the  Greeks  had  borrowed  from  them.    The  introductions6  are  fre- 

1  2,  139.  »  Lettres,  p.  239. 

'  Lepsius  (Einleitung,  1, 110)  denies  that  the  constellations  are  represented 
as  having  an  influence  upon  the  parts  of  the  body,  which  he  supposes  to 
refer  to  some  distribution  of  the  heavens,  represented  under  the  symbol  of 
the  human  figure. 

*  Dublin  U.  Mag.  v.  28,  p.  187. 

6  See  the  posthumous  publication  of  Champollion'a  Drawings  of  Egyp- 
tian Antiquities,  voL  8,  272,  274. 
'  Ibid,  vol  8,  p.  277. 

*  2,68.  Uavrjyvpif  it  &pa  teal  iropiraf  xal  r  pt  aaymyas  npC>  ro  t  dt-dpS 
•wr  Aiyiirrtoi  eiai  ol  noinaaiicioi'  kcu  irapa  tovtw*  'EAXijmj  ^.tjiaQ^Kaai. 

*  0»p,  Eph.  il  18    Li  oi  Ix0^ 

wpooayuyriv  npdf  rdv  ircrcfu. 


384 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


quently  represented  in  the  monuments.  Sometimes  a  god,  some« 
times  a  priest  appears  conducting  a  king  by  the  hand  to  the 
presence  of  the  tutelary  god  of  the  temple1.  At  other  times  the 
priest  follows,  offering  a  prayer  or  presenting  a  gift  to  the  god2. 
The  processions,  tfo/ximi,  were  very  numerous  ;  spacious  temples, 
lofty  colonnades,  and  avenues  of  trees  or  mystic  figures  afforded  an 
opportunity  of  making  them  most  impressive  to  the  spectators. 
The  variety  of  garments  by  which  the  priests  were  distinguished, 
still  more  their  symbolical  head-dresses  and  the  insignia  which  they 
carried  in  their  hands,  furnished  additional  means  of  gratifying  the 
eye,  while  the  religious  character  of  the  spectacle  was  maintained. 
Clemens  Alexandrinus*  has  described  the  order  in  which  the  five 
different  classes  of  priests  appeared  on  these  occasions,  the  Singer 
opening  the  procession,  followed  by  the  Horoscopus,  the  Hiero- 
grammat  and  the  Stolistes,  the  Prophetes  as  highest  in  dignity 
closing  it.  The  monuments  exhibit  these  different  orders,  but 
not  in  exact  correspondence  with  this  description.  The  most 
splendid  processions  were  those  in  which  the  images  of  the  gods 
were  carried  about  and  displayed  to  their  worshippers,  from  whose 
view  they  were  ordinarily  hidden  in  the  recesses  of  the  temples,  or 
if  not  the  images  themselves,  -more  portable  copies  of  them.  Such 
processions  were  called  Comasice  by  the  Greeks,  and  the  priests 
who  carried  the  images  Co?7iastce*.  It  has  been  supposed  that  an 
early  reference  to  this  custom  is  found  in  the  Iliad  (a',  424)  where 
Jupiter  and  the  gods  are  said  to  have  gone  to  feast  for  twelve  days 

1  Rosellini,  M.  del  Culto,  vi.  2,  viii.  1.  M.  Reali,  clxiy.  8.  In  al!  these 
cases  Horus  is  the  conducting  god,  if  it  be  not  rather  a  priest  wearing  the 
insignia  of  Horus. 

*  Rosellini,  M.  R.  cxlix.  1,  3.    The  priest  who  is  represented  as  following 
may  be  understood  according  to  Egyptian  art,  as  standing  beside  the  king. 
Strom.  6,  p.  757,  ec  Potter.    Compare  p.  87  G  of  this  volume. 

Strom.  5,  p.  671,  Potter.     'Ev  rai(  KoS^-^ivan  nap'  airoif  Ku>fjLaeiai{.  Diod 

Sic.  3,  4,  with  Wesaeling's  not* 


SECT.  II.  CEREMONIES. 


385 


6  with  the  blameless  Ethiopians."  According  to  Diodorus1,  this 
originated  in  the  custom  of  carrying  the  image  of  Jupiter  across 
the  river  into  Libya  and  bringing  it  back  some  days  after.  It  is 
very  probable,  considering  how  many  of  the  religious  edifices  of 
Thebes  were  on  the  Libyan  side  of  the  river,  that  such  a  custom 
existed  ;  we  have  indeed  positive  proof  of  it  in  the  Ptolemaic  times1, 
but  it  could  never  give  rise  to  a  story  of  his  going  up  the  river  into 
Ethiopia.  These  Ethiopians,  whom  Homer  places  on  thf  verge  of 
the  ocean,  that  is  the  remotest  point  of  the  world  towards  the  South, 
were  invested,  like  the  Hyperboreans  who  lived  in  the  extreme  North, 
with  qualities  which  fitted  them  to  be  the  associates  of  the  gods ; 
and  hence  the  story  of  the  annual  visit  of  Jupiter  and  the  Olym- 
pian deities  to  them  for  twelve  days.  The  account  of  Diodorus 
betrays  itself  to  be  one  of  those  accommodations  of  Egyptian  history 
and  customs  to  Greek  mythology  which  had  begun  in  the  time  of 
Herodotus,  but  greatly  increased  before  Diodorus  wrote.  That  pro- 
cessions with  the  images  of  the  gods,  however,  were  made  by  water, 
is  probable  not  only  from  the  circumstance  that  the  Nile  was  the 
nation's  highway,  and  that  the  temples  generally  stood  near  it, 
but  also  from  the  manner  of  their  transport,  even  when  not  taken 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  temples.  The  image  of  the  god,  or  the 
sacred  animal  which  was  his  symbol,  is  seen  placed  in  a  boat  {bari), 
sometimes  exposed  to  view,  at  other  times  concealed  in  a  shrine ; 
and  we  find  an  officer  of  the  court  of  Thothmes  V.  described  in 
his  tomb  as  "  having  charge  of  the  bari  of  Ammon8."  No  other 
reason  for  the  adoption  of  this  form  is  so  obvious,  as  that  boats 
were  actually  employed  in  early  times,  and  retained  as  symbols, 
even  in  processions  wholly  made  by  land. 

In  form  these  processional  boats,  shallow  and  highly  curved  at 

1  I,  97. 

*  Peyron,  Papyr.  Grac.  1,  p.  8,  L  i.  npdt  rii*  iii0aoiv  rrt  »ry(rrr»  hti 

'A^rSvoj  (p.  8,  1.  20> 

•  Roselhni,  Moo.  Storici,  iiL  1,  Siii. 
VOL.  I,  J  7 


386 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


each  end,  resemble  those  in  which  the  embalmed  bodies  are  repr* 
sented  as  conveyed  across  the  Nile  at  Thebes  to  their  place  of 
interment  in  the  Libyan  hills1.  They  are  adorned  at  the  stern  and 
prow  with  the  characteristic  symbol  of  the  gods,  as  the  ram's  head 
of  Kncph,  the  sacred  Ictus,  the  hawk's  head  of  Horus.  The  god 
himself  is  either  seated  in  the  centre  of  the  bari,  or  this  place  is 
occupied  by  a  shrine  richly  adorned  with  sacred  emblems,  in  which 
he  is  at  times  concealed,  at  others  disclosed.  On  the  model  of  such 
a  shrine  as  this  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant  of  the  Hebrews  appears 
to  have  been  constructed,  which  contained  the  Tables  of  the 
Law,  the  Pot  of  Manna  and  the  Rod  of  Aaron.  The  mixed 
figure  of  the  Cherubim  which  were  placed  at  either  end  and  over- 
shadowed it  with  their  wings,  has  a  parallel  in  some  of  those 
Egyptian  representations  in  which  kneeling  figures  spread  their 
wings  over  the  shrine3.  Sometimes  the  shrine  was  not  placed  on  a 
boat,  but  the  image  of  the  god  stood  upright  upon  a  platform, 
supported  by  poles  which  the  priests  carried*.  In  this  also  we  see 
a  resemblance  to  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant,  which  was  furnished 
with  rings  through  which  poles  were  passed  for  transporting  it  from 
place  to  place.  The  shrine  was  thus  borne  around  the  sacred 
precincts,  and  rested  in  some  conspicuous  place,  where  incense  was 
burnt  and  sacrifices  and  offerings  made  before  it.  If  the  temple 
was  dedicated  to  more  than  one  god,  their  images  were  borne 
together.  Clemens  Alexandrinus  mentions  the  representations  of 
two  dogs  (denoting  the  upper  and  lower  hemisphere),  a  hawk  and 
an  ibis,  as  carried  by  the  Egyptians  in  their  sacred  processions. 
The  figure  of  Anubis,  with  the  head  of  a  jackal,  which  the  Greeks 
took  for  a  dog,  the  hawk  of  Horus,  and  the  ibis  of  Thoth,  are  often 

See  Wilkinson,  M.  A  C.  plates  88,  84. 

'  Wilkinson,  M.  &  C.  5,  276.  The  word  ^2*1  which  has  no  etymo- 
logy in  the  Semitic  languages,  is  probably  allied  to  the  ypvrp  of  the  Greek*. 

•  Jer.  x.  6:  "They  (the  idols)  are  upright  as  the  palm  tree,  but  speak 
not;  they  must  needs  be  borne  because  tli.-y  cannot  go."    Also  Is.  xlvi  7 


SECT.   II.  CEREMONIES. 


Been  among  the  sacred  emblems  thus  carried ;  but  it  does  no* 
appear  on  what  occasion  these  four  alone  were  used. 

On  the  walls  of  the  great  temple  at  Esneh  and  the  palace  of 
Medinet  Aboo1  we  find  portions  of  the  sacred  calendar  of  these 
places,  in  which  the  order  and  ceremonies  of  sacrifice  and  procession 
throughout  the  year  have  been  recorded.  These,  however,  are  mere 
local  rubrics  for  the  worship  of  each  place.  Unless  we  should  be 
fortunate  enough  to  discover,  among  the  remains  of  Egyptian  writing, 
some  work  analogous  to  the  Fcsti  of  the  Romans,  we  must  remain 
ignorant  of  the  yearly  cycle  of  the  festivals  and  sacrifices  which  the 
whole  nation  celebrated.  Some  of  them  from  their  nature  were 
appropriate  only  to  certain  seasons  of  the  year.  Plutarch  says 
that  the  ceremony  called  the  disappearance  of  Osiris  was  celebrated 
on  the  seventeenth  of  the  month  Athyr  (October),  and  that  it 
represented  the  decrease  of  the  waters  of  the  Nile,  the  cessation  of 
the  Etesian  winds,  the  increase  of  darkness  and  diminution  of  light, 
and  the  nakedness  of  the  land  through  the  fall  of  the  leaf.  The 
rites  of  mourning,  which  Plutarch  describes  as  performed  by  the 
priests,  for  four  successive  days  from  the  seventeenth  of  Athyr2, 
when  they  clothed  the  image  of  the  cow  which  symbolized  *lsis 
with  a  black  veil,  belong  necessarily  to  the  decline  of  the  year*. 
The  subsequent  ceremony  at  the  supposed  finding  of  Osiris  when 
the  priests  went  to  the  seashore  on  the  19th  of  the  month,  and 
mixing  a  portion  of  earth  with  fresh  water  formed  an  image  of  the 
clay,  in  the  shape  of  a  lunar  crescent,  crying  out  that  Osiris  was 
found4,  marks  the  season  of  the  year  when  the  water  of  the  Nile 

1  Champollion,  Lettr.  d'Egypte,  p.  203,  860. 

2  Is.  et  Os.  §  39.  p.  366.  •  See  p.  279  of  this  volume,  note4. 

4  Plut  u.  8.  does  not  say  on  the  19th  of  what  month  this  ceremony  was 
performed ;  but  it  cannot  have  been  of  Athyr,  for  the  mourning  lasted  from 
the  17th  to  the  20th  inclusive.  Jablonsky  conjectured  Tybi  (January),  in 
which  month  the  lengthening  of  the  days  begins  to  be  visible;  Wyttenbach 
Pharmuthi  (April);  Wilkinson,  M.  &  C.  5,  301,  Pontons  (May).  None  a\ 
these  alterations  has  any  critical  authority,  and  it  appears  Hint  Pinter  ; 
bad  omitted  the  mention  of  ,he  month. 


388 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


might  be  expected  to  return.  The  festival  kept  in  honor  of  tha 
return  of  Isis  from  Phoenicia,  when  cakes  were  offered  to  her  marked 
with  a  hippopotamus,  the  symbol  of  Typhon,  expresses  the  triumph 
of  light  over  darkness,  at  the  winter  solstice.  The  feast  called  the 
"  Entrance  of  Osiris  into  the  Moon,"  was  celebrated  at  the  new  moon 
of  the  month  Phamenoth  or  March,  the  beginning  of  spring,  and 
was  evidently  designed  to  symbolize  the  renewed  fertility  of  the 
earth1.  This  was  the  occasion,  probably,  on  which  alone,  according 
to  Herodotus2,  it  was  lawful  in  Egypt  to  sacrifice  swine,  Dionusos 
and  the  Moon  in  his  account  answering  to  Osiris  and  Isis.  On  the 
vigil  of  the  festival  every  man  sacrificed  a  swine  before  his  own 
door  to  Dionusos,  and  then  gave  it  to  be  carried  away  by  the 
swineherd  of  whom  he  had  purchased  it.  But  on  the  day  of  the 
festival  itself,  the  swine  that  had  been  sacrificed  was  eaten,  the 
internal  fat,  with  the  extremity  of  the  tail,  having  been  burnt3. 
Another  festival  fixed  by  its  nature  to  a  particular  time  of  the  yeai 
was  the  JViloa,  which  Ileliodorus4  describes  as  being  celebrated 
about  the  summer  solstice  and  at  the  first  rise  of  the  waters  of  the 
Nile;  which  was  popularly  conceived  as  the  mixture  of  earth  and 
water,  the  source  of  all  life,  but  mystically  as  the  union  of  Isis  and 
Osiris.  At  this  festival  the  priests  were  accustomed  to  drop  a  piece 
of  money  and  the  praefects  gifts  of  gold  into  the  Nile  near  PhilaB*. 

The  panegyrics  differed  from  the  other  festivals,  as  they  brought 
together,  not  the  worshippers  at  a  single  temple,  or  the  inhabitants 
of  a  single  norae.  but  of  all  Egypt.    The  panegyries  which  in  the 

1  Plut  la  et  Oa.  §  48,  p.  868. 

*  Plut.  u.  s.  Herodotus,  2,  47,  says  on  the  full  moon,  but  probably  the 
same  festival  is  meant.  Lepsius  thinks  a  festival  was  kept  at  the  beginning 
and  in  the  middle  of  eaoh  lunation.    Einleitung,  1,  p.  161. 

*  The  universality  of  this  festival  may  account  for  the  circumstance,  that 
notwithstanding  their  impurity,  large  herds  of  swine  were  kept  in  Egypt 
The  tomb  of  Ranni,  a  military  man,  but  of  the  sacerdotal  order,  at  Eilithyia, 
exhibits  a  cento*  of  his  stock  of  animals  of  different  kinds,  and  among  them 
are  1500  swine.    Rosellini,  M.  Civ.  1,  266. 

*  Heliod.  JEth.  0,  9.  5        N.  Q.  4,  2,  7. 


8ECT.   II.  CEREMONIES. 


3S9 


Rosetta  inscription  the  priests  of  Memphis  decree  in  honor  of 
Ptolemy  Epiphanes,  were  to  begin  on  the  first  of  the  month  Thoth 
in  all"  the  temples  of  Egypt,  and  sacrifices  and  libations  were  to  be 
performed.  But  the  panegyries  of  which  Herodotus  speaks1, 
resembled  the  Olympian  and  Pythian  games,  which  collected  the 
people  from  all  parts  of  Greece  at  one  spot  They  were  all  held  at 
temples  in  Lower  Egypt,  where  the  population  was  most  abundant, 
and  the  means  of  transport  by  the  branches  of  the  river  and  the 
canals  were  most  ready.  The  greatest  resort  of  all  was  to  the  temple 
of  Artemis  at  Bubastis,  which  was  near  the  Pelusiac  branch  of  the 
Nile.  A  crowd  of  both  sexes  embarked  on  one  of  the  large  boats 
called  bari,  which  were  used  for  navigating  the  Nile.  As  they  were 
carried  down  the  stream  some  of  the  men  played  on  the  pipe  and 
the  women  on  the  cymbals,  whose  noisy  music  was  especially 
adapted  to  excite  the  passions,  while  the  rest  sang  and  beat  time 
with  their  hands ;  and  when  they  reached  any  town  on  the  bank, 
they  ran  their  boat  along  shore.  The  celebration  of  the  festival  of 
a  female  divinity  seems  in  Egypt,  as  in  the  festival  of  Ceres  at 
Eleusis,  to  have  given  unusual  licence  to  the  female  sex,  aud  as  they 
danced  and  shouted,  they  jeered  the  women  of  the  place  with  inde- 
cent gestures8.  When  they  arrived  at  Bubastis  they  offered  nume- 
rous sacrifices,  and  more  wine  was  consumed  in  this  festival  (the 
historian  means  probably  in  libations)  than  in  all  the  rest  of  the 
year.  The  numbers  who  assembled  were  estimated  by  the  natives 
at  700,000  persons,  besides  children.  There  is  a  propensity  to 
exaggeration  in  all  such  estimates,  which  besides  can  never  be  accu- 
rately made  ;  but  from  the  example  of  the  Jewish  Passover,  the 

1  2,  58. 

'  The  account  given  by  Clemens  Alex.  Coh.  vol.  1,  p.  17,  Potter,  of  the 
gestures  of  Baubo,  in  endeavoring  to  divert  the  melancholy  of  Ceres,  exhi- 
bits a  literal  correspondence  with  the  words  of  Herodotus.  Even  in  Sparts 
the  festivals  of  Diana  were  not  free  from  lioentious  words  ami  gesture*  Se« 
Lobeck,  Aglaoph.  p.  1086. 


390 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


pilgrimage  to  Mecca  and  those  of  the  Hindus,  we  see  how  conge- 
nial is  this  resort  of  crowds  to  a  consecrated  spot,  to  the  temper  of 
oriental  nations.  In  regard  to  the  number  which  flocked  to  it,  the 
festival  of  Isis  at  Busiris  came  next  to  that  of  Artemis.  The  sacri- 
fice to  this  goddess  has  been  already  described ;  as  the  festival  had 
a  reference  to  the  death  of  Osiris,  the  votaries,  men  and  women, 
beat  their  breasts  while  those  portions  of  the  victim  were  consumed 
which  were  placed  upon  the  altar.  Herodotus  remarks  that  the 
Carians  who  settled  in  Egypt  went  beyond  the  Egyptians  themselves 
in  the  expression  of  their  grief,  and  wounded  their  foreheads  with 
knives,  according  to  the  barbarous  customs  of  the  Asiatic  nations1. 
The  festival  of  Mars  at  Papremis,  however,  was  celebrated  in  a 
manner  more  characteristic  of  the  fanatical  character  of  these 
foreigners  than  of  the  Egyptians.  Sacrifices  were  performed,  as 
elsewhere ;  but  when  the  sun  was  setting,  some  of  the  priests 
endeavored  to  wheel  back  into  the  temple  the  image  and  gilded 
shrine  of  the  god,  which  had  been  taken  the  preceding  day  into  a 
sacred  edifice  near  at  hand.  Their  entrance  was  opposed  by  the 
rest,  who  stationed  themselves, armed  with  clubs,  at  the  gate;  and 
the  party  who  sought  admission  being  aided  by  the  votaries,  who  had 
also  furnished  themselves  with  clubs,  a  battle  ensued,  in  which  many 
wounds  were  inflicted,  and,  as  Herodotus  believed,  lives  lost.  The 
legend  of  the  priests  explained  the  custom  as  commemorating  the 
forcible  entrance  which  Mars  made  into  the  temple,  when  he  wished 
to  visit9  his  mother  after  a  long  absence,  in  which  the  priests  had 
forgotten  his  person.  More  probably  it  had  a  reference  to  the  war- 
like attributes  of  the  god,  and  may  have  been  a  substitute  for  a 
combat  with  more  deadly  weapons.    The  feast  of  Isis-Neith  at  Saia 

1  Comp.  Deut  xiv.  1.  Wounding  the  forehead  at  a  private  funeral  is  pro- 
bably there  intended ;  but  this  was  no  doubt  the  origin  of  the  same  practice 
)a  the  funereal  mysteries. 

1  There  is  a  doubt  respecting  the  meaning  of  the  passage  in  Her.  2,  64 
Compare  note  (4),  p.  365. 


SECT.  II.  CEREMONIES. 


391 


was  accompanied  with  a  general  illumination  on  one  of  the  ighta. 
It  was  performed,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  southern 
nations,  not  within,  but  around  the  houses,  by  means  of  shallow 
saucers  filled  with  oil  and  salt,  and  those  who  were  prevented  from 
attending  the  festival  illuminated  their  respective  cities.  Neither 
Herodotus  nor  any  other  author  has  mentioned  at  what  season  of 
the  year  this  festival  took  place,  or  what  was  its  import1.  We  may 
conjecture,  that  as  the  inscription  in  the  temple  of  Neith  declared 
her  to  be  the  mother  of  the  Sun8,  this  kindling  of  lamps  may  have 
been  intended  to  celebrate  her  as  author  of  light.  In  a  country 
whose  religion  was  less  symbolical  than  that  of  Egypt,  we  might 
have  been  contented  to  explain  it  only  as  a  proof  of  that  association 
of  festivity  with  artificial  light,  which  shows  itself  in  the  customs  of 
all  nations.  The  festival  in  honor  of  Latona  at  Buto,  and  of  the 
Sun  at  Heliopolis,  consisted  only  of  sacrifices.  The  sacrifice  of  a 
swine  to  Dionusos  has  been  already  mentioned.  In  other  respects 
the  festivals  in  his  honor  appear  to  have  been  conducted,  as  among 
the  Greeks,  with  indecent  emblems,  and  processions  led  by  the  pipe, 
while  the  women  followed  singing  the  praises  of  the  god.  The 
choral  dances,  which  from  the  first  formed  a  part  of  the  festival 
among  the  Greeks,  and  ultimately  gave  birth  to  the  drama,  were 
unknown  to  the  Egyptians',  and  the  festival  seems  always  to  have 
been  confined  in  Egypt  to  the  villages,  as  it  was  in  its  rudest  state  in 
Greece4.  Herodotus  believed  that  Melampus  taught  the  Greeks 
the  custom  of  phallic  processions  in  honor  of  Dionusos,  having 
himself  learnt  it  from  the  Phoenicians  who  ha  1  si  ttled  in  Bceotia  witb 

1  There  was  a  Isods  Xtfyos,  but  he  does  not  mention  it  (2,  62). 
9  See  note  (s),  p.  327. 

*  Trjv  iWijv  dvdyovet  bprfu  to  Aiovvira  of  AlyviTTiot,  *A»)r  X°P^V\  KaT*  rairi 
EXA*™.    Her.  2,  48 

*  Her  2,  48.  hri  i^Cvpmdra  Saov  r*  irrf-xyaTa  dyaXjiara  vgvpdriraara^  ra  ncpf 
popcovai  card  xcZfias  yvvaiKts,  Ariet  Poet  6.  KcD^ovt  »uk  dii  roi  «w/iafr;v 
ViX^evrai,          rij  vara  rcujiaf  fAa»|  iri^m^tftivevt  U  to9  J<rria>fc 


892 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


Cadmus.  The  festival  rhich  Plutarch1  calls  Paamylia,  and  sup 
poses  to  have  derived  its  name  from  Paamyles,  who  announced  the 
birth  of  Osiris  to  the  world,  was  evidently  a  phallic  ceremony  of 
the  kind  described  by  Herodotus. 

There  were  other  rites  connected  with  this  god  in  Egypt,  of  a 
very  different  character  from  the  processions  and  village-festivals 
which  have  been  just  described.  "  There  is  at  Sais,"  says  Hero- 
dotus', "  in  the  temple  of  Minerva,  a  burial-place  of  Him,  whom  in 
such  a  connection  I  deem  it  not  lawful  to  mention,"  that  is,  of 
Osiris ;  "  and  adjoining  to  the  temple  a  lake.  In  this  lake  imi- 
tative representations  of  his  sufferings  "are  performed  by  night, 
which  the  Egyptians  call  mysteries.  I  know  more  particulars 
about  these  things;  but  let  them  remain  buried  in  silence." 
These  sufferings  were  no  doubt  the  adventures  of  Osiris,  when  he 
was  enclosed  in  the  chest  by  Typhon,  and  afterwards  cut  to  pieces. 
As  the  body  was  floated  down  the  Nile,  and  carried  to  Byblos,  and 
as  Isis  embarked  on  the  Nile  to  collect  the  portions  of  his  body, 
we  see  why  a  piece  of  water  was  chosen  for  the  performance  of 
these  mysteries.  The  mysteries  of  Ceres,  called  Thesmophoria  by 
the  Greeks,  concerning  the  nature  of  which  Herodotus  in  the  same 
passage  declines  to  speak,  had  also  been  brought  from  Egypt. 
The  daughters  of  Danaus  had  taught  this  rite  to  the  Pelasgian 
females  of  the  Peloponnesus.  When  the  Peloponnesus  was  con- 
quered by  the  Dorians,  and  the  old  inhabitants  expelled,  Arcadia 
alone  ictmned  its  original  population  and  the  rites  of  Ceres.  The 
reason  for  -is  silence  was  in  both  cases  the  same ;  it  was  inauspi- 
cious to  niv  tion  death  and  Hades3  in  connection  with  a  god ; 
Osiris  had  I  en  killed  by  Typhon,  and  Proserpine  carried  to  the 
unseen  world  *y  Pluto.  The  mysteries  related  to  the  deaths  and 
sufferings  of  :he  gods4.    It  does  not  appear  that  in  Egypt  they 

1  la  et  Oair.  %  12,  p.  855.        •  2,  171.  '  Comp.  Her.  2,  132. 

4  Considers  sacra  ipsa  et  mysteria ;  invenies  exitus  tristes,  fata,  funera 
miserorum  deorum  (Min.  Felix,  21,  196\    This  vill  explain  Cic  Tuso.  1,  12, 


6E0T.   II.  MYSTERIES. 


893 


were  otherwise  separated  from  the  popular  religion,  than  by  the 
circumstance  of  the  nocturnal  gloom  in  which  from  their  nature 
they  were  celebrated.  Even  the  Eleusinian  mysteries  v  ere  open 
to  every  one  who  spoke  the  Greek  language  and  was  not  stained 
with  crime.  Men  were  excluded  by  their  sex  from  the  Thcsmo- 
phoria.  In  the  Bacchanalian  myster^s,  where  licence  undoubtedly 
prevailed,  means  were  taken  to  prevent  the  entrance  of  all  who  did 
not  belong  to  the  association  ;  but  these  appear  to  be  later  cor- 
ruptions1. 

When  we  read  of  foreigners  being  obliged  to  submit  to  painful 
and  tedious  ceremonies  of  initiation,  it  was  not  that  they  might 
learn  the  secret  meaning  of  the  rites  of  Osiris  or  Isis,  but  that  they 
might  partake  of  the  knowledge  of  astronomy, physic,  geometry  and 
theology,  of  which  the  priests  were  supposed  to  have  exclusive  pos- 
session. It  was  only  when  transferred  to  Greece,  where  a  public 
religion  was  already  established  with  which  they  were  not  congenial, 
that  the  Egyptian  rites  connected  with  the  history  of  Osiris  became 
a  secret  religion.  In  their  origin  they  had  no  immoral  character3 ; 
but  large  crowds  of  both  sexes  cannot  be  assembled  and  drawn  to 
a  distance  from  their  homes  without  danger  to  morals.  Secret  noc- 
turnal assemblages  afford  the  opportunity  of  licence,  and  in  the  cor- 
ruption of  manners  which  overspread  the  Roman  empire,  the  Eleusi- 
nian mysteries  may  have  degenerated  so  far,  as  to  deserve  the  cha- 
racter given  of  them  by  the  Christian  Fathers.  We  must  not  pro- 
nounce that  the  spectacle  which  would  grossly  offend  our  eyes 
argues  a  depraved  heart  in  those  to  whom  it  bore  a  sacred  charac- 
ter; nor  make  religion  responsible  for  the  mischief  which- results 
from  holy  fairs.    The  Christian  Church  was  compelled  to  put  an 

13,  without  supposing  with  Warburton  (D.  L.  1,  152)  that  Euheinerisrn  wai 
taught  in  the  inyateriea. 
1  Comp.  Liv.  lib,  89. 

a  The  Bacchanalian  religion  itself  appears  in  its  origin  to  have  b««s 
ascetic  rather  than  licentious  (Eur.  Hipp.  959). 

17* 


394 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


end  to  nocturnal  festivals1  from  their  flagitious  consequences.  But 
it  is  impossible  that  either  in  Egypt  or  in  the  days  of  Athenian 
independence,  licentiousness  can  have  been  sanctioned  as  a  part 
of  their  religious  rites.  It  was  different  with  the  Isiac  rites,  which 
make  their  appearance  towards  the  end  of  the  Roman  republic; 
initiation  into  them  was  a  source  of  gain  to  vagabond  priests  of 
both  sexes,  and  they  seem  often  to  have  been  abused.  Yet  even 
they  numbered  many  among  their  votaries  who  were  superstitious, 
but  sincere  and  ascetic  in  their  practice2,  at  least  for  the  time. 

It  is  probable  that  the  different  orders  of  Egyptian  priests  would 
possess  in  very  different  degrees  the  knowledge  of  their  theological 
system :  while  the  majority  were  trained  in  the  ceremonial  duties 
of  the  temple  and  the  altar,  few  only  were  acquainted  with  their 
import  and  history,  and  the  metaphysical  doctrines  which  had 
either  given  birth  to  their  religion  or  been  devised  for  its  explana- 
tion. Such  gradations  must  exist  in  every  body,  even  through  the 
difference  of  natural  capacity ;  in  Egypt  they  seem  to  have  been 
connected  with  a  graduated  scale  of  instruction,  each  order  being 
taught  to  read  the  books,  in  which  their  own  duties  and  the  doctrines 
belonging  to  them  were  contained3.  But  it  does  not  appear  that 
the  ascent  from  one  step  of  knowledge  to  another  was  accomplished 
by  undergoing  a  series  of  trials,  increasing  in  severity  according  to 
the  sublimity  of  the  truth  to  be  communicated.  These  have  been 
minutely  described  by  some  writers  without  any  warrant  either 
from  the  monuments  of  Egypt  or  from  historical  sources.  They 
have  taken  for  granted  that  there  must  have  existed  a  very  close 
correspondence  between  the  Eleusinian  mysteries  of  Ceres  and  the 
ceremonies  by  which  aspirants  were  admitted  to  the  knowledge  of 

1  See  Warburton,  D.  L.  1,  169.  *  Propert  Eleg.  2,  S3. 

'  Aiyvimoi  oi  rots  hirv^ovat  ra  itaph  a<piatv  dveriOcvTO  uvorfipia  oidi  pjv /?£/?/? A »if 
tj)»»  Tuiv  Oe'iojv  si6rj(nv  i^c<ptpov}  dXA'  T)  fi  6  v  o  t  s  yt  rotj  pzWovcriv  ini  rh* 
0  a  a  i  Xe  t  av  it  po  i' t  y  a  i'  k  a  i  r  c5  v  lept  u>v  r  o  i  {  k  p  i  0  e  t  a  i  r  st  v  ai  6  3  k  »« 
phtra  re  is  dnrd  rfjf  rpo<f.ris  Kal  rrjs  naidtiat  xai  tov  ytvovs.     Clem.  Alex  Strom. 

5,  p.  670,  ed.  Potter 


SECT.  II.  MYSTERIES. 


395 


the  esoteric  doctrines  of  Egypt.  There  is  no  evidence,  however, 
that  any  esoteric  doctrines  were  taught  in  the  Eieusinian  mys- 
teries. They  were  accompanied  with  various  rites,  expressive  of 
the  purity  and  self-denial  of  the  worshipper,  and  were  therefore 
considered  to  be  an  expiation  of  past  sins,  and  to  place  the  initiated  , 
under  the  especial  protection  of  the  awful  and  potent  goddesses 
who  presided  over  them.  The  mythic  history  of  Ceres,  Proserpine 
and  Bacchus,  was  repeated  in  symbolical  actions ;  and  in  these,  and 
in  the  hymns  which  were  sung,  there  must  have  been  much  that 
had  reference  to  the  unseen  world ;  the  very  act  of  initiation  into 
their  mysteries  was  supposed  to  prepare  for  the  votary  a  more 
favorable  reception  from  them,  when  he  reached  the  realm  over 
which  they  presided1.  In  this  sense  the  doctrine  of  a  future  life 
may  be  said  to  have  been  taught  in  them ;  but  it  was  a  part  of  the 
popular  belief,  no  esoteric  doctrine  of  the  mysteries,  nor  was  it 
inculcated  in  any  purer  and  more  spiritual  form,  but  in  the  same 
mythological  garb  in  which  it  had  been  long  familiar.  In  Egypt 
the  belief  in  a  future  life  was  mixed  with  the  doctrine  of  the 
metempsychosis,  but  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  this  entered-  into 
tho  Eieusinian  mysteries2.  There  is  no  trace  whatever  of  the  com- 
munication of  any  doctrine  at  Eleusis  respecting  the  gods  at 
variance  with  the  popular  creed,  or  of  a  system  of  cosmogony  and 
metaphysics ;  and  therefore  as  far  as  an  argument  from  analogy 
can  avail,  we  are  authorized  to  conclude,  that  what  Herodotus  calls 
the  mysteries  of  Egypt  conveyed  no  such  information  on  these 
points. 

Besides  annual  festivals,  the  Egyptians,  like  the  Greeks  and 
1  SchoL  AristidL  p.  101,  quoted  by  Lobeck,  Eleusinia,  p.  73.    'Elcyov  ol 

'EAX/jves  wj  ol  ra  fivarfipia  pvrfQivTes  tifiEvovg  xai  7X*cj  ttjj  Tltpottyvris  Irvy^avov. 

Cicero  (Leg.  2.  14)  expresses  himself  less  mythologically :  "Neque  solum  (a 
mysteriis)  cum  lsetitia  vivendi  rationem  accepimus,  sed  etiam  cum  spa 
meliore  moriendL" 
*  See  Lobeck,  u.  i 


396 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


Romans,  must  have  had  others  of  less  frequent  occurrence.  Such 
was  the  finding  of  Apis,  which  must  have  recurred  every  quarter 
of  a  century,  if  not  oftener,  as  if  he  survived  that  term  he  was  put 
to  death.  Ptolemy  Epiphanes,  on  the  Rosetta  Stone'  is  called 
"  Lord  of  the  Triaconterides,"  or  Panegyry  of  Thirty  Years ;  and 
though  the  corresponding  hieroglyphic  is  wanting,  from  the  frac- 
ture of  the  stone,  it  has  been  ascertained  from  other  monuments, 
and  is  found  as  early  as  the  sixth  dynasty1,  and  is  afterwards  a 
regular  title  of  the  Egyptian  kings.  Probably  it  had  reference  to 
some  astronomical  period,  but  no  satisfactory  explanation  has  been 
given  either  of  this  or  of  the  name  set,  which  is  found  connected 
with  the  hieroglyphic  of  the  Panegyries. 


SECT.  III. — -DOCTRINE  OF  A   FUTURE  LIFE. 

It  appears  almost  impossible  for  man  not  to  conceive  of  himself 
as  composed  of  two  elements,  a  corporeal  and  a  spiritual  principle, 
to  which  a  different  destiny  is  assigned,  when  their  temporary  union 
is  dissolved  by  death.  The  larger  and  grosser  part  is  visibly 
restored  to  the  earth  ;  but  it  is  only  by  the  analogical  reasonings 
of  philosophy  that  men  have  ever  been  brought  to  believe  that  the 
soul  is  involved  in  the  same  destruction.  The  instinct  of  nature 
prompts  to  a  belief  in  its  continued  existence,  which  is  the  more 
easily  cherished,  because  it  has  no  sensible  properties  distinct  from 
matter.  But  wide  differences  appear  among  nations,  in  regard  to 
the  degrees  of  activity  and  enjoyment  attributed  to  the  soul  in  its 
separate  state.  The  Jews,  before  they  had  become  acquainted  in 
the  captivity  with  the  Zoroastrian  doctrine  of  a  resurrection,  con- 
ceived of  the  grave  as  a  place  in  which  the  souls  of  the  dead  repose 

'  Lepsius,  Einleftung  in  die  Chronologie,  1,  p.  161,  165,  quotes  Dion  Cu> 
sius,  62,  p.  1023,  as  the  only  passage  of  an  ancient  author  in  which  mentioi 
is  made  of  a  triaconteris.  Thrasea,  iv  rWa/3i'&»  rrj  irarpiii  rpayyil**  kut<%  n 
rarptov  Iv  loprj  ri>i  r  fn  o.k  •  v  r  atr  npli  i  iiroKfiivifuv»(. 


SECT.  ni.  DOCTRINE   OF  A  FUTURE  LIFE. 


397 


in  a  state  of  inactivity  and  unconsciousness1,  though  not  of  extinc- 
tion. The  question  of  Samuel  to  Saul,  "  Why  hast  thou  disquieted 
me  to  bring  me  up  ?2"  indicates  that  the  dead  were  supposed  to  be 
simply  at  rest  in  the  grave,  yet  in  such  a  state  that  they  might  by 
necromantic  arts  be  temporarily  recalled  to  consciousness.  The 
sublime  description  of  Isaiah3,  in  which  the  dead  are  roused  up  to 
meet  the  king  of  Babylon,  is  framed  on  the  supposition  that  they 
are  ordinarily  in  a  state  of  unconsciousness,  which  might,  however, 
be  broken  by  the  strong  excitement  of  curiosity  to  welcome  a  new 
visitant,  and  of  revenge  to  triumph  over  a  fallen  enemy.  The  con- 
dition of  the  dead  as  described  by  Homer  is  not  very  different  from 
this.  The  soul  is  not  annihilated  by  death,  but  it  is  removed  to  a 
land  of  mist  and  shadows,  beyond  the  remotest  habitations  of  men, 
where  it  dwells  in  such  a  state  of  feebleness4  that  it  cannot  exercise 
its  powers  till  it  has  been  revived  by  a  libation  of  blood,  and  thus 
in  some  measure  reunited  to  the  former  cause  of  its  life6.  The 
greatest  of  the  Grecian  heroes  declares  that  he  would  gladly  assume 
the  place  of  a  hireling,  if  he  might  return  to  the  upper  wrorld6. 
Neither  among  the  Jews  nor  the  Greeks  was  this  state  believed  to 
be  one  of  retribution  for  mankind  generally.  Only  a  few  person- 
ages of  mythic  celebrity  are  represented  as  undergoing  a  special 
punishment  for  their  crimes,  which  is  itself  a  prolongation  or  sym- 
bolical representation  of  their  history  on  earth,  not  the  result  of 

1  Even  the  good  Hezekiah  speaks  of  death  as  a  state  in  which  there  could 
be  no  praise  of  God,  and  therefore  no  conscious  existence  for  the  pious. 
Isaiah  xxxviii.  18. 

'  1  Sam.  xxviii.  15.  •  xiv.  9. 

*  IIojj  ir\ris  dtSdaSc  KaT£\9s^tv1  Ivda  rt  vtKpoi 
'AcppaSess  vatova  i,  fiporcov  etcwXa  Ka^vrwv  • 

Od.  X',  474.    H  <//,  1% 

*  Od.  V,  141,  151,  Teireeias  is  an  exception,  and  by  the  special  farer  of 
Proserpine  retains  his  faculties  (<'  490). 

Od.  X',  488. 


398 


ANCXENT  EGYPT. 


any  judgement  passed  lpon  them  before  their  entrance  into  the 
world  of  spirits.  Minos  indeed  appears  exercising  the  office  of  a 
judge  among  the  dead,  who  plead  their  causes  before  him ;  but 
this  is  only  a  continuation  of  nis  earthly  office,  as  Orion  chases  the 
shadows  of  the  wild  beasts  whom  he  had  slain,  or  the  heroes  in 
Virgil's  Elysium  delight  themselves  in  the  care  of  horses,  arms  and 
chariots1.  It  was  a  later  conception  to  make  Minos  (with  iEacus 
and  Rhadamanthys)  the  judges  who  decided  on  the  characters  of 
the  dead,  and  allotted  them  their  place  with  the  blessed  or  the 
damned2.  Hesiod  in  his  Works  and  Days  (166)  assigns  to  his 
heroes  a  dwelling-place  in  the  Islands  of  the  Happy ;  but  no  judge- 
ment or  probation  precedes.  The  entire  race  was  half-divine, 
juster  and  better  than  its  predecessor.  Menelaus,  according  to  the 
prediction  of  Proteus3,  was  to  be  transferred  without  dying  to  the 
Elysian  plains  in  the  extremity  of  the  world,  where  Rhadamanthys 
dwells,  where  earth  yields  an  easy  sustenance  to  men,  and  Zephyrs 
from  the  Ocean  maintain  a  genial  temperature,  without  snow  or 
thick  rain.  In  this  description  also  there  is  no  mention  of  a  pre- 
vious judgment. 

The  state  of  belief  in  regard  to  a  future  life  and  retribution 
among  the  Jews,  for  many  centuries  after  their  departure  from 
Egypt,  whose  rites  and  worship  they  were  so  prone  to  adopt,  leads 
to  the  suspicion  that  it  was  not  an  object  of  popular  faith  among 
the  Egyptians  themselves  in  the  earliest  ages.    If  it  be  true  that 

1  Mrx.  6,  653. 

*  Compare  Homer,  Od.  X'f  567,  with  Virg.  Mn.  6,  429. 

*Evd'  JJroi  MtVcoa  iduv,  Aids  dy\adv  vldv 
Xpvatov  CKrjiTTpov  l%ovTat  QtfiicrTCvovTa  vtKVSaaiv 
'Hjjtvov'  ol  6e  fiiv  dp<pt  Sikcls  eipoi'TO  avaiKTa. 

Xec  veto  hoe  sine  sorte  datce,  sinejudice  seden. 
Qiujesi  tor  Minos  urnam  moret ;  ille  silentum 
Conciliumque  vocat,  vitasque  et  crimina  dUcxU 

•  OA  f,  560. 


•ICT.  in.  DOCTRINE   OF  A  FCTURB  LIFE. 


80* 


the  oriorinal  reason  of  embalmment  was  that  the  soul  was  believed 
not  to  quit  the  body  till  the  body  decayed,  and  might  be  detained 
in  a  state  of  consciousness  while  that  change  could  be  averted1,  we 
can  understand  the  extraordinary  pains  which  they  bestowed  in 
ornamenting  their  tombs  and  covering  their  walls  with  paintings 
exhibiting  the  scenes  of  daily  life ;  not  merely  those  in  which  the 
deceased  had  been  personally  engaged ;  for  the  variety  found  in  a 
single  tomb  precludes  this  idea ;  but  all  that  could  recall  to  him 
the  Remembrance  of  his  actual  experience.  They  could  minister 
nothing  to  the  gratification  of  the  living,  since  they  would  be  seen 
only  when  a  new  tenant  was  added  to  the  occupants  of  the 
sepulchre.  The  reason  which  they  assigned  for  bestowing  so  much 
more  pains  on  their  tombs  than  on  their  dwellings  was,  that  the 
tomb  was  man's  everlasting  habitation,  the  house  only  his  temporary 
lodging*.  But  had  it  been  a  popular  belief  that  the  soul  was  either 
entirely  detached  from  the  body  or  performing  its  rounds  through 
those  of  inferior  animals,  such  a  conception  of  the  tomb  could 
scarcely  have  originated.  If  on  the  contrary  it  remained  connected 
with  the  body  as  long  as  it  could  be  preserved  from  putrefaction, 
that  is,  by  the  embalmer's  art,  for  an  indefinite  period,  we  see  a 
sufficient  motive  for  surrounding  it  with  the  implements  which  it 
had  used  in  life  and  representations  of  the  scenes  amidst  which  it 
had  been  passed.  The  same  motive  will  explain  the  custom  of 
painting  on  the  mummy-cases,  before  tombs  were  so  elaborately 

1  Serv.  ad  JBa.  3.  68.  ^Egyptii  periti  sapientLe  condita  diutius  servant 
cadayera,  scilicet  ut  anima  multo  tempore  perduret  et  sit  eorpori  obnoxia, 
ne  cito  ad  alia  transeat 

'  Diod.  Sic.  1,  51.  Taj  filv  rav  favTuyv  oiKftazii  KaraKvnii  dvofia^ovctv,  u>f  dAi'yof 
j^pdvor  ii  ravraif  oikovvtuv  fycD*,  r»£f  <$£  twv  rercyevKoroiv  ra^ovj  d'iSiavf  otxovi  rpoo-a- 
yopcwnJfftv,  a*  cv  icov  ciaTs\ovvra)v  rd»  factum  aldva.  Here  Hades  is  evidently 
used  for  a  state  rather  than  a  place,  otherwise  the  sepulchre  could  not  be 
called  the  everlasting  dwelling.  In  Ecclesiastes  xii.  5,  O^l^?  ^-hich 
our  Translators  have  rendered  "his  long  home,"  is  in  the  Septuagint  "hia 
everlasting  home,"  oUo*  aij.os. 


400 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


adorned,  the  various  articles  of  dress  and  armor  which  the  deceased 
had  worn,  and  of  the  food  on  which  he  had  lived.  The  Egyptian 
notion  then  would  differ  from  the  Jewish,  inasmuch  as  according 
to  the  latter  the  usual  condition  of  the  departed  spirit  was  complete 
unconsciousness ;  and  from  the  Greek,  inasmuch  as  the  Greek  was 
a  state  of  imperfect  consciousness  without  activity  or  enjoyment; 
whereas,  according  to  the  Egyptians,  the  progress  of  death  could 
be  arrested  and  the  soul  kept  in  a  state  by  which  its  living  condition 
was  closely  imitated. 

It  is  generally  supposed,  however,  that  the  form  under  which 
the  Egyptians  believed  in  a  state  after  death,  was  that  of  the 
Transmigration  of  Souls.  Herodotus,  having  mentioned  the  descent 
of  Rhampsinitus  alive  into  Hades,  and  the  supremacy  of  Demeter 
and  Dionusos,  that  is  Isis  and  Osiris,  over  that  region,  proceeds1 : 
"  The  Egyptians  are  the  first  who  declared  this  doctrine  also,  that 
the  soul  of  man  is  immortal,  and  that  when  the  body  decays  the 
soul  enters  into  another  animal  successively  at  its  J>irth  ;  and  when 
it  has  gone  round  all  the  terrestrial  and  marine  animals,  and  all 
the  flying  creatures,  it  enters  again  into  the  body  of  a  man  at  its 
birth ;  and  this  circuit  of  the  soul  is  performed  in  3000  years. 
Some  of  the  Greeks  have  made  use  of  this  doctrine,  both  in  former 
and  in  later  times,  as  if  it  were  their  own,  whose  names  I  write  not, 
though  I  know  them."  These  no  doubt  are  Orpheus  and 
Pythagoras4,  or  his  preceptor  Pherecydes. 

There  is  an  ambiguity  in  the  construction  of  this  sentence  which 
leaves  it  doubtful,  whether  Herodotus  meant  to  say  that  the 
Egyptians  were  the  first  who  taught  the  doctrine  of  the  immortality 
of  the  soul,  or  only  the  first  who  taught  the  doctrine  of  immortality 
combined  with  that  of  transmigration.  Evidently  the  latter  part 
of  the  sentence  must  refer  to  the  same  doctrine  as  the  former;  and 

1  2,  128. 

'  Diod.  1,  98.  HvOnydoav  rf)v  eft  r.Sv  $iuov  rrjs  tyx**  ytra0cX^i  ^aQc~.v  rag 
A.lyvrrrlw 


SECT.  III.  DOCTKINK   OF   A   FUTURE  LIFE. 


401 


as  it  was  not  the  doctrine  of  the  soul's  immortality  only,  but 
also  of  its  transmigration,  which  Orpheus  and  Pythagoras  taught, 
it  may  seem  that  our  author  meant  to  assert  the  same  of  the 
Egyptians.  Cicero,  however,  referring  to  the  same  school  of 
philosophy,  says  that  Pythagoras  or  Pherecydes  was  the  first  who 
taught  that  human  souls  were  eternal,  "  animos  hominum  esse 
sempiternos1."  This  may  seem  inconsistent  with  the  facts  already 
stated  respecting  the  belief  of  the  Greeks  in  the  Homeric  age.  Yet 
the  existence  attributed  to  the  manes  was  of  that  inert  and  uncon 
seious  kind,  which  partakes  more  of  the  quality  of  death  than  life ; 
and  therefore  Herodotus  in  speaking  of  the  Egyptian  and  Cicero 
of  the  Pythagorean  doctrine,  may  have  meant  to  imply,  that  they 
first  attributed  a  real  immortality,  an  indestructible  active  existence 
to  the  soul. 

Another  question  raised  respecting  this  passage  of  Herodotus  is, 
whether  he  meant  to  say  that  the  soul  did  not  quit  the  body  till  it 
was  completely  resolved  and  decayed,  so  that  he  may  have  alluded 
to  the  practice  of  embalmment,  as  intended  to  delay  this  change 
and  the  commencement  of  transmigration  indefinitely;  or  whether 
by  *'  when  the  body  decays3,"  he  meant  merely  to  describe  death 
by  its  usual  accompaniment.  It  appears  that  the  latter  was  his 
meaning,  or  he  would  have  used  a  tense  which  would  have  denoted 
that  the  act  of  decay  must  be  completed. 

Herodotus  does  not  speak  of  this  transmigration  as  connected 
either  with  reward  or  punishment.  The  soul  does  not,  according 
to  him,  pass  into  the  body  of  a  clean  or  unclean  animal,  one  of  a 
higher  or  lower  rank  in  creation,  according  to  the  guilt  or  merit  of 
its  actions  in  the  body.  It  accomplishes  of  necessity  the  whole 
round  of  the  kingdoms  of  animated  nature,  and  at  the  end  of  3000 
years  again  enters  a  human  body.  So  far  the  Indian  doctrine  of 
metempsychosis  agrees  with  the  Egyptian;  the  soul  must  pass 
through  the  bodies  of  animals;  but  when  it  is  added,  in  order 

re j  roi  owparos 


402 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


that  by  the  trials  which  it  endures  in  this  process  it  may  be  pre- 
pared for  re-union  with  the  divine  soul,  of  which  it  is  an  emana- 
tion, this  has  nothing  correspondent  in  the  Egyptian  doctrine  as 
stated  by  Herodotus,  who  seems  to  have  supposed  that  the  circuit 
would  be  perpetual.  In  the  later  Pythagoreans  we  meet  with  this 
doctrine  of  the  ultimate  reception  of  the  soul  into  the  divine  nature  ; 
whether  it  were  a  part  of  the  primitive  philosophy  of  Pythagoras 
is  doubtful.  Ovid  represents  him  as  teaching  a  perpetual  transition 
from  the  human  to  the  animal  body,  and  vice  versd : 

Omnia  mutantur ;  nihil  intent ;  errat  et  illinc 

Hue  venit,  hinc  illue  et  quoslibet  oecupat  artus 

Spiritus,  eque  feris  humana  in  corpora  transit, 

Inque  feras  noster,  nee  tempore  deperit  ullo. — Met.  15,  165. 

Whether  the  Egyptian  doctrine  comprehended  an  ultimate  return 
to  the  Divine  Essence,  or  only  a  perpetual  transmigration,  it  appears 
to  have  been  a  refinement  of  sacerdotal  philosophy1,  rather  than 
an  article  of  popular  belief.  The  funeral  ceremonies  and  prayers 
have  reference  to  the  hope  that  the  deceased  may  dwell  in  peace 
and  happiness,  under  the  protection  of  Osiris  in  the  invisible  world2. 
It  is  very  rare  to  find  among  the  funereal  monuments  of  Egypt 
anything  which  alludes  to  the  metempsychosis.  In  the  tomb  of 
Rameses  the  Sixth,  in  Bab-el-Melook8,  the  usual  judgment-scene  is 

1  T  rj  v  tuv  A I  yvitr  i  u>  v  <p  1X0  a  o  (pi  av  etvai  TOiavTt]v—Ti]V  ipv^'iv  kui  £iri6iape- 
vtiv  Ka\  fiercfiPaheiv  (Diog.  Laert.  Prooem.  ii.).  Tt  ovv  %ph  noulv  (to  obtain 
assurance  of  a  future  life)     tovto  ;  ctS  A-'iyvirmv  iropzixjopat  koi  tois  twv  d6vTU)v 

Upoipdvraii  koI  jrpo^?jracf  <pi\ia>9fi<ropai  (Clem.  Rom.  HomiL  1,  3,  5,  quoted  by 
Creuzer,  Comm.  LTerocL  p.  316).  Plants  are  mentioned  among  the  objects 
into  which  the  soul  migrates  (Diog.  Laert.  Pythag.  4),  but  this  seems  an 
addition  to  the  genuine  Pythagorean  doctrine.  Zoega  de  Or.  et  Us.  Obelise 
p.  302,  not  15.    It  was  taught  by  Empea  ocles,  JEL  Hist.  An.  12,  7. 

*  Diod.  1,  92.     UapnKaXovai  rovs  Karoi  Qeovs  ovvoikov  Se^aadat  rots  tvvefleiri.  Td 
rr\fjQos  iirevQripeT  xal  cvvaKOOEpvvvti  tiiv  66£av  rov  rcrfXewrij/fdrof,  o)(  rdv  aiQva  ilii 
rpificiv  peWovTHS  xaO'  aSov  peril  raiv  titrc^Civ. 

'  Rosellini  M.  d.  C.  lxvi  p.  378.    Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  pL  87. 


SECT.  in.  DOCTRINE  OF  A  FUTURE  LIFE* 


403 


represented,  with  the  addition  of  a  bari  preceded  by  a  Cynocephalus, 
on  which  is  the  figure  of  a  sow.  Behind  the  sow  is  another  Cyno- 
cephalus, an  emblem  of  Thoth  or  Mercury  Psychopompus,  who 
appears  to  be  driving  her  on.  This  has  been  generally  admitted 
to  be  a  representation  of  the  return  of  a  wicked  soul  to  the  upper 
world,  condemned  by  Osiris  for  its  sin  to  migrate  into  the  body  of 
a  swine.  Champollion,  following  out  this  idea,  read  the  characters 
which  stand  above  the  sow  "  gluttony,"  which  he  supposed  to  be 
the  vice  for  which  the  soul  had  been  condemned  to  this  penance1. 
Rosellini  does  not  confirm  this  interpretation  of  the  writing,  though 
he  agrees  in  the  opinion  that  the  soul's  transmigration  is  here 
represented.  It  must  seem  very  strange,  however,  that  the  sepul- 
chre of  a  king  should  exhibit  his  soul  as  condemned  to  such  a 
degradation,  and  we  may  therefore  doubt  whether  the  relation  of 
this  to  the  judgment-scene  has  been  rightly  apprehended. 

If  the  Egyptian  doctrine  of  transmigration  included  only  the  idea 
of  a  perpetual  round  of  change,  it  could  hardly  exist  among  the 
Greeks  without  being  combined  with  punishment  and  reward. 
This  combination  we  find  already  in  Pindar2,  but  in  a  very  modified 
form  of  metempsychosis,  a  return  to  the  human  body,  without 
passing,  through  those  of  brutes.  "  Let  the  possessor  of  wealth," 
says  he,  "  know,  that  the  proud  souls  of  those  who  die,  forthwith 
endure  retributive  pains.  The  offences  committed  in  this  domain 
of  Jupiter  some  one  judges  below,  pronouncing  sentence  by  a  stern 
necessity.  But  the  good  lead  a  life  free  from  toil,  having  the  sun 
equally  by  night  and  by  day;  not  harassing  the  earth  by  the 
strength  of  their  hands,  nor  the  water  of  the  deep,  for  an  unsub- 
stantial fare ;  but  lead  a  life  free  from  sorrow,  beside  the  honored 
gods  who  delight  in  the  sanctity  of  oaths';  while  the  others 

1  Lettres  d'Egypte,  p.  230.    The  explanation  ia  repeated  in  Champollion 
FS^eae'a  l'Univers,  Egypte,  p.  181. 
OL  2,  109. 

In  a  fragment  of  a  fy>>os  (Heyne  Fr.  1,  p.  21),  Pindar  describes  th« 


404 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


undergo  pain  not  to  be  looked  upon.  But  those  who,  remaining 

in  either  world  to  the  third  time,  have  resolutely  kept  themselves 
from  all  iniquity,  travel  the  road  of  Jupiter  to  the  citadel  of  Saturn, 
where  ocean-gales  breathe  around  the  Islands  of  the  Blessed ;  and 
golden  flowers  glow,  some  from  the  ground,  some  from  the  bright 
trees;  and  others  water  nourishes,  with  chains  and  garlands  of 
which  they  wreathe  their  hands,  by  the  just  decisions  of  Rhada- 
manthys,  whom  father  Saturn  has  ever  at  hand  as  an  assessor. 
Peleus  and  Cadmus  are  reckoned  among  them,  and  his  mother 
brought  hither  Achilies,  when  she  had  moved  the  heart  of  Jupi- 
ter by  her  prayers."1 

It  is  evident  that  we  have  here  an  attempt  to  connect  the  old 
mythic  notion  of  place  of  happiness  for  heroes,  with  the  more 
ethical  conception  of  retribution  and  reward  for  mankind  generally; 
and  this  again  with  the  doctrine  of  transmigration.  It  is  not, 
however,  an  Egyptian  or  Indian  transmigration  through  the  bodies 
of  brute  animals.  The  wicked  at  death  are  condemned  to  punish- 
ment— of  what  kind  or  duration  we  are  not  told ;  the  good  lead  a 
life  of  abundance  and  ease,  yet  after  a  time  return  again  to  the 
upper  world ;  and  are  only  admitted  to  the  Island  of  the  Blessed, 
if  they  have  thrice  gone  through  the  trial  of  a  mortal  life,  and  kept 
themselves  from  all  iniquity.  Another  fragment  of  Pindar,  quoted 

employment  of  the  good  in  the  invisible  world,  in  language  which 
Virgil  has  evidently  had  in  view  in  his  description  of  the  Elysian 
Fields,  ^En.  6,  640: 

Toidi  XdjMEi  fiivoS  aiXiov 

Tdv  erOdds  vvnra  Karoo' 

<PoiviKopo8iai  re  XeijUGoveS 

Ei6i  7Zpod6nov  avrcSv 

Kai  roi  /xev  iitTteioiS  yvfxvcc6ioi% 

Toi  6e  7ze6(:oiS,  roi  8e  ^opjiiyyeddi  repitovrai 

Hapd  8e  6q>i6iv  evavBfe 

"Aizcd  re'S/nXev  o\fto%.— Plut.  p.  120  C. 

1  Here  the  Scolion  of  Callistratus  placed  Harmodius  the  avenger  of 
Athenian  liberty  (Brunck,  Anal.  1,  155). 


SECT.  m.  DOCTRINE  OF  A  FUTURE  LIFE. 


405 


by  Plato1,  represents  human  souls,  after  having  paid  to  Proserpine 
the  penalty  of  their  ancient  transgressions,  as  returning  to  the  light 
of  the  sun  in  the  ninth  year ;  and  becoming  kings  and  wise  men 
and  heroes.  But  it  would  be  treating  a  poet  too  much  as  a  philo- 
sopher were  we  to  attempt  to  combine  this  passage  with  the  quo- 
tation from  the  Second  Olympian,  and  suppose  that  an  interval  of 
nine  years  was  to  elapse  between  each  of  the  three  visits  of  the 
soul  to  earth,  before  it  was  prepared  for  admission  to  the  Island 
of  the  Blessed.  In  such  purely  imaginary  delineations  we  can 
except  no  consistency,  even  in  the  writings  of  the  same  author. 
Among  the  Greek  philosophers  the  doctrine  of  the  Metempsychosis 
underwent  a  great  variety  of  modifications.  Plato2,  combining  the 
Egyptian  period  of  3000  years  with  Pindar's  threefold  probation, 
declares  that  the  souls  of  those  who  have  cultivated  philosophy 
with  sincerity,or  lived  without  sensual  impurity,  if  they  have  thrice 
chosen  this  life,  recover  the  wings  which  the  soul  had  lost  when 
united  with  the  body,  and  fly  away  to  their  native  home,  at  the 
end  of  the  third  period  of  1000  years.  All  others  at  the  close  of 
their  first  human  existence  undergo  a  trial.  Some  of  them  are 
condemned  to  punishment  in  the  world  below,  others  enjoy  happi- 
ness in  heaven.  At  the  end  of  the  first  period  of  1000  years,  both 
classes  choose  their  second  life  ;  and  thus  the  human  soul  passes 
into  the  life  of  a  brute,  and  he  who  was  once"  a  man,  from  a  brute 
again  to  a  man.    Ten  thousand  years  must  elapse  before  the 

1  Meno,  ii.  p.  81  B.    Pind.  Heyn.  Fr.  Thren.  iv.— 

Oidi  yap  civ  $epdEQ6v(X  Ttoivav 

IlaXcaov  tzevQevS  dsztjzai, 

Ei$  rov  vnEpQsv  akiov  xeivgqv 

Evarop  evei  dvadiSoi  ifjvxocv  TtCiXlY. 

Eh  rdv  fia6i\r}E$  ayavoi  nocl  dSsvEi  xpantvoi 

2oq)iqc  te  f.iiyi6toi  avdpsS  avqovrai. 

ES  8k  rov  \oi7tov  xpovov  qpGoeS 

'Ayvoi  itpoS  dvBpoDitoov  naXEvvrca. 

*Pha3dr.  §61,  iii.  249. 


40G 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


souls  of  ordinary  men  can  regain  their  wings  and  fly  Dack  to  iheh 
original  abode1.  The  philosopher,  however,  is  not  more  consistent 
than  the  poet ;  sometimes  he  uses  the  common  language  respecting 
Hades  and  Elysium ;  sometimes  he  assumes  a  transmigration  of 
souls,  and  again  blends  both  with  his  own  poetical  imagination? 
and  philosophical  theories8. 

A  writer,  under  the  name  of  Hermes,  preserved  by  Stobaeus^ 
probably  of  very  late  times,  thus  states  the  doctrine  of  transmigra- 
tion :  "  All  souls  proceed  from  the  soul  of  the  universe,  and  their 
changes  are  many,  some  to  the  better,  some  to  the  worse.  Those 
of  reptiles  change  into  aquatic,  the  aquatic  into  terrestrial,  the  ter- 
restrial into  aerial,  the  aerial  into  man.  And  human  souls  as  the 
beginning  of  immortality  are  changed  into  daemons,  and  so  into 
the  choir  of  gods ;  now  there  are  two  choirs  of  gods,  one  of  the 
wandering,  the  other  of  the  fixed  (stars  ?).  And  this  is  the  most 
perfect  glory  of  the  soul.  But  when  it  enters  into  man,  if  it  con- 
tinue wicked  it  will  never  obtain  immortality,  but  will  take  the 
backward  course  to  the  reptiles."  He  cannot,  however,  be  received 
as  evidence  of  the  original  Egyptian  doctrine. 

Neither  the  Egyptian  nor  the  Pythagorean  doctrine  of  transmi- 
gration appears  to  have  included  that  of  punishment.  But  the 
more  popular  conception  of  the  state  of  the  dead,  as  subjected  to 
the  judgment  of  Osiris  and  existing  in  the  invisible  world,  which 
the  Egyptians  called  Amenthe,  must  have  acknowledged  a  retri- 
bution for  the  conduct  during  life*.  Of  the  state  of  the  just  after 
death  we  have  a  curious  picture  in  the  papyrus  rolls  which  wer# 
frequently  enclosed  in  the  sarcophagi  along  with  the  mummiea. 

1  Ei's  rd  aird  50sv  fixtt  ^  ty^x*1  CK*ar1  ifmiXrai  Ir&v  [ivpiuv  ov  yap  TrrepoiiTai 
rtpd  roaovrov  yjp6vov  (Phffidr.  U.  ».). 

•  Phfied >,  L  118.  'Ed.  Heeren,  p.  1000. 

4  Ait  Mcrcurius  ^Egyptius  animam  digressam  a  corpore  non  refundi  m 
animam  universi,  sed  manere  determinatam,  ut  rationem  patri  reddat  eorum 
ytue  in  corpore  gesserit.    Tertullian.  de  Anima,  33. 


8ECT.  III.  DOCTRINE  OF  A  FUTURE  LIFE.  407 

They  appear,  according  to  Lepsius,  who  has  published  one  of  them 
under  the  title  of  the  Book  of  the  Dead,  to  have  been  a  sort  of 
passport  to  the  soul  through  the  numerous  gates  of  the  heavenly 
dwelling.  Champollion  had  given  them  the  appellation  of  the 
Ritual ;  but  they  contain  no  precepts  for  honors  to  be  paid  to  the 
dead,  nor  hymns  or  prayers  to  be  offered  to  him.  The  deceased 
is  the  person  represented,  and  the  papyrus  describes  his  adventures 
after  the  soul  has  left  the  body.  So  far  it  may  be  called  a  ritual, 
that  it  contains  the  prayers  which  he  offers  to  the  gods.  The 
French  1  Description  de  l'Egypte'  contains  an  engraving  of  one  of 
these  Papyri1 ;  but  by  far  the  most  complete  copy  exists  in  the 
Royal  Museum  of  Turin,  whence  the  facsimile  of  Lepsius  has  been 
taken.  The  smaller  funeral  papyri  contain  extracts  or  abridge- 
ments of  this,  some  sections  being  omitted  in  one,  some  in  another. 
They  appear  to  have  been  prepared  by  the  priests ;  some  are  in 
the  hieroglyphic,  but  most  of  them  in  the  hieratic  character.  If 
perfect,  they  contain  a  representation  of  the  judgment-scene  which 
we  have  already  described,  and  which  is  denominated  "  Book  of 
the  redemption  in  the  hall  of  the  twofold  Justice."  The  deceased 
addresses  each  of  the  forty-two  judges  by  name ;  it  was  the  busi- 
ness of  each  of  them  to  punish  some  particular  sin,  and  of  this  sin 
the  deceased  declares  himself  innocent.  The  first  step  in  the  pro- 
gress of  the  soul  through  the  unseen  world  is,  that  it  issues  from 
the  grave,  and  under  the  form  of  different  gods  addresses  invoca- 
tions to  Osiris  as  Lord  of  the  lower  world.  In  succeeding  chap- 
ters Thoth  is  addressed  as  the  champion  of  Osiris  against  his  ene- 
mies, and  the  deceased  appears  armed  with  a  lance,  and  pursuing 
the  Typhonian  animals,  the  crocodile,  the  serpent,  the  tortoise,  and 
the  ass.  In  a  subsequent  part  he  is  seen  offering  to  the  inhabitants 
of  the  celestial  regions,  embarking  on  the  heavenly  waters,  plough- 
ing, sowing,  reaping  and  threshing*.    These  Elysian  fields  are  sur- 

Antiquites,  vol.  5,  pL  44-46.    The  funeral  papyrus,  published  in  1805 
by  Cadet  and  Hammer,  is  nearly  28  feet  long,  and  contains  537  columns. 
*  It  is  supposed  to  be  in  allusion  to  this  future  occupation  of  the  deceased, 


408 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


rounded  and  permeated  by  waters ;  but  it  is  not  necessary  to  su]> 
pose  that  this  circumstance  gave  rise  to  the  Greek  fiction  of  the 
Islands  of  the  Blessed,  which  may  be  purely  poetical,  or  if  it  have 
any  foundation  in  fact,  may  have  owed  it  to  the  Phoenician  settle- 
ments in  Western  Spain,  and  their  discovery  of  the  Canaries  or 
Azores1.  The  deity  (Seb),  whom  the  Greeks  interpreted  as  Saturn, 
has  no  connexion  in  Egyptian  mythology  with  the  unseen  world  ; 
and  Rhadamanthys,  though  it  has  been  etymologized  from  the 
Coptic2,  appears  to  be  a  purely  Greek  word3.  These  are  the  most 
important  contents  of  the  funeral  papyri4 ;  there  are  also  varied 
prayers  to  the  gods,  who  are  all  designated  as  forms  of  Osiris,  and 
hymns,  which,  from  their  division  by  points,  appear  to  be  metrical. 
The  most  perfect  rolls  belong  to  the  flourishing  times  of  the  Pha- 
raohs, from  the  fifteenth  to  the  thirteenth  century  before  Christ. 
In  later  times  they  are  brief  and  fragmentary,  and  of  the  Ptolemaic 
times  no  single  copy  has  been  found. 

We  are  not  to  expect  in  the  papyri  any  explanation  of  the  fate 
of  those  who  were  found  wanting  in  the  trial  of  the  balance  by 
Osiris.  Every  one  who  was  embalmed  and  deposited  in  the  tomb 
was  presumed  to  have  been  approved  by  him  ;  the  mummy  bore  the 
form  of  Osiris,  and  the  deceased  was  called  Osirian6  and  identified 
with  the  god,  just  as  among  ourselves,  every  one  who  receives 

that  small  representations  of  a  hoe  are  among  the  objects  offered  to  the 
dead.  The  figures  of  mummies  placed  in  the  tombs  have  usually  a  hoe 
imprinted  or  painted  on  the  shoulder,  along  with  a  bag,  supposed  to  be  a 
seed-bag.    Rosellini,  M.  Civ.  1,  291. 

'  Strabo,  8,  p.  150.  Gesner  de  Navig.  Phoenic.  extra  CoL  Here.  p.  644  of 
Hermann's  Orphica, 

*  Zoega  de  ObeL  p.  296.    He  supposes  the  last  part  to  represent  Amenthe, 

*  'Paiaptiv  (see  Hesych.)  is  pXaardvuv,  which  joined  with  avdos  expresses 
very  well  the  flowery  luxuriance  by  which  these  islands  were  character- 
ised.  See  p.  404. 

4  Lepsiua,  Das  Todten  Buch,  Leipzig,  1 842. 

*  Thus  in  the  Parisian  papyrus  "  the  Osirian  Petamon."  Rosellini,  Mo«. 
Civ  3,  492. 


SECT.  III.  DOCTRINE   OF  A  FUTURE   LIFE.  409 

Christian  burial  is  assumed  to  die  in  peace  with  the  Church  and  in 
the  hope  of  a  happy  immortality.  Rosellini  and  Champollion 
suppose,  that  in  the  tombs  of  the  kings,  where  according  to  them 
the  mystical  doctrines  respecting  the  soul  are  set  forth,  the  spirits 
of  wicked  men  are  represented  as  rejected  by  the  Sun,  the  ruler  of 
those  celestial  regions  through  which  they  have  to  take  their  course. 
The  former  gives  these  as  the  words  which  accompany  the  repre- 
sentation— "  They  (the  reprobate)  do  not  see  this  great  god ;  their 
eye  does  not  imbibe  the  rays  from  his  disk ;  their  souls  are  not 
manifested  or  made  illustrious  in  the  world ;  they  do  not  hear  the 
voice  of  this  great  god,  who  towers  above  their  sphere."  Of  the 
good,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  said  "  This  great  god  speaks  to  them 
and  they  speak  to  him ;  his  glory  illuminates  them  in  the  splendor 
of  his  disk  while  he  is  in  their  sphere1."  Rosellini  speaks  also  of 
representations  in  the  royal  tombs  of  wicked  souls  exposed  to  tor- 
ments by  fire  and  steel.  The  connexion  of  the  Sun  with  the 
departed  spirits  is  illustrated  by  a  custom  which  Porphyry  records2. 
In  the  process  of  embalmment,  the  viscera  were  taken  out  and 
placed  in  a  chest  by  themselves,  which  the  embalmer  then  held  up 
to  the  Sun,  with  this  prayer : — "  0  Sun,  and  all  ye  Gods  who  give 
life  to  men,  receive  me,  and  give  me  to  dwell  along  with  the 
immortal  gods.  For  I  have  ever  reverenced  the  Gods  whom  my 
parents  taught  me,  and  have  honored  the  authors  of  my  body ;  of 
other  men  I  have  neither  killed  any  one,  nor  deprived  him  of  a 
deposit,  nor  have  done  any  other  grievous  wrong.  And  if  through- 
out my  life  I  have  committed  any  sin,  in  eating  or  drinking,  I  have 
not  done  it  on  my  own  account,  but  on  account  of  these,  pointing 
to  the  chest  containing  the  viscera,  which  was  then  thrown  into  the 
river,  and  the  body,  as  pure,  submitted  to  embalmment." 

It  would  be  vain  to  endeavor  to  combine  these  different  state- 
ments and  indications  of  opinion,  into  a  system  which  should  repre- 


1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  8,  p.  823,  828.  8  De  Abstinentia,  lib.  4,  §  10. 

VOL.  L  18 


410 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


sent  the  defined  and  universal  belief  of  the  Egyptian  people.  We 
can  distinguish  with  some  certainty  the  philosophical  dogma  of 
transmigration,  the  religious  doctrine  of  retribution,  and  the  popular 
belief  of  the  continued  existence  of  the  soul,  still  dwelling  in  the 
undecayed  body.  But  other  differences  must  have  existed.  Our 
first  impulse  is  to  think  of  the  dead  as  extinct,  and  their  condition 
as  one  of  mere  negation,  rest,  and  silence;  and  this  view  ever 
returns  and  obtrudes  itself,  even  amidst  conceptions  and  modes  of 
speech  derived  from  the  belief  in  their  continued  existence.  The 
popular  and  the  philosophical  doctrine  could  not  remain  side  by 
side  for  centuries,  without  attempts  being  made  to  reconcile  them^ 
which  became  a  fresh  source  of  variety.  Not  only  is  a  future  state 
of  retribution  the  universal  belief  of  Christendom,  but  this  belief  is 
founded  upon  express  revelation ;  yet  how  variously  has  it  been 
conceived !  A  millennium  on  earth,  purgatory  or  the  sleep  of  the 
soul  between  death  and  the  general  resurrection,  the  eternal  suffer- 
ing, final  extinction  or  final  restitution  of  the  wicked — these  are 
only  some  of  the  diversities  of  opinion  to  which  this  doctrine  has 
given  rise.  It  must  be  ever  so  in  regard  to  what  lies  wholly  beyonc 
the  sphere  of  sense  and  personal  experience.  We  need  not  wondei 
therefore  if  we  cannot  frame  a  conception  of  the  Egyptian  belief  on 
this  subject,  which  shall  explain  everything,  from  writings  which 
have  been  only  partially  preserved,  and  monuments  as  yet  very 
imperfectly  understood. 


CHAPTER  XXLL 


EMBALMMENT,   SEPULTURE,  AND  FUNERAL  RITES, 

According  to  Herodotus,  on  occasion  of  the  death  of  any  person 
of  consequence  in  Egypt,  all  the  women  of  the  family  and  female 
relatives  daubed  their  heads  and  faces  with  mud,  and  leaving  the 
corpse  in  the  house,  wandered  through  the  city  with  their  garments 
girt  over  the  waist,  just  below  the  bosom,  so  as  to  leave  it  bare1, 
and  beating  themselves  with  lamentation.  The  men,  formed  also 
into  companies,  disposed  their  garments  in  a  similar  way  and  beat 
themselves  with  lamentation.  In  the  paintings  which  represent  the 
funeral  processions,  we  see  men  and  women  thus  dressed  in  sepa- 
rate bands,  flinging  dust  or  mud  upon  their  heads  and  beating  their 
bosoms.  On  occasion  of  a  royal  funeral,  the  mourning  was  uni- 
versal throughout  Egypt.  For  seventy-two  doys,  that  is,  while  the 
process  of  the  embalment  was  going  on2,  they  rent  their  garments, 
and  divided  into  companies  of  two  or  three  hundred,  went  about 
twice  a  day  singing  in  measured  verse  the  praise  of  the  deceased 
monarch's  virtues3.  During  this  time  the  temples  were  closed,  all 
sacrifices  and  festivals  suspended,and  the  people  abstained  not  only 
from  pleasures  and  luxuries  of  every  kind,  but  even  from  the  use 
of  animal  food  and  wheaten  bread.4  In  the  case  of  private  persons, 
the  mourning  appears  to  have  been  suspended  during  the  embalm- 

^ETte^oDdjuevat,  Her.  2,  85.  Ilepie^Goduerai  6iv86vaS  vitouocrco 
roov  jua6roov.    Diod.  1.  72. 

2  Genesis  1.  3. 

3  Rosellini  thinks  he  has  discovered  a  metrical  nmnia,  in  praise  of 
Roei,  a  priest  and  basilogrammat  of  Thebes  (M.  Civ.  3,  400). 

4  Diod.  1.  72. 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


merit1,  which  was  the  next  stage.  This  art  was  practised  by  a 
body  of  men  called  Taricheutce,  who  in  the  Greek  times  formed 
a  caste*,  and  who  appear  to  have  had  ranges  of  buildings  allotted 
to  them  in  which  it  might  be  carried  on.  As  it  was  connected 
with  the  manipulation  of  dead  bodies,  these  buildings  were  removed 
from  the  neighborhood  of  the  temples.  At  Thebes  they  were  con- 
fined to  the  Memnonium  on  the  western  bank  of  the  river,  and  as 
we  find  a  similar  restriction  placed  upon  the  tanners',  probably  this 
region,  like  the  Transtiberine  at  Rome,  was  allotted  to  disgusting 
or  unwholesome  operations4.  The  office  itself,  however,  was  not 
deemed  degrading ;  the  Taricheutaz  were  not  rendered  impure  by 
it,  but  were  allowed  to  enter  the  temples  and  associate  with  the 
priests.  It  appears  as  if  each  Taricheutes  had  a  district  assigned  to 
him,  on  the  inhabitants  of  which  he  alone  was  allowed  to  exercise 
his  art;  since  we  find  one  of  them  bringing  an  action  against 
another  for  encroaching  on  his  walk*. 

The  embalmers  kept  models  of  three  different  modes  of  embalm- 
ment, of  which  one  was  chosen,  according  to  the  expense  which 
the  relations  were  willing  to  incur.  The  most  honorable  and  most 
costly  was  that  in  which  the  body  was  made  to  resemble  Osiris. 
In  preparing  it  according  to  this  method  the  brains  were  first 
partially  extracted  by  a  crooked  iron  instrument  through  the  nos- 

1  Her.  2,  85.    Diodorus  1,  91,  represents  them  as  mourning  and  fasting  till 

the.  interment. 

a  They  are  called  r<5  tQvoi  in  a  Turin  papyrus  (Peyron,  Pap.  Graec.  1826, 
I,  p.  2,  1.  24). 

•  Peyron,  Pap.  Oraec.  1,  p.  2,  1.  21. 

4  lb.  2,  p.  41.  11  Quare  colligere  licet  ad  Memnonia  detrusas  fuisse  artee 
immundas  et  quidquid  politioribus  hominibus  facile  stomachum  movisset" — 

 Nec  te  fastidia  mercis 

Ullius  subeant  ablegandaj  Tiberim  ultra. — Juv.  b.  14,  202. 

•  Peyron,  2,  p.  48.  One  had  the  Memnonium,  the  other  Liospolis  ci 
Eastern  Thebee. 


EMBALMMENT. 


413 


tills,  or  dissolved  by  some  injected  fluid  and  so  brought  away 
Many  of  the  mummies  attest  the  correctness  of  this  account  given 
by  Herodotus ;  the  cribriform  plate  having  been  broken  through 
in  the  process  of  extracting  the  brain1.  In  other  cases  the  brain 
has  been  left ;  or  the  hollow  filled  up  with  bituminous  matter  and 
a  fragrant  resin.  The  chief  of  the  embalmers,  called  the  scribe, 
probably  as  being  the  one  who  was  in  possession  of  the  written 
formula  by  which  everything  was  regulated  in  Egypt,  marked  on 
the  left  side  of  the  body,  between  the  breast-bone  and  the  ribs,  the 
size  of  the  incision,  which  the  paraschistes  with  a  sharp  flint2  then 
made.  His  service  was  odious,  and  having  performed  it  he  imme- 
diately took  to  flight,  being  pursued  with  stones  and  curses  by  the 
by-standers.  The  whole  of  the  intestines  were  then  taken  out,  the 
kidneys  and  the  heart  alone  being  left,  and  were  carefully  washed 
with  palm  wine  and  pounded  spices.  They  are  sometimes  found 
within  the  body3 ;  sometimes  enclosed  in  linen  and  asphaltum  and 
placed  beside  it;  but  more  commonly  they  seem  to  have  been 
deposited  in  the  four  vases,  called  improperly  Canopi,  which  have 
been  already  described4.  The  cavity  was  then  filled  up,  according 
to  Herodotus,  with  myrrh  and  cassia  and  all  other  fragrant  resins 
except  frankincense,  and  the  body  steeped  for  seventy  days  in  a 
solution  of  natron.  This  salt,  which  is  found  in  great  abundance 
in  the  Natron  Lakes,  appears  to  contain,  along  with  a  large  pro- 
portion of  muriate  of  soda,  or  common  salt,  a  carbonate  of  soda. 
The  common  salt  exercises  its  usual  antiseptic  power,  and  the  other 
ingredient,  combining  with  the  adipose  particles,  leaves  the  fibrous 
part  of  the  'flesh  untouched.  Herodotus  has  probably  placed 
the  steeping  of  the  body  erroneously  after,  instead  of  before  ths 

1  Pettigrew  on  Mummies,  p.  56. 

'  Sharp  flints  with  a  cutting-edge  have  been  found  in  Egyptian  tomba 
Wilkinson,  8,  262.    (Comp.  Exod.  iv.  25.) 
'  See  p.  841  of  this  volume.    ArchasoL  27,  270.    Pettigrew,  p.  74. 
•  See  p.  841  of  this  volume.    Rosellini,  M.  Civ.  cxxix.  2. 


414 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


filling  up  of  the  cavity  with  aromatic  substances.  Diodorus  does 
not  mention  the  immersion  in  natron,  but  says  that  during  thirty 
days  the  body  is  treated  with  cedria  and  other  preparations,  and 
afterwards  with  myrrh  and  cinnamon  and  other  substances,  which 
not  only  preserve  it  for  a  long  time,  but  give  it  a  fragrant  odor.  This 
cedria  was  a  kind  of  liquid  pitch,  obtained  from  the  Syrian  cedre- 
late  by  burning  it,  and  possessed  of  strongly  antiseptic  virtues1 
The  body  thus  prepared  was  next  enveloped  in  bandages  of  linen  , 
which  had  been  steeped  in  some  resinous  substance,  probably  the 
gum  of  the  Sont  (Mimosa  Nilotica),  which  is  abundant  in  Egypt. 
The  art  with  which  they  have  been  applied  and  combined,  so  as  to 
envelope  smoothly  all  the  limbs,  has  excited  the  admiration  of 
professional  men.  According  to  Dr.  Granville,  there  is  not  a  single 
form  of  bandage  known  to  modern  surgery,  of  which  examples  are 
not  seen  in  the  swathings  of  the  Egyptian  mummies.  The  strips 
of  linen  have  been  found  extending  to  1000  yards  in  length.  Rosel- 
lini  gives  a  similar  testimony  to  the  wonderful  variety  and  skill 
with  which  the  bandages  have  been  applied  and  interlaced. 

Herodotus,  in  speaking  of  the  dress  of  the  priests,  observes  that 
they  wore  white  woollen  garments  thrown  over  their  linen  tunics, 
but  that  nothing  of  woollen  was  ever  carried  into  the  temples,  nor 
buried  with  them.  It  had  been  generally  supposed  that  this  was 
an  universal  law  of  Egyptian  interment ;  but  at  Gebel-el-Mokat- 
tam,  bodies  of  the  workmen  have  been  found  wrapt  in  woollen  (pp. 
Ill,  118),  and  what  is  still  more  remarkable,  the  mummy  of 
Mycerinus  found  in  the  third  pyramid  had  been  similarly  enveloped. 
In  the  most  elaborately  executed  mummies,  as  those  of  kings  and 
priests,  not  only  the  arms  and  legs,  but  the  fingers  and  toes  are 

*  Pliny,  16,  21.  Cedrium — cui  tanta  via  est,  ut  in  JEgypto  corpora 
hominum  defunctorum  ep  perfusa  serventur. 

*  That  they  are  linen  and  not  cotton,  has  been  decided  at  last*  after  very 
contradictory  judgments,  by  the  microscopic  examination  of  the  fibre.  Se« 
Phil.  Mag.  Nov.  1834.    Wilkinson,  8,  116. 


EMBALMMENT. 


415 


separately  bandaged1.  Compresses  are  placed  in  various  parts,  so 
as  to  secure  an  exact  application  of  the  bandage  to  the  body, 
wherever  there  might  otherwise  have  been  a  vacant  space,  into 
which  the  ah  might  have  gained  admission.  Within  the  folds  of 
the  inner  and  outer  bandages  various  objects  have  been  found.  The 
most  important  of  these  are  the  papyri,  the  nature  of  which  has 
been  already  described,  iu  speaking  of  the  opiuions  of  the  Egyp- 
tians respecting  the  state  of  the  dead  ;  they  are  not  found,  however, 
in  all  the  mummies,  but  only  in  those  which  were  expensively  pre- 
pared ;  they  have  been  placed  usually  on  the  breast,  between  the 
thighs  and  legs,  or  the  body  and  the  arms.  Small  figures  of  Osiris 
in  blue  porcelain  with  hieroglyphical  inscriptions  are  also  frequently 
found  either  between  the  bandages  or  beside  the  mummies.  A 
searabaeus  with  a  similar  inscription  was  often  placed  on  the  breast 
and  in  immediate  contact  with  the  flesh,  or  within  the  cavity  of 
the  body,  on  which  the  name  of  the  deceased  is  read  ;  sometimes, 
instead  of  the  searabaeus,  a  small  tablet  of  stone  or  baked  clay,  in 
the  form  of  a  funeral  stele,  inscribed  with  hieroglyphics,  lies  on  the 
breast.  Besides  these,  amulets  of  various  kinds,  necklaces  com- 
posed of  glass  beads  or  agate  and  jasper-pebbles,  ear-rings  an^d 
finger-rings,  bracelets,  hair-pins,  and  other  female  ornaments,  are 
of  frequent  occurrence.  The  body  having  been  swathed,  a  case 
was  accurately  fitted  to  it,  composed  of  layers  of  cloth  cemented 
together  and  forming  a  substance  nearly  resembling  pasteboard ; 
it  appears  to  have  been  moulded  uponnhe  body  while  moist,  so  as 
accurately  to  take  its  shape,  and  the  contents  were  secured  by  its 
being  sewed  up  at  the  back2.  This  case  was  then  ornamented 
with  paintings  of  the  most  vivid  colors,  which  even  at  the  present 
day,  when  first  brought  into  the  light  and  air,  have  lost  little  of  their 
original  freshness.    The  head  is  covered  with  a  mask  extending 

*  Pettigrew,  pp.  95,  99.    The  Greek  mummies  had  the  arms  bound  sepa« 
rately,  the  Egyptian  not  (Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  5,  474,  6). 
1  Pettigrew,  116. 


416 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


down  the  shoulders  on  which  the  face  is  represented  ;  the  conven- 
tional color  of  yellowish-green  being  adopted  for  women  and  rod- 
dish-brown  for  men.  The  face  has  sometimes  been  gilded;  at 
other  times  the  surface  of  the  body,  the  head,  feet  and  hands. 
In  a  mummy  found  at  Saccara,  thin  plates  of  gold  were  wrapped 
round  each  limb  and  each  finger,  inscribed  with  hieroglyphics1. 
Artificial  eyes  of  glass  are  inserted  to  aid  the  appearance  of  life, 
and  a  network  of  beads  and  bugles  is  sometimes  spread  over  the 
whole  front  of  the  body.  The  whole  case  is  covered  with  columns 
of  hieroglyphics  or  emblematic  figures,  among  which  the  scarabaeus, 
the  winged  serpent,  the  ibis,  the  cynocephalus,  or  the  genii  of 
Amenthe  and  the  goddesses  Isis,  Netpe  and  (Tpe)  the  heavens, 
are  the  most  common3.  The  hieroglyphics  contain  usually  the 
name  and  quality  of  the  deceased,  but  little  besides,  except  formu- 
lary invocations  and  prayers.  Exterior  to  this  is  a  case  usually  of 
.  sycamore  wood,  sometimes  excavated  from  the  solid  tree,  at  others 
composed  of  several  pieces  and  secured  by  wooden  pegs,  which 
fasten  the  receptacle  and  the  cover  firmly  together.  This  is  some- 
times again  enclosed  in  a  second,  and  that  in  a  third  wooden  case, 
the  outermost  being  also  adorned  with  hieroglyphics  and  with  rich 
colors  and  elaborate  gilding.  The  outermost  case  is  of  various 
forms,  but  most  commonly  adapted  to  that  of  the  mummy. 

The  various  processes  employed  in  preparing  a  mummy  are 
represented  in  one  of  the  tombs  of  Thebes,  described  by  Rosellini*. 
Two  men  are  using  the  drili  and  bow,  as  practised  by  carpenters  at 
the  present  day;  another  is  piercing  a  hole  with  the  same  instru- 
ment in  the  eye  of  the  mask  for  the  head  and  shoulders  which  has 
been  already  described,  for  the  insertion  of  a  piece  of  black  enamel 
in  the  centre,  representing  the  pupil.  In  another  compartment  a 
man  is  preparing  the  cloth  for  the  bandages  by  steeping  it  in  a  vast 

1  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit.  2nd  series,  vol.  i.  p.  109. 

*  See  the  mummy  represented  in  the  Atks  to  Minutoli,  tab.  xxxrii 

3  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  3,  362,  pL  cxxvi 


EMBALMMENT. 


containing  some  resinous  solution ;  a  second  is  polishing  the  sur- 
face of  the  mask  with  his  hand,  and  a  third  levigating  the  plaster 
with  which  that  and  the  covering  of  the  mummy  are  to  be  over- 
spread, preparatory  to  the  painting.  This  operation  is  represented 
in  a  third  chamber,  where  the  body  is  laid  upon  two  stools ;  the 
saucers  for  the  colors  are  on  the  ground,  and  a  boy  is  prepar- 
ing them  by  rubbing  on  a  stone,  while  an  artist,  with  a  pallet  in 
one  hand  and  a  pencil  in  the  other,  is  painting  the  countenance. 
In  the  three  upper  compartments  the  completion  of  the  process  of 
bandaging  is  delineated,  and  a  man  distinguished  by  his  dress 
from  the  rest,  probably  the  scribe,  holds  in  his  hand  a  roll  of  papy- 
rus, no  doubt  the  Book  of  the  Dead,  which  is  about  to  be  placed 
among  the  last  folds  of  bandage  over  the  breast- 

Such  was  the  mode  in  which  the  body  was  embalmed,  swathed 
and  encased,  according  to  what  Herodotus  calls  the  most  elabo- 
rate method.  In  the  second  and  less  expensive,  they  made  no 
incision  nor  extracted  the  viscera,  but  injected  cedria  from  below, 
which  remained  in  the  body  during  the  time  of  the  steeping,  and, 
as  he  had  been  told,  brought  away  with  it  the  dissolved  bowels. 
But  as  this  substance  has  no  such  solvent  power,  it  is  probable 
that  in  this  case  also  the  contents  of  the  body  were  extracted,  and 
that  the  cheap  oil  of  cedar  was  used  instead  of  costly  aromatics, 
to  preserve  what  remained  from  putrefaction.  In  the  third  method, 
which  the  poorest  of  the  Egyptians  practised,  a  still  cheaper  injec- 
tion of  salt  and  water  was  used1,  the  steeping  in  natron  for  seventy 
days  remaining  the  same.  In  the  two  last  methods  no  swathing 
was  employed,  but  the  body  given  back  to  the  relations  as  it  came 
from  the  natron  lye.  These  were  not  all  the  methods  used  ;  they 
are  only  specimens  of  the  most  costly,  of  the  cheapest,  and  of  an 
intermediate  process  ;  but  each  of  these  admitted  of  very  numerous 
varieties.    Of  those  which  have  the  lateral  incision,  some  are  filled 


Zvpuaii^  Her.  2,  88,  explained  bv  Hesychiun,  t^i  IC  Wawj  «ai 


418 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


with  aromatic  matter,  others  only  with  asphaltum,  to  which  they 
trusted  chiefly  for  the  preservation  of  the  body,  which  aromatica 
alone  could  not  effect1.  Some  of  those  which  are  without  the 
incision  have  evidently  been  dipped  in  asphaltum  in  a  liquid  state, 
which  lias  thus  coated  the  whole  body ;  and  others  simply  salted 
and  dried.  There  were  even  cheaper  modes  of  making  mummies 
than  that  described  by  Herodotus  as  the  cheapest ;  the  corpse 
being  merely  filled  with  salt,  or  ashes,  or  chips  of  bitter  wood. 
The  practice  of  embalmment  is  at  least  as  old  as  the  Pyramids, 
and  it  continued  in  use  till  Christianity  extinguished  the  old  reli- 
gion. In  this  long  series  of  centuries  changes  took  place,  on 
which  a  chronology  of  the  art  has  been  founded.  From  the 
mummy  of  Menkera  it  appears  that  if  linen  were  known  in  tha 
age,  it  was  not  used  in  swathing  the  body*. 

According  to  Herodotus,  when  the  process  of  embalmment  was 
completed,  the  case  in  which  the  body  was  enclosed  was  deposited 
in  a  sepulchral  chamber  erect  against  ^the  wall'.  This  however 
appears  to  have  been  only  done  in  exceptional  cases,  where  the 
family  possessed  no  hypogceum,  and  had  to  erect  a  building  for  the 
reception  of  their  dead ;  or  when  interment  was  forbidden  or 
delayed.  In  the  hypogaea  the  mummies  are  always  found,  if 
undisturbed,  in  an  horizontal  position.  Herodotus  has  not  described 
the  ceremonies  of  the  funeral,  which  are  detailed  by  Diodorus4  and 
in  most  points  illustrated  by  the  monuments.  A  formal  judgment 
preceded  the  interment.  A  day  was  fixed  by  the  relatives  of  the 
deceased,  on  which  his  body  should  be  conveyed  across  the  lake 
of  the  nome,  and  forty-two  judges  being  assembled  took  their  seats 

1  DiocL  19,  99,  speaking  of  the  transport  of  asphaltum  from  the  Dead 
Sea  to  Egypt.  Mum  is  said  to  »e  a  Persian  word  signifying  naphtha  or 
liquid  asphaltum  (Jablonsk.  Opusc.  1,  472).  The  Egyptian  name  for  a 
mummy  ;s,  according  to  Rosellini,  Koh  (M.  C.  iii.  2,  370). 

*  See  Birch,  in  Gliddon's  Eg.  Arch.  p.  88,  and  p.  Ill  of  this  volume. 

•  OUtyari  dnxaiw,  2,  86.    Compare  the  use  of  ixVrfma,  2,  100.  *  I,  9ft 


SEPULTURE. 


<U9 


in  a  semicircular  bench  beside  the  lake.  The  baris  or  bark  being 
drawn  alongside,  before  the  coffin  was  allowed  to  be  placed  in  i; 
for  conveyance  to  the  other  bank,  any  one  who  chose  was  permitted 
to  accuse  the  deceased.  If  these  accusations  were  sustained  by  the 
judges,  the  rites  of  sepulture  were  withheld.  A  false  accusation 
was  severely  punished.  If  none  were  made,  or  if  the  accuser 
appeared  to  be  a  calumniator,  the  relations  of  the  deceased,  laying 
aside  their  mourning,  extolled  his  virtues  ;  not  after  the  manner  of 
the  Greeks,  dwelling  upon  his  noble  birth,  since  all  Egyptians  are 
deemed  equally  noble,  but  on  his  good  education,  his  justice  and 
piety,  his  temperance  and  continence.  The  surrounding  multitude 
joined  in  the  eulogy  with  acclamation,  and  prayed  the  gods  below 
to  receive  him  to  dwell  among  the  pious  dead.  The  bodies  of 
those  who  had  been  prohibited  from  interment  remained  in  their 
private  dwellings,  and  it  sometimes  happened  that  after  they  had 
remained  above  ground  for  years  their  children  obtained  the  means 
of  proving  the  falsehood  of  the  accusations  against  them,  and  they 
were  finally  committed  to  the  tomb.  The  only  trace  which  the  monu- 
ments exhibit  of  a  judgment  before  interment  is  that  in  the  funeral 
processions,  when  the  mummy  is  taken  from  the  bark  and  is  about 
to  be  placed  in  the  tomb,  one  of  the  attendants  touches  it  with  the 
instrument  which  symbolically  expresses  approbation1.  Other 
causes,  such  as  an  undischarged  debt,  might  delay  the  interment. 

Later  writers*  speak  of  it  as  a  custom  of  the  Egyptians  to  keep 
the  embalmed  bodies  of  their  friends  in  their  houses,  and  on  fes- 
tive days  to  place  them  on  seats  and  couches  and  make  them  par- 
takers in  their  feast.  This  is  not  confirmed  by  the  monuments, 
but  it  does  appear  as  if  they  were  sometimes  kept  in  wooden  closets 

1  Rosellini,  Moil  Civ.  iii  2,  437.  The  meaning  of  this  instrument  is 
ascertained  by  the  Rosetta  inscription,  where  it  answers  to  the  Greek  Sv  i 
'Tifattrros  id  o  k  t  /i  a  a tv. 

*  Lucian,  de  Luctu,  C  21.     h  Atyrirrtoj,  fypdvas  rdv  rvcpdy  <rivSsim>ovt  Kai  <r*u- 

t6mr  -xft^nm,    (See  "WeaseL  ad  Diod.  1,  91.) 


420 


ANCIE.VT  EGYPT. 


and  occasionally  taken  out,  not  to  be  placed  at  a  lectistcrnii.m^byA 
to  receive  libations  and  offerings  of  cakes,  flowers  and  geese1. 

The  sepulchre  was  a  place  of  family  interment.  The  inscriptions 
on  the  walls,  and  the  mummies,  where  these  remain,  often  give  evi- 
dence of  the  burial  of  the  husband  and  wife,  the  sons  and  daughters ; 
and  what  is  said  respecting  the  pledge  of  dead  bodies  and  the  pro- 
hibition of  further  interment  till  the  debt  was  discharged,  shows 
that  as  long  as  the  family  remained  extant  they  continued  to  use 
the  same  sepulchre.  The  ample  size  and  numerous  lateral  or  per- 
pendicular excavations  would  afford  room  for  the  deposit  of  many 
generations.  It  was  after  dwelling  in  Egypt  that  Abraham  declined 
the  offer  of  the  Hethites  to  bury  his  wife  in  the  choicest  of  their 
sepulchres,  and  purchased  for  himself  and  his  descendants  the  cave 
of  Machpelah2.  A  special  place  of  sepulture,  however,  could  not 
be  obtained  by  the  poorest  classes.  Their  bodies,  prepared  by  on% 
of  the  cheap  modes  of  embalmment,  and  without  coffins  to  enclose 
t.Liem,  were  placed  in  layers,  in  the  deep  pits  which  are  found  in 
tbb  grottoes,  or  along  the  sides  of  the  passages  which  branch  of 
from  caem. 

As  the  cemeteries  of  Memphis  and  Thebes  were  both  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  Nile  from  that  on  which  the  principal  part  of 
the  habitations  stood,  the  bodies  must  have  been  conveyed  across 
the  Nile  for  interment,  and  the  ceremony  of  the  judgment  may 
have  preceded  its  embarkation.  But  the  baris  on  which  the  coffin 
is  placed  in  the  representation  of  funeral  processions  is  evidently 
in  many  cases  only  a  symbol,  and  not  adapted  to  actual  navigation  • 
nor  can  there  have  been  in  every  nome  a  lake,  such  as  the  account 
of  Diodorus  supposes.  If  a  passage  over  water  were  really  an 
essential  part  of  the  funeral  ceremony,  we  must  suppose  that  by  a 
lake  he  meant  some  one  of  those  canals  or  branches  of  the  Nile 
which  abounded  everywhere ;  or  the  lake  of  the  principal  tempi* 


1  Wilkinson,  M.  <fc  C.  jx  S84 


"  Gen.  yviii  xxv.  9.  xlix.  29. 


SEPULTURE.  4*21 

of  the  nome,  which  was  generally  furnished  with  an  appendage  of 
this  kind.  It  appears,  however,  from  the  monuments,  that  in  many 
cases  there  was  a  real  transporting  of  the  body,  across  the  river,  to 
the  Libyan  hills ;  and  all  the  royal  sepulchres,  whether  pyramids 
or  hypogsea,  are  on  the  western  side.  In  the  tomb  of  Nevopth  at 
Benihassan,  which  is  on  the  eastern  side,  a  small  bari  without  sails 
or  oars,  but  furnished  with  two  rudders,  on  which  a  mummy  reclines 
under  a  canopy,  is  towed  upon  the  Nile  by  a  larger  vessel,  with  a 
square  sail  set1 ;  a  man  stands  on  the  prow  with  a  pole  for  pushing 
off,  and  makes  signals  with  his  hand,  while  several  sailors  aie 
engaged  in  handling  the  ropes.  In  other  instances,  rowers,  stand- 
ing or  sitting,  are  pulling  the  boat3. 

The  representation  of  the  funeral  procession  usually  forms  the 
first  part  of  the  papyrus  rolls  when  these  are  entire  and  on  the 
largest  scale,  as  that  of  Turin,  accompanied  ^y  a  long  description 
of  the  funeral  prayers  and  rites.  It  is  also  of  common  occun-ence 
in  the  tombs  with  some  variation  in  the  details,  but  a  close  resem- 
blance in  all  the  principal  parts.  The  body,  enclosed  in  its  painted 
sarcophagus,  is  first  seen,  erect  or  reclined  within  a  tabernacle  of 
wood,  richly  adorned  with  emblematic  paintings ;  if  reclined,  i*  is 
usually  on  a  couch,  the  head  and  feet  of  which  imitate  those  o^  a 
lion.  This  tabernacle  is  itself  placed  upon  a  bari  which  rasts  on 
a  sledge,  or  a  dray  with  low  wheels,  and  is  drawn  towards  the 
place  of  embarkation  or  interment  by  hand,  or  by  oxen.  A  priest 
in  a  leopard's  skin,  the  costume  of  the  chief  functionary  at  funerals, 

1  Rosellini,  M.  C.  cxxxiil  L  iii.  %  p.  427. 

*  Ibid.  pi.  exxx.  Sir  G.  Wilkinson  in  his  map  of  Thebes  lays  down  a 
supposed  Lake  of  the  Dead.  Rosellini  thinks  the  excavation  in  question 
eannot  have  been  intended  to  contain  water.  (M.  C.  iii.  2,  431.  Wilk.  Mod. 
Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  186.)  It  must  have  been  7000  feet  long  and  3000  broad, 
a  very  improbable  magnitude  if  its  use  was  merely  symbolical.  Memphis 
had  a  Ai>i/jj,  but  it  was  dug  for  its  defence  on  the  side  on  which  it  was  not 
protected  by  the  Nile.    (Her.  2,  99.) 


422  ANCIENT  EGYPT. 

walks  at  the  head,  and  turning  towards  the  sarcophagus,  holds  out 
a  censer  with  burning  incense,  or  pours  a  libation  on  the  ground. 
Besides  the  tabernacle  which  encloses  the  body,  another  is  some- 
times seen  in  the  procession,  borne  on  the  shoulders  of  men,  in 
which  the  vases  are  contained  which  hold  the  embalmed  viscera. 
The  groups  of  mourners  are  variously  disposed.  Sometimes  the 
females  are  hidden  fiom  view  within  a  cabin  on  the  deck ;  or  again 
are  mounted  on  the  roof  of  this  cabin,  and  with  dishevelled  hair 
and  naked  bosoms  beat  themselves  or  throw  dust  upon  their  heads. 
When  the  procession  is-  advancing  by  land  towards  the  place  of 
sepulture,  male  and  female  mourners  in  separate  companies  precede 
or  attend  upon  it,  the  females  naked  to  the  waist,  and  both  with 
gestures  of  lamentation1.  Arrived  at  the  place  of  interment,  which 
is  designated  by  a  portion  of  a  mountain  and  the  portico  of  a 
hypogaeum,  with  the  eye  of  Osiris,  the  mummy  is  taken  from  the 
tabernacle  and  placed  upright  by  a  figure,  wearing  the  jackal  mask 
of  the  god  Anubis.  On  the  head  of  the  mummy  is  a  conical  figure 
and  a  lotus,  a  frequent  offering  to  the  dead.  The  widow,  kneeling 
on  the  ground,  and  casting  dust  with  one  hand  upon  her  head, 
with  the  other  embraces  the  feet  of  her  deceased  husband.  In 
another  part  of  the  same  procession,  a  female,  kneeling  in  an  atti- 
tude of  grief  near  the  tabernacle  which  contains  the  vases,  is  desig- 
nated as  sister  of  the  deceased.  Three  priests  stand  before  it;  one 
with  the  leopard's  skin  offers  a  libation,  another  incense,  and  a 
third  holds  out  the  instrument  of  approbation.  Near  the  entrance 
of  the  sepulchre  is  seen  one  of  those  funeral  tablets  or  stelaz  which 
are  to  be  found  in  most  collections  of  Egyptian  monuments,  exhi- 
biting a  proscynema  of  the  deceased  to  Osiris  and  certain  formulary 
phrases,  declaring  that  offerings  are  made  to  the  god  to  obtain  his 
favor  and  a  quiet  abode  in  Amenthe. 

There  are  examples  of  still  more  pompous  processions.    In  that 

1  Tomb  of  Roei,  a  priest  and  keeper  of  a  temple  in  Thebea,  and  also 
baMliiyy^Tammnt.    (Rosellini,  iil  2,  400.) 


SEPULTURE. 


423 


of  a  royal  scribe  at  Thebes,  a  long  train  of  servants  precedes  the 
bari  in  which  the  mummy  is  enclosed,  with  objects  of  various 
kinds — small  chests  for  the  images  of  the  gods  or  the  ancestors  of 
the  deceased,  chairs  and  tables,  a  chariot  with  horses,  vases,  images, 
fans,  costly  collars  and  the  insignia  of  office1.  Many  of  these  were 
deposited  in  the  tombs,  that  the  deceased  might  be  surrounded  by 
the  objects  which  had  been  familiar  to  him  during  life,  or  with 
which  his  honors  had  been  associated.  Nor  was  this  confined  to 
the  insignia  of  high  office ;  the  tools  of  artificers  have  been  found 
in  their  tombs ;  and  it  is  said  to  have  been  a  superstition  with  the 
natives  of  Abessinia,  which  may  have  been  shared  by  the  Egyp- 
tians, that  it  was  ominous  to  use  the  tools  of  a  deceased  person2. 
To  this  desire  of  surrounding  the  dead  with  objects  prized  by  them 
during  life  we  must  attribute  the  custom  of  placing  fictile  vases  in 
the  tombs,  where  a  great  variety  of  them  has  been  found.  These 
vases  have  been  sometimes  filled  with  grain,  fruits,  eggs,  and  others 
have  evidently  contained  perfumes;  all  designed  to  carry  on 
an  uninterrupted  continuity  between  the  present  and  the  future 
life. 

The  honors  paid  to  the  dead  did  not  even  cease  with  their  inter- 
ment. From  the  Greek  papyri  we  learn  the  existence  of  a  custom, 
which  no  doubt  had  been  handed  down  from  the  Pharaonic  times. 
There  was  a  class  of  persons,  called  Choachutce  or  Libation-pourers^ 
whose  duty  seems  to  have  been  to  watch  over  the  tombs  and  see 
that  they  suffered  no  violation3  (an  outrage  not  unlikely  to  be 
committed,  as  they  contained  valuable  property),  and  from  time  to 
time  to  make  offerings  of  wine,  cakes,  fruit,  flowers  and  herbs,  to 
the  deceased,  accompanied  no  doubt  by  prayers  and  propitiatory 
ceremonies.  Duties  which  begin  in  feeling  and  are  performed  at 
first  in  person,  degenerate  by  degrees  into  forms  which  are 
entrusted  to  hired  functionaries  who  make  a  living  by  them.  Such 

1  Wilkinson,  Plates,  83  84. 

•  Roaellini,  M.  Civ.  %  316.  1  leyrou,  Pap.  \  p.  S6. 


424 


ANCIENT  EGrrT. 


appears  to  have  been  the  case  with  the  Choachutse1,  whom  we  find 
deriving  a  revenue  from  the  performance  of  their  duties  to  a  certain 
number  of  tombs,  and  selling  it  as  a  profitable  right  to  others  of 
the  same  profession3.  These  Choachutae  appear  also  at  Thebes  to 
have  taken  a  part  in  the  annual  ceremony  of  carrying  the  ark  of 
Amun  across  the  river  to  the  Memnonium,  and  to  have  had  the 
duty  of  strewing  sand  on  this  occasion  along  the  dromoi  and  courts 
of  the  temples,  to  prevent  their  being  defiled  by  the  mud  which 
would  otherwise  have  been  brought  into  them.  Possibly  this  visit 
of  Amun  to  the  region  of  the  necropolis  may  have  had  some  refer- 
ence to  the  doctrine  of  a  future  life,  since  in  the  manifold  blending 
of  the  characters  of  the  Egyptian  gods,  Amun  may  have  been  iden- 
tified with  Ptah  and  Osiris,  the  gods  of  the  invisible  world3. 

According  to  the  accounts  which  Diodorus  copies,  the  Egyptian 
priests  represented  not  only  the  doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of 
souls,  but  the  whole  mythology  of  the  infernal  regions  and  Elysian 
fields,  as  borrowed  by  Orpheus  from  the  Egyptians,  thus  going,  as 
in  other  instances,  far  beyond  the  statements  of  Herodotus.  Having 
mentioned  the  introduction  of  the  mysteries  by  Orpheus  and  the 
identity  of  Osiris  with  Dionusos  and  Isis  with  Demeter,  Dioaorus 
proceeds4 :  "  They  say  also  that  he  introduced  the  punishments  of 

1  From  the  similarity  of  the  letters  A  and  A  in  the  writing  of  the  papyri, 
Dr.  Young  read  this  word  ~Ko\xVTai,  and  derived  it  from  a  Coptic  word  sig- 
nifying to  dress.  The  error,  long  ago  pointed  out  by  Dr.  Ed..Hineks,  in  the 
Dublin  University  Magazine,  has  been  propagated  through  the  works  of 
Peyron,  Champollion  and  Rosellini,  who  speak  of  the  Colchyta?  as  an  order 
of  priests,  specially  employed  in  swathing  the  mummies. 

2  In  a  papyrus  at  Berlin,  Horus  sells  to  Osoroeris  his  liturgical  rights^ver 
fifteen  mummies  at  Thebes.  In  another  papyrus,  a  sixth  part  of  the  \oytiat 
or  right  to  make  a  collection  for  offerings  to  the  dead,  among  the  relatives 
of  the  deceased,  is  the  subject  of  a  contract  (Peyron,  1,  pp.  88,  89).  The 
names  of  the  parties  are  all  Egyptian,  which  shows  that  the  custom  was  not 
of  Greek  introduction. 

»  8ee  Birch,  GalL  of  B.  M.  p.  5.  •  1,  »& 


SEPULTURE. 


425 


the  impiou,  in  Hades,  and  the  meadows  of  the  pious  and  the  ficti- 
tious imagery  which  is  current  among  the  many,  having  imitatec 
the  proceedings  at  f anerals  in  Egypt.  For  that  Hermes,  the  con- 
ductor of  souk,  according  to  the  ancient  custom  of  the  Egyptians, 
having  conveyed  the  body  of  Apis  to  a  certain  point,  gives  it  over 
to  him  who  is  invested  with  the  mask  of  Cerberus.  Orpheus 
having  showed  these  things  to  the  Greeks,  Homer  adapted  his 
poetry  to  harmonize  with  this : 

CyHenian  Hermes  now  call'd  forth  the  souls 
Of  all  the  suitors;  with  his  golden  wand 
lie  led  them  gibbering  down  into  the  shades. 

Od.  24,  aa  mil 

"And  a  little  further  on  he  says — 

The  streams  of  Ocean,  the  Leucadian  rock, 
The  Sun's  pale  postern  and  the  land  of  Dreams, 
Passing,  they  came  at  once  into  the  meads 
Of  Asphodel  by  shadowy  forms  possess'd 
Of  mortal  men  deceased. 

"  They  say  that  he  calls  the  river  Ocean,  because  the  Egyptians 
call  the  Nile  ocean  in  their  own  language;  and  that  the  gates  of 
the  Sun  a.re  the  city  of  the  Heliopolitans ;  and  that  the  meadow, 
ae  mythological  abode  of  the  departed,  is  the  place  along  the 
*hore  of  the  so-called  Acherusian  Lake,  near  Memphis,  round  which 
are  beautiful  meadows  and  marshes,  and  lotus  and  reed.  And  he 
has  consistently  said  that  the  dead  dwell  in  these  places,  because 
there  are  the  most  numerous  and  the  greatest  funerals  of  the 
Egyptians,  the  dead  bodies  being  conveyed  across  the  river  and 
the  Acherusian  lake,  and  deposited  in  the  sepulchres  which  lie 
there."  „  In  this  account  there  is  so  much  that  is  evidently  devised 
to  give  plausibility  to  the  claim  of  Egypt  to  be  the  source  of  every- 
thing Grecian,  that  the  whole  is  suspicious.  No  one  who  T3ads 
Homer  with  any  feeling  for  poetry  can  believe,  that  he  meant  the 
Nile  by  the  Ocean,  were  it  even  certain  that  the  word  had  this 


ANCIENT  JGYPT. 


sense ;  or  Heliopolis  by  the  gates  of  the  Sun.  And  if  any  othel 
origin  than  poetic  conception  is  to  be  sought,  for  the  picture  of  the 
Elysian  fields  and  the  meadow  of  Asphodel,  it  may  be  more  natu- 
rally found  in  the  imagery  of  the  Book  of  the  Dead1,  than  the  local 
scenery  of  Memphis  and  the  broad  daylight  of  a  great  capital.  Dio- 
dorus  continues — "  The  other  mythological  stories  of  the  Greeks 
respecting  Hades  accord  with  the  actual  practices  of  Egypt.  The 
vessel  which  conyeys  the  bodies  is  called  6am,  and  the  coin  called 
an  obolus  is  given  as  passage-money  to  the  ferryman,  who  is  called 
in  the  native  language  Charon.  And  they  say  there  are  near  these 
places  a  temple  of  Hecate  the  Dark,  and  Gates  of  Cocytus  and 
Lethe,  closed  with  brazen  bolts ;  and  that  there  are  other  gates  of 
Truth,  and  that  near  them  stands  a  headless  figure  of  Justice." 
Here  again  we  have  evident  traces  of  a  forced  accommodation  of 
Egyptian  usages  to  Greek  mythology.  The  word  baris,  which 
means  m  Egyptian  any  kind  of  river-boat2,  instead  of  being  used  by 
the  Greeks  from  Orpheus  and  Homer  downwards  for  the  ferry-boat 
of  Charon,  is  never  so  applied  till  after  the  Macedonian  age.  No 
such  custom  as  that  of  placing  a  piece  of  coin  in  the  mouth  of  the 
corpse  existed  in  the  Pharaoiiic  times,  when  indeed  the  Egyptians 
had  no  coin8.  The  name  of  Charon  appears  to  be  purely  Greek, 
like  ^apotffc,  denoting  fierce-eyed",  ana  answering  to  the  description 
of  Virgil — 

1  See  p.  407  of  this  volume. 

3  It  appears  to  have  found  its  way  through  the  Ionians,  the  first  who 
became  acquainted  with  Egypt,  into  use  among  the  Athenians,  for  a  foreign 
vessel.    Comp.  ^Esch.  Pers.  545(559  Bl.);  SuppL  843:  Eur.  Iph.  Aul.  297. 

*  A  small  plate  of  gold  is  said  to  have  been  found  in  the  mouth  of  a 
mummy  (Pettigrew,  p.  63),  but  similar  plates  are  sometimes  disposed  in 
other  parts  of  the  body,  and  instead  of  a  general  fact,  it  is  one  of  very  rare 
occurrence  that  it  should  be  found  in  the  mouth.  It  had  no  rjference  te 
the  payment  of  the  ferryman,  but  was  of  the  nature  of  an  amul«t,  oi 
symbol. 

*  Lycophr.  260,  650,  an  epithet  cf  the  eagle  and  the  lion. 


SEPULTURE. 


427 


Terribili  squalore  Charon ;  cui  plurima  mento 
Canities  inculta  jacet;  stant  lumina  jtamma. — vi 

Acheron,  Cocytus  and  Lethe  again  are  Greek  words,  and  a  lake  of 
Grief,  a  stream  of  Wailing  and  a  fountain  of  Oblivion  are  concep- 
tions so  obviously  connected  with  the  unseen  world,  that  we  need 
not  suppose  the  poetical  Greeks  indebted  for  them  to  the  unpoeticai 
Egyptians1.  A  figure  of  Justice  or  Truth,  without  a  head,  or  rather 
with  a  mask,  covering  not  only  the  eyes  but  the  whole  head,  is 
found  in  the  Book  of  the  Dead3 ;  but  neither  this  representation, 
nor  the  Gates  of  Truth,  afford  any  ground  for  inferring  that  the 
Greeks  borrowed  this  part  of  their  mythology  from  the  Egyptians, 
nothing  parallel  to  them  being  found  in  old  Greek  poetry  or  art. 

1  Vectorem  Charontem,  etsi  post  Homerura,  facile  eommenta  est  anti- 
quitas ;  neque  adeo  ex  ^Egyptia  religione  et  laeu  Moeride  ilium  adumbratuno 
esse  necesse  est;  quinpotius  Graeculi  seriores iEgyptiam  priscam  religionem 
ia  banc  partem  interpretati  esse  videntur  (Heyne,  Exc.  ix.  ad  JSn.  vi) 
See  Sir  G.  Wilkinson's  Plates,  48. 


Cfl  EAT 


PYRAMID 


2  <« 
> 


«««,•, 


SUBTERRANEOUS  CHAMBER 

5ELCTJ0NS  FROM  NORTH  TO  SOUTH 


THIRD 


PVRAM I D 


VECETATIO  N 


SEASONS  OF 
HARVEST 


I  NUNDATION 


PHAMENOTH 


PACHONS 


QHOIAK 


PHARMOUTHI 


i — )<=* 

• 

RAN 

NAME 

SON 

or  THE 
SUN 

•»  ■  f 

2 

ERP 

WINE 

LORD 
WORLDS 

M  . 

3 

ACHOM 
EACLE 

QA 
T/ii 

3 

CIVER 
OF 

LIFE 

<=>f 

m  •  •  1 

+ 

ELEL 

CRAPES 

w  r 

4- 

ROYAL 
WIFE 

•At  1 

3- 

SOOUH 
EJOC 

ROYAL 
MOTH  EH 

rv 

L 

6 

TOUT 

STATUE 

urn 

<r 

PRIEST 

ml  i 

7 

SOU 
EAR 

In 

7 

SCR/BE 

U//U 

a 

SOBT) 
HULL 

e 

OS  IRIAN 
DECEASED 

.mat  | 

/ 

AM  UN 

~\ 
•  r 

/ 

YEAR 

L 

2 

OSIRIS 

©mo 

2 

DAY 

3 

NUM 

3 

REIGN 

-££  

NEITH 

©  © 

CROWN 
UPPER  EG— 
LOWER    EC  Z 

■  r 

s- 

ANUBIS 

s- 

UPPER  EC  I 

X© 

6 

CHONS 

6 

J.  AND 

or 

EGYPT 

7 

ISIS 

Fir 

hJI 

7 

TEMPLE 

8 

ATHOR 

ci  bJ 

& 

PALAOE 

Li 


id 

hi 

> 

SHE  GIVE 

> 

o 
u 

> 
O 

UI 

> 

K 

o 

>- 

til 

E 

1  = 

A 

Jm 

I 

1  *~ 

if: 

J'L 

:ive 

I  O 

to  % 

i_  _ 
r~  z 

CO  ui 
UI  u. 

GO 

Id 

> 

«6\  V 

>* 

O 
z> 

> 
a 
=> 

(J 

u 

X 

s 

o 
I 

o 

«c  \ 

J  C 

11 

J  1 

%  c  >S 

< 

J 

ON 

z 
o 

z 

o 

z 
o 

u 

CO 
££ 

a: 

to 
o£ 

UJ 

^  E  <r- 
—  o 

i 

O 

o 

X 
H 

.EC* 
Ni 

o 

\  z 

is 

i  i  — 

I 

1 L 

.   =  <*f 

&  =  <t# 

Tu 

z 

z 

o 

to 

o  g 

>• 
I 

O  Ld 
60  U 

>- 

z 

o 

</) 

to 

h- 

1 

1 

1 

u!i  u 

2  P 

o  < 

K  K 
u  UI 

z  z 

TJC 

7?) 

i 

H 

< 

Z" 

••4 

o 
LI 

I 

N 

c5 

bi 

< 

DO 

fill 

Hi 

>■ 

Q 

< 

hi 

i 

h 

>-  5 

< 

v 

is 

L 

Ul>- 

00 

uj  Z 

n  *t 

D 1 

IPs 

< 

2  - 

2  P 
0  id 

3  5! 

°-  0 
L  i 

Z 

ANCIENT  EGYPT 


UNDER    THE  PHARAOHS 


By  JOHN  KENRICK,  M.A. 


'Apinperriuiv  ytvos  dvSpdiv 

Ilpdroi  6'  Ifjiepoevroi  eircipfiaavro  dp6rpovi 
IIowtoi  61  ypa\L\iii<si  iroXov  iufierpnaavro, 
Gr/iw  (ppaaa&nevoi  \o£ov  SpSfiov  fjeXioio. 

Dionysii  Periegesis,  232. 


IN     TWO  VOLUMES 
VOL.  II. 


NEW  YORK: 
JOHN  B.  ALDEN,  PUBLISHER, 

1885. 


TROW'8 

PRINTING  AND  BOOKBINDING  COMPACT, 
NEW  YORK. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL  \L 


chapter  xxm. 

Animal  Worship. 

Local  worship  of  animals  in  Egypt. — Their  maintenance  and  treat- 
ment— Fanaticism  of  the  people. — Embalmment  of  the  sacred 
animals. — Explanations  of  the  origin  of  animal  worship.  Analo- 
gies in  the  sentiments  and  practice  of  other  nations. — Causes  of 
its  intensity  in  Egypt — Reasons  alleged  for  the  appropriation 
of  certain  animals  to  particular  gods. — Honors  paid  to  Apis. — 
Effect  of  animal  worship  on  the  national  character 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

Constitution  and  Laws  of  Egypt. 

Tenure  of  land. — Rent  paid  to  the  king. — Monopoly  of  political 
power  by  the  king,  the  priests,  and  the  warriors. — Hereditary 
succession  the  law  of  the  monarchy. — Female  reigns. — Mode  of 
election  when  the  throne  was  vacant — Early  kings  also  priests. 
—Control  exercised  over  the  king  by  the  priests. — Regulation 
of  his  daily  business  and  habits. — His  power  limited  by  law.— 
Posthumous  judgment  of  his  character. — Wisdom  and  mildness 
of  the  Egyptian  government — Splendor  of  the  court — Wealth 
and  influence  of  the  priests. — Their  exclusive  possession  of  sci- 
entific knowledge. — Whether  they  were  the  sole  physicians.— 
Their  judicial  functions. — The  military  class. — Their  duties  and 
prerogatives — The  other  classes  of  the  population. — The  law 
of  caste— to  what  extent  it  prevailed. — Division  of  Egypt  into 


1-21 


CONTKNT8. 


*SfS 

Nomes. — Their  number. — Administration  of  justice. — The 
Supreme  Court. — Character  of  the  legislation. — Criminal  law. 
— The  Lex  Talionis. — Labor  in  the  mines. — Law  respecting 
thieves. — Law  of  sacrilege. — Condition  of  women. — Polygamy 
forbidden  to  the  priests. — Civil  laws  ....  23-48 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 

INTRODUCTION. 
Authorities  for  Egyptian  History. 

Sect.  I. — Greek  Writers. 

Uncertainty  of  the  commencement  of  Greek  intercourse  with 
Egypt — Notices  in  the  Homeric  poems. — Opening  of  Egypt  to 
the  Greeks  in  the  reign  of  Psammitichus. — The  Persian  domi- 
nion.— Commencement  of  Greek  prose  history. — Cadmus,  Heca- 
taeus,  Hellanicua,  Herodotus. — Analysis  of  his  History  of  Egypt. 
— Philistus. — Establishment  of  the  power  of  the  Ptolemies. — 
Diodorus. — Analysis  of  his  account  of  Egypt. — Discrepancies 
of  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  61-?  ft 

Sect.  II. — Egyptian  Authorities. 

Manetho — his  History  and  dynasties.— Genuine  and  spurious 
works. — The  Christian  chronologers,  Africanus,  Eusebius,  Pano- 
dorus  and  Anianus. — Syncellus. — Reign  of  the  Gods,  Heroes 
and  Manes  in  Manetho. — His  chronology — whether  artificially 
adapted  to  the  Sothiac  period. — No  JSra  used  in  Egypt. — The 
Old  Chronicle.— The  Laterculus.— The  Sothis.— Whether 
Manetho's  dynasties  were  all  successive. — Eratosthenes. — His 
discrepancies  from  Manetho. — Bunsen's  theory  for  their  recon- 
ciliation.— Probable  origin  of  the  List  of  Eratosthenes. 

Antiquity  of  records  among  the  Egyptians. — List  of  330  kings 


C0NTENT8. 


V 


read  to  Herodotus. — Early  use  of  the  art  of  writing. — The 
papyrus  of  Sallier  and  other  ancient  fragments. — Sacred  litera- 
ture enumerated  by  Clemens  Alexandrinus. — Hieratical  Canon 
of  Turin. — Existence  of  popular  historical  poetry  among  the 
Egyptians.— The  Tablet  of  Abydos.-^The  Tablet  of  Karnak.— 
Successions  of  kings  at  Benihassan  and  Qoorneh,  Thebes  and 
Tei-Amarna. — Invasion  of  Judaea  by  Sheshonk  (Shishak)  the  ear- 
liest synchronism  in  Egyptian  history. — Division  of  the  entire 
History  into  the  Old,  Middle,  and  New  Monarchy.  Its  dura- 
tion according  to  Manetho  .  ...  72-92 

BOOK  I. 

The  Old  Monarchy. 

The  First  Dynasty. 
Menes. — Athothis. — Ouenephes    .   98-103 

The  Second  Dynasty. 
Boethos. — Kaiechos. — Binothris. — Nephercheres. — Sesochris  104-108 


The  Third  Dynasty. 
Necherophes.— Tosorthrus    ........  108-109 

The  Fourth  Dynasty. 

Suphis. — Souphis. — Mencheres. 

Discrepancies  in  the  accounts  of  the  building  of  the  Pyramids.— 
Internal  structure  of  the  Great  Pyramid. — Chufu  or  Cheops,— 
Noum-Chufu  or  Chembes. — Shafre,  Chepren,  or  Chabryis.— 
Menkera,  Mencheres  or  Mycerinus. — The  Shepherd  Philition. — 
Extent  of  the  dominion  of  Egypt  under  this  dynasty. — The 
state  of  science,  art,  and  civilization  ....  110-120 


The  Fifth  Dynasty        ,      ,  120-122 


fi 


CONTENTS. 


The  Sixth  Dynasty. 


Othoes. — Phi  ops. — Menthesuphis. — Nitocris. — The  kings  Pepi  and 
RemaL — Distinction  of  the  titular  and  phonetic  shields  of  kings. 
— Royal  standard. — Share  of  Nitocris  in  building  the  Third 
Pyramid. — Story  of  Rhodopis  


122-128 


The  Seventh  to  the  Eleventh  Dynasty 


.  128-132 


The  Tuelftn  Dynasty. 


Opinions  of  Champollion,  Felix,  Wilkinson  and  Hincks  respecting 
this  dynasty. — Lepsius'  arrangement  of  the  succession. — Arame- 
nemes  L — Sesortasen  L — Ammeneraes  IL — Sesortasen  II. — 
Sesortasen  TIL — Ammenemes  III. — Ammenemes  IV. — Omission 
of  the  Hyksos  period  on  the  Tablet  of  Abydos. — Confusion 
respecting  the  name  Sesostria — Dominion  of  the  kings  of  the 
twelfth  dynasty. — Tomb  of  Nevopth. — Grottoes  of  Benihassan. 
— Ammenemes  III.  founder  of  the  Labyrinth. — Statements  of 
the  ancients  respecting  it, — Duration  of  the  Old  Monarchy      .  182-149 


Manetho's  account  of  the  invasion  of  the  Hyksos. — Probability 
that  some  of  these  dynasties  are  contemporaneous. — Hyksos 
not  the  Jewa — Silence  of  the  Greek  historians  respecting  their 
invasion. — Connexion  of  Phoenicia  with  Egypt  referred  to  this 
event — Exaggerations  in  the  history,  and  uncertainty  of  the 
chronology       .   150-166 


BOOK  II. 


The  Middle  Monarchy. 
The  Thirteenth  to  the  Seventeenth  Dynasty. 


BOOK  IIL 


The  New  Monarchy. 
The  Eighteenth  Dynasty. 


Differences  between  the  li3ts  and  ijae  monuments. — Probable 


CONTENTS. 


order  of  succession. — Amosis,  173. — Amenophis  L,  174. — Thotn- 
mes  L,  177.— Thothmes  IL,  180.— Thothmes  III.,  181.— Ameno- 
phis IL,  196.— Thothmes  IV.,  197.— Amenophis  IIL,  197.— 
Horus,  208.— Rameses  L,  212.— Setei-Menephthah,  215.— Rame- 
ses  IL,  226.—  Rameses  III,  (Sesostris),  228.- -Menephthah  II., 
246.— Setei-Menephthah  II.,  249.— Chronology  of  the  eigh- 
teenth dynasty,  250  .  .  167-250 

V 

The  Nineteenth  Dynasty, 

Suspicions  of  its  identity  with  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth. — 
The  Pheron  and  Polybus  of  the  Greeks. — Reflections  on  the 
history  of  Egypt  under  the  eighteenth  dynasty. — Extension  of 
dominion  to  Asia. — Importance  of  Palestine  and  Syria  to  % 
IJgypt — Historical  character  of  the  Egyptian  monuments. — Con- 
nexion between  Egypt  and  Greece. — The  Exodus  of  the  Israel- 
ites.— Date  of  their  going  down  into  Egypt — Manetho's  account 
of  their  expulsion    .       .  .      .  .       .  250-272 


The  Twentieth  Dynasty. 

Rameses  IV.,  273.— Rameses  V.-XTV,  282.— Relations  of  Egypt 

and  Assyria. — Decline  of  art    .      .    •  .      .      .      .      .  273-285 


The  Twenty-first  Dynasty. 

Antiquity  of  Tanis. — Deficiency  of  monuments. — Relations  of 
Judtea  and  Egypt   285-289 


The  Twenty-second  Dynasty. 

Bubastis — its  description  by  Herodotus. — Sheshonk,  Sesonchis, 
the  Shishak  of  Scripture,  291. — Osorthon  (Zerach),  296. — 
Takellothis       .  ...  289-299 


The  Twenty-third  Dynasty 


299-801 


m\  CONTENTS. 

Pag« 

Tht  Twenty-fourth  Dynasty. 
Saia.— Settlement  of  the  Greeks  in  Egypt — Reign  of  Bocchoris  801-304 

The  Twenty-fifth  Dynasty. 

The  Ethiopians  of  the  8th  century  b.c. — Sabaco,  308. — Sevechua, 

310.— Tirhkah,  310.— Invasion  of  Sennacherib         .  .  305-316 

The  Twenty -sixth  Dynasty. 

The  Dodecarchia. — Psammitichus,  323. — Neco,  335. — Psamraiti- 
chus  II.  (Psammis),  344. — Uaphris  (Apries,  Hophra),  347. — 
Amasis,  859. — Psammenitus  •  816-371 

•  The  Twenty-seventh  Dynasty. 

Cambyses,  874. — Darius,  400. — Xerxes  the  Great,  404. — Artaba- 
nus,  406. — Artaxerxes  Longimanus,  406. — Xerxes  IL — Sogdia- 
nus. — Darius  Nothus,  412    874-411 

The  Twenty-eighth  Dynasty. 
AmyrtaeuB  ....  ...  412-414 

The  Twenty-ninth  Dynasty. 

Nepherites,  416. — Achoris,  418. — Psammuthis,  419. — Nepherites, 

419  .....  414-410 

The  Thirtieth  Dynasty. 

Nectanebus  (Nectanebus  L),  419. — Teos  (Tachos),  423. — Nectane- 

bus  IL,  428.  -His  flight  into  Ethiopia  419-132 


Reconquest  of  Egypt  by  Darius  Ochus,  432. — Final  conquest  by 
Alexander  the  Great,  433. — Division  of  Alexander's  empire  and 
establishment  of  the  dynasty  of  the  Ptolemies  .  482-435 


Index 


431 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


CHAPTER  XXIIL 

ANIMAL  WORSHIP. 

Among  the  marks  of  an  excessive  superstition  which  characterized 
the  ancient  Egyptians,  nothing  struck  the  traveller  of  another 
nation  more  than  the  honors  paid  to  brute  animals,  and  their 
employment  as  representatives  of  their  deities.  The  representation 
of  the  gods  under  such  forms  had  ceased  among  the  Greeks ;  the 
legends  of  Io  and  the  Minotaur  prove  that  their  practice  had  once 
been  partially  influenced  by  that  of  the  Egyptians  and  Phoenicians 
but  the  mythic  explanations  which  had  been  framed  of  these  sym 
bols  at  Argos  and  in  Crete,  sh^w  how  remote  must  have  been  the 
aera  of  their  introduction,  and  how  repugnant  the  worship  to  which 
they  belong  to  the  refined  taste  of  the  later  Greeks.  A  slight  mix- 
ture of  the  animal  with  the  human  form,  and  that  in  the  person  of 
an  inferior  deity — a  Faun,  a  Centaur,  or  Medusa — was  the  utmost 
that  it  could  tolerate.  In  poetry,  art  and  divination  certain  ani- 
mals were  appropriated  to  the  different  gods, — the  eagle  to  Jupi- 
ter, the  raven  to  Apollo,  the  goat  to  Pan,  the  bull  in  later  times  to 
Bacchus ;  but  they  were  not  kept  within  their  temples  or  approached 
with  divine  rites,  as  their  visible  representatives ;  much  less  was  the 
whole  race  consecrated  to  them,  and  the  life  of  every  individual 
protected  by  law  or  popular  superstition.    Herds  of  cattle,  exempt 

VOL.  II.  1 


2 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


from  the  yoke  and  from  all  profane  uses,  fed  in  the  groves  and 
pastures  included  within  the  sacred  precincts  of  the  temples;  but 
though  consecrated  to  the  divinity,  they  were  not  considered  as  his 
emblems,  and  their  inviolability  was  their  only  sanctity.  The  ser- 
pent of  the  temple  of  Epidaurus,  who  was  sacred  to  JFsculapius, 
and  seems  in  some  measure  to  have  been  considered  as  the  god 
himself1,  is  the  nearest  approach  that  we  find  in  Greece  to  the 
veneration  paid  to  the  sacred  animals  of  Egypt2. 

As  some  of  the  gods  of  Egypt  were  held  in  equal  honor  through- 
out the  whole  country,  while  others  enjoyed  supreme  rank  in  some' 
one  nome,  and  held  only  a  subordinate  place  elsewhere,  so  some 
animals  were  partially,  others  universally  worshipped.  The  ox,  the 
dog  and  the  cat,  the  ibis  and  the  hawk,  the  fishes  lepidolus  and 
oxyrrynchus  were  held  in  reverence  throughout  the  land  ;  the  sheep 
only  in  the  Theban  and  Saitic  nomes,  the  wolf  at  Lycopolis,  the 
cynocephalus  at  Hermopolis,  the  Cepus  (an  animal  of  the  ape  tribe) 
at  Babylon  near  Memphis,  the  eagle  at  Thebes,  the  lion  at  Leon- 
topolis,  the  goat  at  Mendes,  the  shrewraouse  at  Athribis,  and 
others  elsewhere8.  According  to  Herodotus4,  all  the  animals 
which  the  country  produced,  whether  wild  or  domestic,  were  sacred, 
and  with  a  few  unimportant  exceptions  this  appears  to  be  true.  To 
every  one  of  them  curators  male  and  female  were  appointed,  pro- 
bably of  the  sacerdotal  order,  whose  office  descended  by  inheritance. 
A  portion  of  land  was  assigned  for  their  maintenance,  and  the 
superstition  of  the  multitude  provided  other  means  of  supply. 
Parents  made  vows  to  the  gods,  to  whom  they  were  respectively 

1  The  serpent  was  taken  to  Rome  A.U.C.  462,  after  a  pestilence.  "Quum 
civitas  pestilentia  laboraret,  missi  legati,  ut  JSsculapii  signum  Roraam  ab 
Epidauro  transferrent,  anguem,  qui  se  in  navem  eorum  contulerat,  in  que 
ipsum  numen  esse  constabat,  deportavere." — Liv.  Epit.  lib.  11. 

a  Plutarch,  laid,  et  Osir.  p.  379  D,  points  out  the  difference  between  the 
Greek  consecration  of  animals  to  the  gods  and  the  Egyptian  worship  of 
them. 

3  Strabo,  17,  812,  818,  *  2,  tU 


AXIMAL  WORSHIP. 


3 


sacred,  for  the  health  of  their  children,  especially  if  they  were  sick, 
and  the  vow  was  discharged  by  expending  on  food  for  the  sacred 
animals  a  weight  of  silver  equal  to  that  of  the  children's  hair1. 
Their  ordinary  residence  was  within  the  precincts  of  the  temple,  and 
in  its  most  sacred  recess.  "  Among  the  Egyptians,"  says  Clemens 
Alexandrinus2,  *'  the  temples  are  surrounded  with  groves  and  con- 
secrated pastures;  they  are  furnished  with  propylaaa,  and  their 
courts  are  encircled  with  an  infinite  number  of  columns ;  their  walls 
glitter  with  foreign  marbles  and  paintings  of  the  highest  art ;  the 
naos  is  resplendent  with  gold  and  silver  and  electrum,  and  variegated 
stones  from  India  and  Ethiopia ;  the  adytum  is  veiled  by  a  curtain 
wrought  with  gold.  But  if  you  pass  beyond  into  the  remotest  part 
of  the  enclosure,  hastening  to  behold  something  yet  more  excellent, 
and  seek  for  the  image  which  dwells  in  the  temple,  a  pastophorus 
or  some  one  else  of  those  who  minister  in  sacred  things,  with  a 
pompous  air  singing  a  Paean  in  the  Egyptian  tongue,  draws  aside 
a  small  portion  of  the  curtain,  as  if  about  to  show  us  the  god ;  and 
makes  us  burst  into  a  loud  laugh.  For  no  god  is  found  within,  but 
a  cat,  or  a  crocodile,  or  a  serpent  sprung  from  the  soil,  or  some 
such  brute  animal;  the  Egyptian  deity  appears  a  beast  rolling 
himself  on  a  purple  coverlet."  "  The  temples  of  Egypt  are  most 
beautiful,"  says  Diodorus ;  "  but  if  you  seek  within,  you  find  an 
ape,  or  ibis,  a  goat,  or  a  cat."  The  choicest  food  was  placed  before 
them,  cakes  of  fine  flour,  steeped. in  milk  or  smeared  with  honey; 
the  flesh  of  geese,  roasted  or  boiled,  and  that  of  birds  and  fish 
uncooked  for  the  carnivorous  class.  They  were  placed  in  warm 
baths  and  anointed  with  costly  perfumes ;  and  everything  was  sup- 
plied to  them  which  could  gratify  their  appetites8.  This  charge 
was  thought  so  honorable,  that  their  curators,  when  they  went 
abroad,  wore  certain  insignia  by  which  their  office  might  be  dis- 
1  Her.  2,  65.    Diod.  1,  83.  '  Paedag.  3,  2,  p.  253,  Potter. 

'  'O(toipv\ovi  Or)\cij.%  Ikulctu)  tCjv  £dicjv  ras  eveideoraras  avvTpt<povaivi  3g  iraXAe«tJ«s 
wpoaayopevoi  ji.     Diod.  1,  84. 


4 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


criminated  even  at  a  distance,  and  were  received  with  genuflexions 
and  other  marks  of  honor.  When  any  of  the  sacred  animals  died, 
it  was  embalmed,  swathed,  and  buried  in  a  consecrated  depository 
near  the  temple  of  its  god ;  if  a  cat  died  even  in  a  private  house, 
the  inmates  clipped  off  the  hair  from  their  brows  in  sign  of  mourn- 
ing ;  if  a  dog,  from  the  head  and  body.  Voluntarily  to  kill  any 
one  of  the  consecrated  animals  was  a  capital  offence ;  involuntarily 
it  entailed  a  penalty  fixed  at  the  discretion  of  the  priests :  but 
voluntarily  or  involuntarily  to  kill  an  ibis  or  a  hawk,  the  sacred 
birds  of  Thoth  and  Horus,  was  capital ;  and  the  enraged  multitude 
did  not  wait  for  the  slow  process  of  law,  but  put  the  offender  to 
death  with  their  own  hands.  On  the  part  of  native  Egyptians  it 
was  an  almost  unheard-of  crime ;  and  so  great  was  the  dread  of 
being  suspected  of  it,  that  those  who  accidentally  saw  one  of  the 
sacred  animals  lying  dead,  stood  aloof,  protesting  with  lamentations 
that  they  had  found  it  dead.  Diodorus  himself  was  witness  to 
such  a  movement  of  popular  fanaticism :  a  Roman  had  uninten- 
tionally killed  a  cat ;  the  king  Ptolemy  Auletes  had  not  yet  been 
received  into  the  friendship  of  the  Romans,  and  it  was  an  object  of 
great  importance,  both  to  him  and  to  the  Egyptian  nation,  to  give 
them  no  umbrage ;  yet  neither  the  terror  of  the  Roman  people  nor 
the  efforts  of  the  king,  who  sent  one  of  his  chief  officers  to  inter- 
cede, could  save  the  unfortunate  man  from  death.  Even  in  times 
of  famine,  when  they  were  driven  to  consume  human  flesh1,  the 
Egyptians  were  never  known  to  use  the  sacred  animals  for  food. 
Antiquarian  researches  have  confirmed  the  statements  of  ancient 
authors  respecting  the  veneration  paid  to  them ;  the  embalmed 
bodies  of  bulls,  cows,  and  sheep,  dogs  and  cats,  hawks  and  ibises, 
serpents  and  beetles,  and  in  short,  nearly  the  whole  zoology  of 
Egypt,  except  the  horse  and  the  ass,  have  been  found  in  excava- 
tions8. The  numerous  figures  of  these  animals  also,  of  all  sizes  and 
'See  voL  !.>  tl. 

•Wilkinson,  6,  100,  103.    Pettigr<w  on  Mummies,  188-226. 


ANIMAL  WORSHIP. 


6 


materials,  from  the  colossal  ram  or  lion  of  basalt  or  granite,  to  the 
portable  image  of  bronze,  wood  or  porcelain1,  were  probably  devoted 
to  religious  purposes,  the  larger  having  been  placed  in  temples  or 
dromoi,  the  smaller  used  in  private  devotion,  as  amulets  and  sacred 
ornaments,  or  deposited  for  good  omen  along  with  human  mum- 
mies. 

The  origin  of  this  characteristic  superstition  was  the  subject  of 
various  explanations  by  the  Egyptians  themselves,  and  by  the 
Greeks  and  Romans.  Manetho  attributed  the  establishment  of  the 
worship  of  Apis  and  Mnevis  and  the  Mendesian  goat  to  the  reign  of 
Caiechos,  the  second  king  of  his  second  dynasty.  But  specific  dates 
of  national  religious  usages  are  never  much  to  be  depended  upon, 
and  we  seek  some  more  general  cause  than  the  enactment  of  a  legis- 
lator for  a  practice  which  had  taken  such  deep  roots  among  a  whole 
people.  In  the  age  of  Diodorus2  the  Egyptian  priests  alleged,  that 
Isis  had  commanded  them  to  consecrate  some  animal  from  among 
those  which  the  country  produced,  to  Osiris ;  to  pay  to  it  the  same 
honor  as  to  the  god,  during  its  life,  and  bestow  the  same  care 
upon  it  after  its  death.  This  explanation  has  evidently  been  pro- 
duced in  an  age  when  the  worship  of  Osiris  had  become  predomi- 
nant over  all  others,  and  the  rest  of  the  gods  were  regarded  as 
only  different  manifestations  of  him.  The  bulls  Apis  and  Mnevis, 
however,  were  said  to  be  specially  consecrated  to  him,  and  honored 
by  all  the  Egyptians  without  exception,  in  consequence  of  the  ser- 
vice of  the  ox  in  agriculture,  which  Osiris  taught  mankind.  Such 
was  the  sacerdotal  account:  the  popular  explanations  were  three- 
fold'; according  to  the  first,  which  Diodorus  pronounces  to  be 
altogether  fabulous,  and  savoring  of  antique  simplicity,  the  original 
gods,  being  few  in  number,  and  no  match  for  the  iniquities  and 
violence  of  men,  took  the  shape  of  animals  to  escape  from  them, 
and  afterwards,  when  they  became  masters  of  the  whole  world, 

*  Birch.  GalL  of  Antiq.  p.  49-60.  9  Diod.  1,  21. 

*  Ol  froXAoi  ru>v  fiiyvrtriuv  rpeXi  o;ri2f  ru\T2(  ipaitjio  (Diod.  1,  86). 


6  ANCIENT  EGYPT. 

consecrated  and  appropriated  these  animals  to  themselves,  in  gra- 
titude. According  to  the  second,  the  images  of  animals  fixed  on 
spears  having  been  used  as  ensigns  to  distinguish  the  corps  of  the 
army  and  prevent  confusion,  victory  followed,  and  the  animals 
became  objects  of  worship1.  This  explanation  evidently  inverts 
the  order  of  cause  and  effect ;  the  animals  were  used  as  ensigns, 
because  they  had  previously  been  associated  with  the  gods.  The 
third  reason  is  the  only  one  which  has  any  plausibility,  or  even 
partially  attains  the  truth — that  animals  were  consecrated  on 
account  of  the  benefit  which  mankind  derived  from  them*;  the 
bull  and  cow  from  their  services  in  agriculture  and  in  supplying 
man  with  nourishment;  the  sheep  from  its  rapid  multiplication 
and  the  utility  of  its  fleece,  its  milk  and  its  cheese ;  the  dog,  for  its 
use  in  hunting ;  the  cat,  because  it  destroys  asps  and  other  veno- 
mous reptiles ;  the  ichneumon,  because  it  sucks  the  eggs  of  the 
crocodile,  and  even  destroys  the  animal  itself,  by  creeping  into  its 
mouth  and  gnawing  its  intestines ;  the  ibis  and  the  hawk,  because 
they  destroy  snakes  and  vermin.  Till  metaphysical  reasons  were 
devised,  this  seems  to  have  been  the  explanation  most  generally 
received  by  the  ancients ;  but  it  does  not  solve  the  whole  problem. 
If  the  ichneumon  or  the  hawk  were  worshipped  because  they 
destroyed  serpents  and  crocodiles,  why  the  serpent  and  the  croco- 
dile ?  Or  if  the  ibis  was  worshipped  because  it  devours  snakes  and 
vermin,  why  was  it  specially  consecrated  to  Thoth,  the  god  of 
letters  ? 

Diodorus  has  elsewhere  given  a  still  more  improbable  explana- 
tion than  any  that  we  have  mentioned3.  He  says  that  one  of  the 
kings  of  Egypt,  more  sagacious  than  the  rest,  seeing  that  the 
people  frequently  conspired  against  their  rulers,  established  a 
separate  worship  in  every  name,  in  order  that,  being  alienated 
from  each  other  by  their  religious  usages  and  fanatical  zeal,  they 

1  DiodL  1,  85.  See  vol.  i.  p.  193.  Rosellini,  M  Civ.  pL  cxxi.  vol  8,  p.  229. 
■  Cic.  N.  D.  1,  29 ;  Tusc.  Quaeet.  5,  21.         »  1,  89.    Plut  Is.  et  Oa  880. 


ANIMAL  WORSHIP.  ♦ 

might  never  be  able  to  unite  for  the  overthrow  of  the  government. 
This  explanation  marks  an  age  in  which  men  not  only  theorized 
on  the  institutions  of  past  times,  but  transferred  to  them  the  maxims 
of  a  vicious  policy  with  which  they  were  themselves  familiar. 

The  hypothesis  which  Lucian  proposes  in  his  Astrologia1,  that 
the  objects  of  adoration  among  the  Egyptians  were  the  asterisms 
of  the  zodiac,  the  Bull,  the  Ram,  the  Goat,  the  Fish,  is  sufficiently 
refuted  by  the  circumstance  that  many  of  their  sacred  animals  are 
not  found  in  the  heavens,  as  the  ibis,  the  cat,  the  crocodile.  It  is 
known  too  that  all  monuments  of  Egypt  on  which  figures  of  ani- 
mals appear  in  the  zodiac,  are  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  times. 
Porphyry',  in  his  Treatise  on  Abstaining  from  Animal  Food,  says 
that  "  the  Egyptians  had  learnt  by  practice  and  familiarity  with 
the  divinity,  that  the  godhead  pervades  not  man  alone,  nor  does  a 
soul  make  its  only  dwelling-place  on  the  earth  in  him,  but  goes 
through  all  animals,  with  little  difference  of  nature ;  and  that  hence, 
in  making  representations  of  their  gods,  they  joined  indiscrimi- 
nately portions  of  the  bodies  of  men  and  of  brute  animals,  indi- 
cating that,  according  to  the  purpose  of  the  gods,  there  is  a  certain 
community  even  between  these.  And  for  the  same  reason  the 
Lion  was  worshiped  at  Leontopolis,  and  other  animals  at  other 
places;  for  they  worshiped  the  power  that  is  over  all,  which  each 
of  the  gods  exhibited,  by  means  of  the  animals  which  shared  the 
same  nomes  with  them'."  That  in  the  age  of  Porphyry  animal 
worship  was  explained  and  justified  by  the  Egyptians  on  this 
ground  is  not  doubtful4 ;  but  it  by  no  means  follows  that  it  origin- 
ated in  a  conception  which  Porphyry  himself  says  they  had 

1  Lucian,  Op.  ed.  Bip.  5,  p.  215,  folL  1  Euseb.  Praep.  Ev.  3,  4. 

*  Am  ruiv  ovwdficov  fcaiv.  This  is  an  unusual  sense  of  oiwouos,  but  seems  to 
be  required  by  the  connexion. 

*  He  elsewhere  says  that  theJEgyptians  worshiped  animals  because  they 
believed  them  to  be  endowed  with  a  rational  principle  and  the  knowledge 
of  futurity.  • 


3 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


attained  by  means  of  practice  and  familiarity  with  the  divinity' 
Plutarch  having  enumerated  various  opinions  respecting  the  motive 
of  the  Egyptian  worship  of  animals,  concludes  by  saying  that  ho 
approves  most  of  those  who  honored  not  the  animals  themselves, 
but  the  divinity  through  them.  It  is  undoubtedly  a  natural 
impulse  to  assimilate  our  own  intellectual  principle  to  that  of  the 
Deity,  and  to  attribute  the  imperfect  reason  of  the  brute  animal? 
to  the  possession  of  the  same  principle.  "  Wherever  there  appeared 
singular  excellence  among  beasts  or  birds,  there  was  to  the  Indiar 
the  presence  of  a  divinity5."  It  is  not,  however,  any  Egyptian 
writer,  but  Heraclitus3,  whom  Plutarch  quotes  as  maintaining 
"that  a  nature  which  lives  and  sees,  and  has  a  principle  of  motioo 
in  itself,  and  knowledge  of  what  is  congenial  or  alien  to  it,  has 
snatched  an  efflux  and  particle  from  that  which  devises  the  govern- 
ment of  the  universe."  This  therefore  is  probably  also  a  refinement 
of  philosophy.  The  doctrine  of  the  Metempsychosis  has  been  sup- 
posed to  have  had  an  influence  in  producing  animal  worship  f  but 
Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson  has  justly  observed,  that  human  souls, 
undergoing  transmigration,  were  in  prison  and  in  purgatory4,  and 
therefore  they  were  not  likely  to  have  procured  divine  honors  for 
the  animals  in  which  they  dwelt 

Since,  then,  it  is  evident  that  all  which  the  ancients  have  left  us 
in  explanation  of  this  subject,  is  only  hypothesis  more  or  less  pro- 
bable, we  are  at  liberty  to  seek  a  solution  for  ourselves,  either  in 
analogies  derived  from  other  nations,  or  in  the  general  principles 
of  human  nature.  Such  analogies  are  indeed  chiefly  valuable,  a? 
proving  that  the  practice  has  a  foundation  in  human  nature. 
India  is  the  land  which  in  this  respect  most  closely  resembles 
Egypt ;  the  cow  is  there  an  object  of  adoration,  and  no  devotee  of 
Isis  or  Athor  could  have  regarded  its  slaughter  for  food  with 

1  'Atfd  ravrris  bpficjutvoi  r/?S  aaxrjo-swy  *rai  rrj>  npds  to  Qziov  oufiwaaij, 

1  B-incrcft,  Hist,  of  United  States,  3,  p.  285. 

• la.  et  Os.  p.  8S2.  4  Mann,  and  Oust.  5,  112. 


ANIMAL  WORSHIP. 


9 


greater  horror  than  a  Hindoo.  Annual  worship  is  paid  to  her  on 
the  day  on  which  she  was  created  along  with  the  Brarains ;  and 
those  who  are  more  than  commonly  religious  worship  her  daily, 
feeding  her  with  fresh  grass,  and  walking  thrice  or  seven  times 
round  her,  making  obeisance.  The  ape,  under  the  name  of  Hanu- 
m4n,  has  his  images  in  temples  and  private  houses,  to  which  daily 
homage  is  offered.  A  statue  of  the  jackal  is  seen  in  many  temples, 
where  it  is  regularly  worshiped  ;  when  a  Hindoo  meets  the  animal 
on  his  way,  he  bows  reverentially  to  it ;  and  food,  regarded  as  an 
offering  to  the  god,  is  daily  placed  in  a  part  of  the  house  to  which 
he  resorts  to  consume  it.  Other  animals,  which  are  considered  as 
the  emblems,  or,  as  the  Hindoos  express  it,  the  vehicles  of  their 
gods,  are  worshiped  on  the  days  appropriated  to  these  gods1.  The 
nelumbo  and  the  ficus  religiose?  are  as  sacred  to  the  native  of  India, 
as  the  lotus  and  the  persea  to  the  ancient  Egyptian.  Yet  even  if 
we  had  historical  ground  for  concluding  that  these  religious  ideas 
and  usages  had  been  transplanted  by  colonization  from  India  to 
Egypt,  we  should  only  have  removed  one  step  further  back  the 
difficulty  which  we  seek  to  solve.  In  the  same  way,  if  we  look  to 
Africa  rather  than  India  as  the  source  of  the  Egyptian  population, 
and  find  that  among  the  Negro  races  or  the  Kafirs  of  the  South3, 
traces  of  animal  worship  similar  to  that  of  Egypt  prevail,  we  may 
have  obtained  an  ethnological  argument  for  the  African  origin  of 
the  people,  but  no  explanation  of  the  motive  of  their  superstition. 
The  more  wide  indeed  the  diffusion  of  the  same  or  similar  customs, 
the  less  reason  have  we  to  seek  special  explanations.  The  cause  is 
still  to  be  sought,  to  whatever  country  the  practice  may  be  traced. 
The  sanctity  of  plants  (it  is  said  even  of  stones)  among  the 

1  "Ward's  Hindoos,  1,  250. 

"  The  Pippid  or  aspen-leaved  fig-tree.    See  Ritter,  Geogr.  Asien,  6,  681. 

a  Prichard,  Researches,  2,  289,  ed.  3.  "Invenio  scarabaeum  taurum  supra 
dictum,  in  magno  honore  esse  apud  ultimos  in  Afrk;a  barbaros  et  velut 
bonum  genium  coli.    Vide  Rolben."    (Zoega,  Or.  et  Us.    Obelise,  p.  450.) 


10 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


Egyptians  is  the  best  proof  that  this  cause  is  to  be  found  in  some 
simple,  obvious,  and  general  feeling,  not  in  those  metaphysical 
refinements  respecting  God  and  the  soul  to  which  it  has  been  attri- 
buted. For  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  a  custom  so  universal  could 
have  sprung  from  a  conception  so  far  removed  from  the  popular 
apprehension,  as  that  even  a  plant  or  a  stone  is  informed  by  a  por- 
tion of  the  universal  spirit.  The  rites  and  forms  of  worship  origi- 
nate in  the  disposition  of  man  to  assimilate  the  Deity  to  himself, 
and  appropriate  to  his  god  what  gratifies  his  own  sense  of  beauty, 
or  excifes  his  imagination.  The  lotus  which  so  constantly  appears 
in  offerings  to  the  Egyptian  gods,  the  oak,  the  ivy,  the  olive,  the 
laurel,  consecrated  respectively  to  Jupiter  and  Bacchus,  Minerva 
and  Apollo,  are  among  the  most  beautiful  of  the  vegetable  produc- 
tions of  Egypt  and  Greece.  It  is  not  utility,  in  the  vulgar  sense  of 
the  word,  which  influences  the  selection ;  they  would  otherwise 
have  preferred  grain  or  pulse.  Many  plants,  it  is  true,  appear  to 
have  been  selected  as  objects  of  superstitious  reverence,  both  in  the 
countries  which  we  have  specified,  and  in  others  where  the  same 
custom  has  prevailed,  in  which  no  special  beauty  appears.  The 
peculiarity  of  their  form  may  have  established  an  association  with 
some  religious  rite  or  doctrine,  as  the  passion-flower  has  seemed  to 
the  eye  of  Christian  piety  an  emblem  of  the  cross,  or  the  persea- 
fruit  to  the  Egyptian  to  resemble  a  heart1 ;  or  their  unusual  growth, 
like  that  of  the  parasitic  misletoe,  may  have  afforded  a  slight 
impulse  to  the  fancy,  which  in  connexion  with  religion  especially, 
suffices  for  the  production  of  mystical  feeling.  Their  real  or  exag- 
gerated virtues  in  medicine  may  have  led  to  their  being  regarded 
as  the  choice  gift  of  a  beneficent  deity;  their  susceptibility  to  atmo- 
spheric influence  may  have  invested  them  with  a  prophetic  virtue 
in  regard  to  changes  of  weather,  and  fruitful  or  sickly  seasons, 
which  imagination  has  exalted  into  a  divinatorial  power.  The 
extraordinary  longevity  of  trees  may  have  caused  them  to  be 
1  Wilkinson,  4,  892. 


ANIMAL  WORSHIP. 


11 


regarded  as  emblems  of  divine  power  and  duration,  and  to  be 
invested  with  something  of  that  mysterious  awe  which  attaches  to 
everything  that  has  witnessed  ages  and  generations  long  passed 
away.  We  do  not  pretend  to  analyse  the  ingredients  of  an  imagi- 
native superstition  as  if  it  were  a  conclusion  of  the  understanding, 
or  to  assign  to  every  association  of  religious  feeling  with  the  vege- 
table world  even  a  fanciful  cause.  It  is  sufficient  to  point  out  that 
everywhere  certain  of  its  productions  do  acquire  a  peculiar  connex- 
ion with  religious  feelings  and  ideas.  It  may  be  checked  by  phi- 
losophy and  die  away  before  the  progress  of  scientific  observation ; 
but  it  exists  everywhere  in  human  nature ;  and  if  instead  of  being 
disco  antenanced  as  in  Christian  countries,  it  were  fostered  by  reli- 
gion, it  might  easily  attain  the  rank  luxuriance  of  Egyptian  super- 
stition. It  was  said  of  this  people  in  the  times  of  the  greatest  cor- 
ruption of  their  religion,  that  "  gods  grew  in  their  gardens1."  This 
however  is  a  mere  satirical  exaggeration ;  it  does  not  appear  that 
anything  which  could  be  fairly  called  worship  was  ever  paid  by  the 
Egyptians  to  plants.  Juvenal  infers  that  onions  were  gods  to  them, 
because  it  was  a  crime  to  eat  them.  Had  this  been  the  case,  it 
would  seem  to  have  been  only  a  restriction  of  diet  imposed  on  the 
priests,  or  those  who  approached  the  gods  as  worshippers*.  They 
were  not  only  commonly  eaten  as  food,  but  were  actually  offered  to 
the  gods'.  As  such  they  might  be  regarded  sacred,  and  like  any 
other  11  gift  on  the  altar,"  be  the  subject  of  an  oath4,  which,  accord- 
ing to  Pliny5,  was  the  case  in  Egypt.    Lucian  says  the  onion  was 

1  Porrum  et  caepe  nefas  violare  ct  frangere  morsu. 

0  sanctas  gentes,  quibus  haec  naacuntur  in  hortis 
luminal— Juv.  Sat  15,  9.    Comp.  Diod.  1,  89. 

a  Sitiru  excitant  et  comestaj  ingratum  spirant  odorem.  G.  J.  Vosa.  IdoL 
5,  12.  It  was  a  local  custom  to  abstain  from  particular  vegetables,  as  from 
particular  animals.    Diod.  1,  89. 

1  Wilkinson,  M.  C.  4,  234.  2,  373.  Matt.  xxiii.  19. 

1  X.  H.  19,  32  (6).  Gellius,  N.A.  20,  8,  who  gives  as  a  reason  that  it 
grew  as  the  moon  waxed  and  shrunk  as  it  waned. 


12 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


ft  god  at  Pelusiuin1.  To  swear  by  plants  was  a  custom  by  no  means 
confined  to  the  Egyptians2.  Christianity  does  not  allow  of  a  divi- 
sion of  the  godhead,  nor  consequently  of  such  appropriation  of 
trees  and  flowers  to  special  divinities  as  prevailed  among  the 
heathen  nations ;  yet  our  trivial  names  show  a  connexion  in  the 
popular  mind  with  sacred  or  legendary  history.  It  is  not  the  reli 
gious  feelings  only  which  seek  an  expression  for  themselves  in  sym- 
bols and  associations  derived  from  the  vegetable  world ;  their 
beauty,  variety,  and  universal  presence  make  them  ready,  pleasing, 
and  intelligible  emblems  of  emotions  which  are  striving  for  a  sen- 
sible expression.  Love  and  joy,  sorrow  and  despair,  memory  and 
hope,  all  create  to  themselves  a  sympathetic  relation  with  the  form 
and  color,  the  structure  and  functions  of  plants  and  flowers ;  and 
the  mind  with  difficulty  guards  itself  against  superstitious  auguries 
of  its  own  impending  destiny  from  their  health  or  decay. 

This  disposition  in  man  to  connect  himself  and  his  feelings  with 
the  objects  of  the  world  about  him  shows  itself  much  more  strongly 
in  regard  to  animals.  With  them  he  has  really  a  community  of 
nature ;  they  can  not  only  render  him  services,  but  can  reciprocate 
his  kindness  by  marks  of  personal  attachment.  The  absurd  tales 
which  ^Elian  relates  concerning  animals,  show  what  licence  man 
has  given  to  his  imagination  in  attributing  to  them  the  passions, 
thoughts,  and  even  vices  of  humanity.  Without  having  devised  a 
formal  theory  that  the  same  divine  intelligence  pervades  the  highest 
and  the  lowest  of  animated  beings,  he  regards  their  instinct  with 
a  mysterious  feeling.  In  the  certainty  with  which  it  foresees  the 
future,  it  surpasses  his  own  reason  ;  and  his  imagination,  always 
prone  to  exaggerate,  attributes  to  them  a  superhuman  foreknow- 
ledge.    The  Romans  kept  sacred  chickens,  from  whose  feeding 

1  Jov.  Trag.  G,  276,  ed.  Bip. 

*  Multi  per  brassicara  jurarunt  ut  Hipponax  in  Iambis,  ac  Ionicum  id 
fuisse  juraraentura  Ananius,  Teleclides  et  Eupolis  prodiderunt  G.  J.  Voaa 
%bi  suvra.    Zeno  the  6toic  swore  per  capparim. 


ANIMAL  WORSHIP. 


13 


they  derived  omens  of  the  issue  of  a  battle.  In  all  countries  we 
find  certain  animals  singled  out  which  are  specially  objects  of  inte- 
rest and  attachment  to  man,  whose  familiarity  is  invited,  whose 
lives  are  spared  and  protected,  who  are  maintained,  not  for  the 
services  which  they  render  so  much  as  for  the  feelings  of  affection 
with  which  they  are  regarded,  and  whose  death,  if  accidental,  is 
mourned,  if  intentional,  is  resented,  with  passionate  vehemence. 
Referring  his  own  feelings  to  his  divinities,  it  was  natural  that  mac 
should  appropriate  some  animal  as  a  special  favorite  to  each  god, 
and  putting  himself  in  his  place,  should  cherish  and  honor  it  with 
the  same  elaborate  study,  as  his  own  animal  favorites  receive  from 
him.  From  pampering  a  brute  animal  with  the  choicest  food, 
providing  it  with  a  luxurious  bed,  addressing  it  in  the  language  of 
human  affection,  and  mourning  for  its  decease  as  if  some  human 
life  had  been  extinguished,  to  burning  incense  and  reciting  a  litany 
before  it,  is  not  so  wide  a  step  as  it  may  seem1.  Though  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  did  not  worship  animals  as  the  Egyptians  did, 
.  they  consecrated  them,  as  we  have  before  observed,  to  particular 
divinities,  and  believed  them  to  regard  their  whole  species  with  a 
discriminating  favor2.  Even  the  fanatical  fury  with  which  the 
Egyptians  punished  the  death  of  an  ibis  or  a  cat,  is  not  without  a 
parallel  at  Athens,  where  the  people  condemned  a  man  to  death  for 
killing  a  sparrow  sacred  to  iEsculapius,  and  another  for  plucking 
a  branch  from  an  ilex  that  grew  in  a  grove  sacred  to  a  hero8.  The 
feelings  with  which  the  stork  is  regarded  in  Holland,  or  the  wren, 
the  swallow  and  the  lady-bird  among  ourselves,  are  such,  that  if 
religion  lent  its  sanction  to  popular  superstition,  they  might  easily 
become  as  sacred  as  the  ibis,  the  hawk  and  the  beetle  to  the 

1  Compare  Her.  2,  60.  The  crocodile  of  Thebes  and  the  lake  Moeris  wa* 
treated  like  a  favorite  cat  or  lap-dog,  and  ornamented  with  earrings  and 
bracelets. 

"  Comp.  ^El.  N.  H.  12,  40,  where  several  instances  are  given. 
•  J21  Var.  H,  5,  17. 


14 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


Egypt- uns.  The  Lemnians  venerated  the  crested  lark  on  account 
of  its  usefulness  in  destroying  the  eggs  of  the  locust ;  and  to  kill  a 
stork  among  the  Thessalians  was  punished  with  banishment  or 
death,  so  highly  was  it  valued  for  its  services  in  destroying  ser- 
pents1. 

We  need  not,  therefore,  seek  elsewhere  than  in  the  feelings  and 
tendencies  of  human  nature  for  the  origin  of  a  superstitious  attach- 
ment and  reverence  for  animals  in  Egypt,  or  their  appropriation  to 
the  gods  of  the  country.  Nor  shall  we  have  much  difficulty  in 
assigning  causes  why  this  disposition  in  Egypt  attained  an  inten- 
sity which  rendered  it  a  national  characteristic.  The  power  of  the 
sacerdotal  order  was  greater  there  than  in  any  country  of  the 
ancient  world,  not  excepting  India,  whose  very  extent  produced  a 
variety  which  is  a  species  of  liberty.  Hence  every  influence  of 
religion  was  carried  in  Egypt  to  the  utmost  possible  degree ;  and 
everything  connected  with  its  doctrines  and  rites  so  arranged  as  to 
make  them  most  impressive  to  the  public  mind.  The  length 
of  time  during  which  it  remained  without  counteraction  from* 
philosophy  or  contradiction  from  any  rival  faith,  made  every  reli- 
gious conception  an  inveterate  prejudice.  The  multitude  of  tem- 
ples, in  each  of  which  a  special  animal  worship  was  established, 
concentrated  the  affections  of  the  people  on  an  object  constantly 
within  their  view  and  within  reach  of  their  homage.  The  rivalry 
of  neighboring  nomes,  each  jealous  of  the  honor  of  its  respective 
deity,  would  increase  the  fanatical  attachment  to  the  animal  who 
was  his  type  and  visible  representative'.  It  has  been  thought  that 
the  use  of  hieroglyphics!  writing  among  the  Egyptians  tended  to 
produce  animal  worship.    This  could  hardly  be  its  origin,  since  the 

1  Plut  Is.  et  Os.  p.  880  F.  Plin.  N.  H.  10,  31. 

9  The  Romans  were  compelled  to  employ  an  armed  force  to  quell  a  civil 
war  between  Cynopolis  and  Oxyrrynchus,  occasioned  by  the  one  party 
killing  a  dog,  and  the  other  eating  the  fish  Oxyrrynchus  (Plut.  Is.  et  Os 
pw  380). 


ANIMAL  WORSHIP. 


15 


hieroglyphic  signs  of  animals  by  no  means  correspond  with  the  names 
of  the  gods,  and  some  of  their  representations  fill  a  humble  pho- 
netic office  in  the  system  of  writing.  But  it  is  not  improbable  that 
the  same  habit  of  mind,  that  of  expressing  qualities  symbolically 
by  means  of  visible  objects,  which  has  given  its  peculiar  character 
to  the  Egyptian  mode  of  writing,  had  a  share  in  producing  the 
practice  of  denoting  the  specific  offices  and  attributes  of  the  divini- 
ties by  means  of  living  animals,  kept  in  their  temples  and  wor- 
shiped as  their  symbols. 

What  those  analogies  were  which  the  Egyptians  found  or  fan- 
cied between  these  attributes  and  the  specific  qualities  of  the  ani- 
mals concentrated  to  them,  we  can  in  general  only  guess.  The 
lordly  bull,  as  a  type  at  once  of  power  and  of  production,  seems  a 
natural  symbol  of  the  mighty  god  Osiris,  who  whether  he  repre- 
sented originally  the  Earth,  the  Sun,  or  the  Nile,  was  certainly 
revered  as  the  great  source  of  life.  The  god  of  Mendes  for  a  simi- 
lar reason  was  fitly  represented  by  a  goat.  The  bright  and  pierc- 
ing eye  of  the  hawk  made  it  an  appropriate  emblem  of  Horus,  who 
was  also  the  Sun ;  the  crocodile  might  naturally  be  adopted  as  a 
symbol  of  the  Nile  which  it  inhabits,  or  from  its  voracious  habits 
and  hostility  to  man,  might  on  the  other  hand  symbolize  Typhon, 
the  principle  of  evil.  We  may  fancy  that  the  Cynocephalus  was 
chosen  to  represent  Thoth,  the  god  of  letters  and  science,  from  the 
near  approach  which  this  animal  makes  to  human  reason.  The 
Oxyrrynchus1  from  his  projecting  snout  may  have  suggested  to  the 
imagination  of  a  votary  the  peculiar  emblem  of  the  Osiris  whom 
Typhon  destroyed,  as  the  Hindu  sees  everywhere  the  sacred  emblem 
of  creative  power.  But  why  was  the  ibis  appropriated  to  the  same 
deity,  or  the  cat  to  Pasht,  or  the  ram  to  Kneph,  or  the  vulture  to 
Isis ;  or  what  made  the  scarabaeus  one  of  the  most  sacred  of  all  the 
animal  types  of  Egypt  ? 

1  The  sacredness  of  the  Oxyrrynchus  was  local ;  at  least,  the  paintings 
represent  it  as  being  caught  along  with  other  fish  (Wilkinson,  M.  and  G 
5.  250. ^ 


16 


ANCIENT  EGYrT. 


To  these  questions  we  3An  obtain  only  very  unsatisfactory 
answers.  Herodotus  gives  no  explanation  of  the  reasons  why  par- 
ticular animals  were  worshiped,  except  that  he  attributes  the 
worship  of  the  ibis  to  its  utility  in  destroying  serpents,  an  office 
which  modern  naturalists  say  that  it  is  incapable  of  performing. 
He  gives  a  romantic  account  of  the  battle  which  took  place  between 
the  ibis  and  certain  winged  serpents  which  endeavored  to  invade 
Egypt  from  Arabia  in  the  spring1.  The  later  writers,  Plutarch, 
Porphyry,  Horapollo,  account  for  everything,  but  it  is  evident  that 
their  explanations  are  arbitrary  and  of  no  historical  authority. 
Thus  Plutarch  tells  us  that  the  ibis  was  consecrated  to  Thoth  (or 
the  Moon),  because  the  mixture  of  its  black  and  white  feathers  bore 
a  resemblance  to  the  gibbous  moon ;  besides  which  it  forms  an 
equilateral  triangle  from  the  tip  of  its  beak  to  the  extremities  of  its 
feet  when  extended  in  walking.  Further  it  was  consecrated  to  the 
god  of  Medicine,  because  it  had  been  observed  to  drink  only  of  the 
purest  and  most  salubrious  waters,  and  had  given  the  first  hint  of 
a  useful  practice  in  medicine3.  A  Platonist  devised  a  still  more 
fanciful  reason  for  the  reverence  in  which  it  was  held ;  it  has  the 
shape  of  a  heart,  and  its  feathers  are  black  at  the  extremities,  but 
white  elsewhere,  indicating  that  truth  is  dark  outwardly,  but  clear 
within3.  The  crocodile,  having  no  tongue,  is  a  fit  emblem  of  deity, 
since  the  divine  reason  needs  no  utterance,  but  governs  all  in 
silence.  Its  eye  when  in  the  water  is  covered  with  a  membrane 
through  which  it  sees,  but  cannot  be  seen4,  as  the  deity  beholds  all 
things,  being  itself  invisible.    The  scarabaeus  was  an  emblem  of  the 

1  Her.  2,  75.  Cuvier,  Oss.  Foss.  Disc,  but  lea  Revolutions  du  Globe, 
1826,  p.  175.  Herodotus  does  not  profess  to  have  witnessed  the  combat; 
be  only  saw  the  spines  of  the  serpents. 

"  Plin.  N.  H.  8,  41.  Volucris  in  iEgypto  quae  vocatur  ibis,  rostri  adunci 
tate  per  earn  partem  se  perluit  qua  reddi  ciborum  onera  jnaxime  sain- 
b?e  est 

•  Hermias  ap.  Wyttenb.  Plut.  Is.  et  Os.  p,  S81.  *  Plut.  ibid. 

I  ***  ■ 


ANIMAL  WORSHIP. 


17 


Sun,  because  no  females  being  found  in  the  species,  the  male 
enclosed  the  new  germ  in  a  round  ball,  and  then  pushed  it  back- 
wards, just  as  the  sun  seems  to  push  the  sphere  of  heaven  back- 
wards, while  he  really  advances  from  west  to  east.  The  asp  was 
likened  to  the  Sun,  because  it  does  not  grow  old,  and  moves  rapidly 
and  smoothly  without  the  aid  of  limbs.  For  the  consecration  of 
the  cat  to  the  Moon  two  reasons  were  assigned  ;  the  first,  that  this 
animal  brings  forth  first  one,  then  two,  and  so  on  to  seven,  in  the 
whole  twenty-eight,  the  number  of  the  days  of  a  lunation.  This 
Plutarch  himself  thought  to  border  on  the  fabulous ;  of  the  second 
he  seems  to  have  judged  more  favorably — that  the  pupils  of  the 
cat's  eyes  are  round  at  the  full  moon,  but  grow  contracted  and  dull 
as  she  wanes. 

These  instances  are  given,  out  of  a  multitude  of  equally  fanciful 
explanations,  to  show  that  those  from  whom  we  derive  our  principal 
knowledge  of  Egyptian  antiquities  knew  no  more  than  we  do  of 
the  real  origin  of  the  things  which  they  undertook  to  explain.  The 
ignorance1  of  the  history  and  habits  of  the  animals  in  question 
which  they  betray  is  not  itself  a  proof  that  they  are  ill-founded ; 
for  popular  superstitions  respecting  animals  are  frequently  caused 
by  ignorance,  or  at  best  partial  knowledge ;  but  it  is  clear  that  they 
are  all  conjectures ;  and  were  we  to  venture  on  other  explanations, 
derived  from  a  more  accurate  zoology,  we  should  not  approach  any 
nearer  to  historical  truth.  No  doubt  the  cause  of  the  appropriation 
was  in  many  cases  quite  fanciful,  but  this  makes  the  attempt  more 
hopeless  to  ascertain  what  it  was.  It  may  also  have  been  histo- 
rical, and  in  this  case  the  history  not  having  been  preserved,  no 
conjecture  can  recover  it. 

Of  the  animals  which  are  described  generally  as  sacred,  some 

1  The  amount  of  this  ignorance  is  astonishing,  as  it  relates  to  animals 
whose  habits  are  obvious.  It  was  said,  for  example,  that  the  cat  Sta  rwv  wrwv 
avWapftavti-  rttvoroiti  ci  ru>  cr^aru    Plut  Is.  et  Os.  p.  881  with  Wyttenbach'f 


18 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


were  hel  l  in  a  higher  degree  of  reverence  than  others.  It  does  not 
appear  that  all  were  kept  in  temples,  or  received  divine  honors,  and 
we  know  that  some  which  were  deemed  divinities  in  one  nome 
were  treated  as  nuisances  and  destroyed  in  others.  The  worship 
of  Apis  and  Mnevis,  the  bulls  consecrated  to  Osiris,  exhibits  per- 
haps the  very  highest  point  to  which  this  characteristic  superstition 
of  Egypt  reached.  Apis  was  believed  to  be  born  from  a  ray  which 
darted  from  heaven  (Plutarch  says  from  the  moon)  on  his  mother, 
who  after  his  birth  never  brought  forth  again1.  His  color  was 
black,  but  he  had  a  square  spot  of  white  upon  his  forehead ;  on  his 
shoulders  the  resemblance  of  an  eagle2,  the  mark  of  a  scarabaeus  on 
his  tongue,  and  the  hairs  were  double  in  his  tail.  It  may  be  easily 
supposed  that  either  some  contrivance  was  used  to  produce  such  an 
unusual  combination  of  marks,  or,  as  is  more  probable,  that  credu- 
lity was  satisfied  with  very  general  resemblances.  It  appears  from 
Herodotus  that  a  considerable  interval  sometimes  elapsed  between 
the  appearance  (epiphaneia)  of  one  Apis  and  the  death  of  the  other. 
In  Plutarch's  time,  on  his  death  the  priests  immediately  began  the 
search  for  another.  Under  the  charge  of  the  hierogrammats,  who 
repaired  to  the  spot  on  the  intelligence  of  his  discovery,  the  sacred 
calf  was  fed  for  four  months  on  milk,  in  a  house  facing  the  East3. 
At  the  end  of  this  time  he  was  transferred  at  the  new  moon,  in  a 
covered  boat  with  a  gilded  house,  to  Memphis,  amidst  the  rejoicings 
of  the  people.  Psammitichus  had  built  a  hall,  adjoining  the  temple 
of  Ptah,  the  chief  deity  of  Memphis,  in  which  Apis  was  .kept. 
There  were  two  apartments,  from  one  of  which  to  the  other  he 
passed,  and  in  the  front  a  magnificent  peristyle  court,  supported 

1  Herod  3,  28. 

a  Sir  G.  Wilkinson  observes  that  the  figures  of  Apis  found  in  Egypt  show 
that  it  was  a  vulture,  not  an  eagle,  which  was  marked  on  the  back  of  Apis. 
(M.  and  C.  4,  349.) 

1  Diodorus  says  that  for  forty  days  women  only  were  allowed  to  see  him, 
who  stood  before  him,  di>a<rvpapevat.  (1,  85.) 


ANIMAL  WORSHIP. 


19 


instead  of  the  usual  columns  by  caryatides  twelve  cubits  in  height 
His  food  was  selected  with  the  greatest  care,  and  lest  in  his  state 
of  confinement  he  should  grow  too  fat,  they  abstained  from  giving 
him  the  water  of  tta  Nile  to  drink.  In  Strabo's  time  he  was 
brought  forth  into  his  court  to  exhibit  himself  to  curious  strangers  ; 
in  earlier  times  it  is  not  probable  that  he  was  exposed  to  view 
except  on  solemn  festivals,  when  he  was  led  through  the  city  in 
procession.  Various  modes  of  divination  were  practised  by  means 
of  Apis ;  it  was  a  good  omen  if  he  took  food  readily  from 
those  who  offered  it  to  him  ;  but  evil  threatened  them  if  he  refused 
it.  Public  prosperity  or  calamity  was  portended  by  his  entering 
one  or  the  other  of  his  two  apartments.  There  were  other  methods 
which  they  employed  to  obtain  a  more  specific  knowledge  of  the 
future  by  his  means.  The  children  who  walked  before  him  in  the 
public  procession  were  supposed  to  acquire  from  his  breath  a  gift 
of  prophecy.  Those  who  consulted  him  closed  their  ears  after  they 
had  propounded  their  question  till  they  had  quitted  the  precincts 
of  his  temple,  and  the  first  words  which  they  heard  when  they 
opened  them  again  were  the  answer  of  the  god  to  their  inquiry. 
He  was  not  allowed  to  live  beyond  a  certain  age,  twenty-five  years 
according  to  Plutarch,  when  he  was  secretly  drowned1.  Whether 
he  died  by  the  course  of  nature  or  by  violence,  his  death  was  a 
season  of  general  mourning ;  and  his  interment  was  accompanied 
with  most  costly  ceremonies.  The  funerals  of  all  the  sacred  ani- 
mals were  performed  in  later  times,  when  superstition  had  reached 
its  height,  with  a  magnificence  which  sometimes  proved  ruinous  to 
the  fortunes  of  the  curators ;  but  that  of  Apis  surpassed  them  all. 
In  the  reign  of  the  first  Ptolemy,  Diodorus  relates,  Apis  having 
died  of  old  age,  they  not  only  expended  on  his  funeral  the  large 
sum  appropriated  to  this  purpose,  but  also  borrowed  fifty  talents 
from  Ptolemy ;  and  in  his  own  time  a  hundred  talents  was  no 
uncommon  sum  to  be  expended  by  the  curators  of  the  sacred  ani- 
1  See  vol  1,  p.  282. 


20 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


mals  on  the  ceremony  of  their  interment.  The  body  of  Apis  was 
afterwards  embalmed,  and  mummies  of  bulls  have  been  found  in 
several  of  the  catacombs ;  near  Abousir  eight  chambers  appear  to 
have  been  filled  with  them1.  The  catacombs  contain  mummies 
also  of  most  of  the  other  animals  which  are  known  to  have  been 
held  sacred  among  the  Egyptians3.  There  are  some  indeed  which 
are  not  specifically  mentioned  as  having  been  held  sacred ;  and 
therefore  it  has  been  thought  that  sanitary,  rather  than  religious 
considerations,  led  to  their  embalmment ;  but  Herodotus  says3  that 
all  the  animals  of  the  country  were  holy — of  course  not  all  every- 
where, but  in  some  part  or  other.  In  regard  to  Apis,  we  are  dis- 
tinctly told  that  the  Egyptians  honored  him  as  an  image  of  the  soul 
of  Osiris4,  and  that  this  soul  was  supposed  to  migrate  from  one  Apis 
to  another  in  succession6.  He  was  therefore  to  the  Egyptians  the 
living  and  visible  representative  of  their  greatest  and  most  univer- 
sally honored  deity.  Even  in  this  case,  it  appears  that  they  did  not 
consider  him  as  the  god,  but  only  as  the  living  shrine  in  which  the 
divine  nature  had  become  incarnate.  It  is  doubtful  whether  in  the 
age  of  Herodotus  their  belief  had  reached  to  this  point  of  exal- 
tation* 

What  was  the  precise  amount  of  veneration  paid  to  the  other 
animals  which  are  ordinarily  said  to  have  been  worshipped  in 
Egypt,  it  is  impossible  to  define,  from  the  loss  of  all  record  of  the 
sentiments  of  the  people  by  means  of  literature.  No  standard  could 
be  correct  for  all  ages  of  the  monarchy,  or  all  minds.  Tljat  it  did 
not  amount  to  a  belief  in  the  divinity  of  the  animal  is  evident  from 
the  case  of  Apis ;  and  between  the  honors  which  he  received,  and 
homage  paid  in  outward  forms  as  to  the  established  symbol  of  divi- 
nity, there  is  room  for  a  long  gradation,  according  to  the  more  07 

1  Pettigrew  on  Mummies,  p.  201. 

*  See  the  enumeration  of  them  in  Pettigrew,  p.  178. 

*  Ta  ici-a  c<pi  uTawra  Ipa  v£v6piOTai  (2,  65). 

*  Plut  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  869  B.  *  Diod.  1,  85. 


ANIMAL  WORSHIP. 


21 


less  enthusiastic  character  of  the  worshipper.  For  centuries  the 
two  great  divisions  of  the  Christian  Church  have  been  unable  to 
agree  in  regard  to  the  true  nature  of  the  use  of  images  in  religion, 
which  one  pronounces  to  be  a  direct  worship,  while  the  other 
declares  it  to  be  merely  an  act  of  reverence,  worship  being  addressed 
exclusively  to  the  supreme  God.  We  see  therefore  how  impossible 
it  is  to  describe,  in  words  of  universal  application,  the  sentiments 
with  which  an  Egyptian  regarded  his  sacred  animals. 

In  itself,  animal  worship  has  nothing  more  irrational  than  the 
worship  which  the  Scythians  paid  to  a  scimitar,  or  the  Romans  to 
a  spear1 ;  but  there  is  more  danger  that  gross  minds  should  con- 
found a  living  than  a  lifeless  symbol  with  the  god  whom  it  repre- 
sented ;  it  affords  more  scope  to  an  anxious  superstition,  in  watch- 
ing •the  indications  of  the  future,  afforded  by  the  actions  and  state 
of  the  consecrated  animal.  Multiplied  as  the  objects  of  this  wor- 
ship were  in  Egypt,  it  met  the  devotee  perpetually,  and  its  power 
was  strengthened  by  the  constant  repetition  of  its  rites.  It  is  of  a 
nature  peculiarly  calculated  to  lay  hold  of  the  feelings  in  early  life, 
and  thus  preoccupy  the  mind  with  superstition,  before  reason  has 
acquired  any  counteractive  power.  The  variety  and  opposition  of 
the  rites  of  different  nomes  and  cities  produced  a  fierce  and  fanati- 
cal hostility  between  the  Egyptians  themselves,  of  which  we  have 
no  example,  among  the  other  nations  of  the  Gentile  world.  Many 
causes  contributed  to  degrade  their  character  to  the  state  to  which 
it  had  been  reduced  in  the  last  age- in  which  their  native  supersti- 
tion remained,  and  which  Christianity  has  done  less  to  raise  than 
for  any  other  civilized  people  which  has  embraced  it ;  but  we  cannot 
hesitate  to  place  animal  worship  among  the  most  efficacious  causes 
of  the  narrowness  and  imbecility  into  which  the  Egyptian  mind 
degenerated. 


1  Herod.  4,  62,.    Varro,  Fragirs.  1.  p.  375,  ed.  Bipoflt 


CHAFTEE  XXIT. 


CONSTITUTION   AND   LAWS  OF  EGYPT. 

In  describing  the  constitution  and  laws  of  Eg}Tpt  we  labor  undei 
this  difficulty ; — that  as  the  Egyptians  have  left  us  no  history  of 
their  own,  and  no  code  of  their  laws  has  been  discovered  among 
the  written  remains  which  have  come  to  light,  we  know  not,  except 
by  a  few  doubtful  traditions,  what  changes  they  may  have  under- 
gone. The  fullest  account  is  that  given  by  Diodorus1,  which  he 
professes  to  have  derived  from  the  records  of  the  priests,  and  which 
may  be  considered  as  representing  the  state  of  things  during  thai 
period  of  the  native  monarchy  which  succeeded  the  expulsion  of 
the  Hyksos. 

The  whole  of  the  land  of  Egypt  was  possessed  by  the  king,  the 
priests,  and  the  military  order3.  Such  a  possession,  however,  like 
that  of  a  feudal  sovereign  and  aristocracy,  cannot  be  exercised  by 
the  persons  who  claim  it.  The  husbandmen  occupied  the  land 
capable  of  cultivation,  on  payment  of  a  small  rent  or  proportion  of 
the  produce.  It  appears  from  the  Book  of  Genesis,  that  before  the 
time  of  Joseph,  the  mass  of  the  people  had  been  independent  pos- 
sessors of  land,  but  parted  with  their  rights  to  the  crown,  under 
the  pressure  of  continued  famine3.  They  submitted  in  future  to 
pay  a  fifth  part  of  the  produce  to  the  king,  and  were  thus  placed 
ji  nearly  the  same  condition  as  the  people  of  India4,  where  all  the 

1  Diod.  1,  70  folL 

*  Diod.  1,  74.  Of  yecopyoi  jiiKpov  rivos  rr)v  xapxotpSpov  j^cjpav  rrj*  itapa  Tov  Qaai* 
uw5  Kai  ruiv  leoEw  ical  tup  fia^lfiwv  iiiaBovfttvoi  SiareXovai  rov  airavra  xpSvov  iripi 

8  Gen.  xlvil  26-  •  Strabo,  B.  15,  p.  704 


CONSTITUTION  AND  LAWS. 


23 


land  belonged  to  the  king,  but  was  farmed  on  condition  of  paying 
him  a  fourth  part  of  the  produce.  The  priests  are  expressly  men- 
tioned as  retaining  their  property1  ;  of  the  military  order  nothing 
is  said,  but  from  analogy  we  should  conclude  that  they  also  retained 
their  rights,  or  speedily  recovered  them,  as  the  account  of  Diodorus 
before  quoted  implies.  After,  the  change  of  tenure,  the  proportion 
of  the  produce  did  not  exceed  what  had  been  taken  by  an  act  of 
power  in  the  seven  years  of  plenty3.  Even  after  this  annihilation 
of  the  rights  of  landed  property,  the  condition  of  the  peasantry  in 
Egypt  was  better  than  in  India,  and  not  very  different  from  that 
of  the  agricultural  tenant  among  ourselves  ;  for  it  appears  from  the 
evidence  given  before  the  Committees  on  the  Corn  Laws  in  1814 
and  1821,  that  rent  is  usually  about  a  fourth  part  of  the  produce3. 

It  is  probable  that  the  priests  occupied  a  portion  of  their  own 
land,  and  cultivated  it  by  their  hired  laborers,  as  we  know  the 
military  class  did.  Diodorus,  speaking  of  the  different  classes  and 
occupations  of  Athens,  says,  "  The  second  class  was  that  of  the 
geomoroi,  whose  duty  it  was  to  possess  arms  and  serve  in  war  on 
behalf  of  the  city,  like  those  who  are  called  husbandmen  in  Egypt, 
and  who  furnish  the  fighting  men4."  Now  as  the  continued  and 
personal  cultivation  of  the  soil  would  be  inconsistent  with  military 
duty,  we  must  suppose  that  at  least  that  portion  of  the  warrior 
caste  which  was  in  actual  service,  tilled  their  lands  by  hired  labor- 
ers. Herodotus  appears  also  to  have  included  the  possessors  of 
land  among  the  priests  and  the  warrior  caste,  as  he  makes  no  men- 
tion of  husbandmen  among  his  seven  classes. 

1  Gen.  xlvii.  26.  "  Joseph  made  it  a  law  over  the  land  of  Egypt  untp  this 
day,  that  Pharaoh  should  have  the  fifth  part ;  except  the  land  of  the  priests 
only,  which  became  not  Pharaoh's." 

a  Gen.  xli.  34.  "  Let  Pharaoh  do  this,  let  him  appoint  officers  over  the 
land,  and  take  up  the  fifth  part  of  the  laud  of  Egypt  in  the  seven  plenteous 
years." 

•  Rickards  on  India,  voL  1,  p.  288  note.  1  Diod.  1,  28. 


24 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


Tlie  king,  the  priest,  and  the  warrior  were  the  privileged  orders 
of  Egypt ;  the  rest1,  including  the  herdsmen  of  swine  and  cattle, 
the  artificers,  the  retail  traders,  the  boatmen  and  pilots,  and  in  later 
times  the  interpreters,  were  excluded  from  all  share  of  political 
power.  Yet  there  prevailed  in  Egypt  no  notion  of  an  aristocracy  of 
descent ;  the  pfiest  and  the  warrior  were  honored  on  account  of  the 
higher  functions  which  their  birth  assigned  them,  but  not  for  a  patri- 
cian genealogy.  In  the  funeral  encomium  no  mention  was  made 
of  descent,  all  Egyptians  being  considered  as  equally  well-borna. 

Hereditary  succession  appears  to  have  been  the  rule  of  the 
Egyptian  monarchy.  Diodorus  says  (1,  43),  that  in  ancient  times, 
according  to  the  accounts  which  he  received,  kings  were  chosen  for 
public  services,  but  this  occurs  in  a  part  of  the  history  in  which  he 
is  tracing  the  progress  of  society  evidently  according  to  a  theory. 
In  many  instances  a  sovereign  is  expressly  said  to  have  been  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son ;  on  the  monuments  a  king  sometimes  declares 
himself  to  be  the  son  of  his  predecessor,  and  is  found  in  the  sculp- 
tures of  his  reign  in  the  character  of  a  prince  of  the  blood,  serving 
in  the  army  or  attending  at  a  solemnity8.  Females  were  not 
excluded  from  the  throne;  a  queen  Nitocris  occurs  in  the  sixth 
dynasty,  Scemiophris  in  the  twelfth,  and  other  examples  are  found 
in  the  sculptures4.  If  it  were  necessary  to  have  recourse  to  elec- 
tion, the  king  must  be  chosen  from  the  priests  or  the  soldiers; 
Amasis  was  a  plebeian,  and  was  on  that  account  despised,  but  the 
monarchy  was  then  approaching  its  termination.  According  to  a 
late  authority  (Synesius6),  the  form  of  election  represented  all  the 

1  Strabo,  B.  17,  p.  787.  Plato,  Tim.  iii.  24.  Isocrates,  Bueiris,  p.  161,  ed 
Battie,  arrange  them  variously.  Herodotus,  2,  164,  reckons  priests,  war 
riors,  herdsmen,  swineherds,  tradesmen,  interpreters,  steersmen. 

•  Diod.  1,  92.  Vol  1,  p.  419. 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  288 ;  Champollion,  Lettres  d'Egypte^  p.  851. 
1  Rosellini,  M.  St.  iii.  1,  129.  Comp.  Lucan,  Phars.  10,  92. 
1  Quoted  by  Heenm,  Ideen,  2,  p.  335,  Germ. 


CONSTITUTION   AND   LA  TVS. 


26 


elements  of  the  community.  The  priest*  stood  immediately  around 
che  candidates,  then  the  warriors,  and  outside  of  ail  the  people. 
But  the  priests  possessed  great  prerogatives  in  voting ;  the  suffrage 
of  a  prophctes  counted  for  a  hundred,  that  of  a  comastes1  (one  who 
carried  the  sacred  images  in  processions)  for  twenty,  that  of  a  neo- 
coros*  for  ten,  while  that  of  a  warrior  counted  but  for  one.  The 
common  people  probably  enjoyed  the  same  right  as  in  the  middle 
ages — that  of  approving  by  their  acclamations  the  choice  of  the 
clergy  and  the  military  chiefs.  If  the  election  fell  upon  a  soldier, 
he  was  admitted  into  the  sacerdotal  order,,  and  made  acquainted 
with  their  hidden  wisdom3.  This  initiation  is  perhaps  represented 
in  monuments,  where  the  tan,  the  emblem  of  life  and  key  of  mys- 
teries, is  placed  on  the  lips  of  the  king4.  To  the  shields  of  some  of 
the  early  kings  the  word  "  priest"  is  prefixed5. 
*  The  monarch  was  so  entirely  under  the  influence  and  control  of 
tin  priests,  that  the  hierarchy  may  be  considered  as  in  fact  the 
governing  body  in  ordinary  times.  Unlike  the  sovereigns  of  the 
East,  he  was  not  irresponsible  master  of  his  own  actions.  The 
forms  of  public  business  and  even  his  daily  habits  of  life  were  sub- 
ject to  strict  regulation.  "  It  was  his  duty,"  says  Diodorus,  "  when 
he  rose  in  the  early  morning,  first  of  ail  to  read  the  letters  sent 
from  all  parts,  that  he  might  transact  all  business  with  accurate 
knowledge  of  what  was  being  done  everywhere  in  his  kingdom. 
Having  bathed  and  arrayed  himself  in  splendid  robes  and  the  insig- 

1  Clem.  Alex.  5,  p.  671,  Pott.  '  a  Vol.  1,  p.  379. 

'  Plut.  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  354  B ;  Plat.  Polit  ii.  290.  Steph.  'E«i/  tvXv  *p6rtp<n- 
£|  aAXou  yevovs  Biaoapcvos,  vartpov  di'ay<aiov  is  rovro  ciaTe\eTa9ai.  Plufc  Ifl.  et 
Osir.  C.  6.  O!  Paai^eig  nai  ^erpn~6v  titivov  Ik  r<av  itpuiv  ypafifiaruvt  d>f  'Exanu  J 
WTOfliirtv,  \  to  tis  6vtkc. 

*  Hieroglyphics  of  Egyptian  Soc.  pi.  94. 

6  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  3,  281.    The  shield  of  a  king  whose  name  is  lost, 
in  tne  papyrus  of  Turin,  but  who  belonged  apparently  to  the  Sebekotpha 
has  a  group  of  characters  annexed  to  it,  which  have  been  read  "chosen  by 
Aie  soldiers."  (Lesueur,  Chronologic,  pp.  236,  321.) 
VOL.  II.  2 


26 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


nia  of  sovereignty,  he  sacrificed  to  the  God1.  The  victims  being 
placed  beside  the  altar,  the  high-priest  standing  near  the  king 
prayed  with  a  loud  voice,  the  people  standing  round,  that  the  gods 
would  give  health  and  all  other  blessings  to  the  king,  he  observing 
justice  towards  his  subjects.  It  was  the  priest's  office  also  to  declare 
his  several  virtues,  saying  that  he  showed  piety  towards  the  gods 
and  clemency  towards  men ;  that  he  was  temperate  and  magnani  - 
mous, truthful  and  liberal,  and  master  of  all  his  passions ;  that  he 
inflicted  on  offenders  punishments  lighter  than  their  misdeeds 
deserved,  and  repaid  benefits  with  more  than  a  proportionate  return. 
After  many  similar  prayers  the  priest  pronounced  an  imprecation 
respecting  things  done  in  ignorance,  exempting  the  king  from  all 
accusation,  and  fixing  the  injury  and  the  penalty  on  those  who  had 
been  his  .ministers  and  had  wrongfully  instructed  him."  His  plea- 
sures and  his  exercise,  the  quality  of  his  food,  the  quantity  of  his 
wine,  were  all  prescribed  by  a  minute  ceremonial,  contained  in  one 
of  the  Books  of  Hermes9.  He  was  not  allowed  to  be  attended  by 
slaves ;  sons  of  the  priests,  carefully  educated  till  the  age  of  twenty, 
surrounded  his  person  night  and  day.  The  hierogrammat  or  sacred 
scribe  then  read  from  the  sacred  books  precepts  and  histories  of 
eminent  men  calculated  to  inspire  the  monarch  with  the  love  of 
virtue.  His  power  over  the  lives  and  properties  of  his  subjects  was 
strictly  limited  by  law,  and  nothing  left  to  caprice  and  passion*. 
The  right  to  enact  new  laws,  however,  resided  with  the  sovereign : 
Menes  and  Sasyches,  Sesostris,  Bocchoris  and  Amasis  are  all  cele- 
brated as  legislators4.  The  king  was  also  a  judge  in  certain  cases 
which  are  not  defined  ;  but  the  ordinary  administration  of  justice 
was  lost  to  the  tribunals.    A  singular  kind  of  posthumous  judge- 

1  We  find  accordingly  in  the  monuments  the  king  leading  processions, 
pouring  libations,  dedicating  temples,  presenting  offerings,  and  with  his  c  ws 
hand  sacrificing  victims. 

*  Clem.  Alex.  Strom.  6,  4,  p.  757,  ed.  Potter. 

•  Diod.  1,  70,  71.  4Diod.  1, 


CONSTITUTION   AND  LAWS. 


27 


ment  was  exercised  on  his  government  and  character.  Before  the 
embalmed  body  was  placed  in  the  sepulchre,  any  one  who  had  an 
accusation  to  prefer  against  him  was  allowed  to  bring  it  forward ; 
while  the  priests  set  forth  his  merits,  and  the  people  by  their  mur- 
murs or  applause  decided  whether  he  should  be  allowed  the  bono; 
of  sepulture  or  not.  Diodorus  assures  us  that  there  were  many 
instances  of  its  being  withheld1.  On  the  other  hand,  an  eminently 
virtuous  and  popular  prince  received  a  kind  of  deification.  Acts 
of  homage  were  performed  to  him  in  subsequent  generations,  and 
his  name  was  inscribed  as  a  charm  on  amulets2. 

The  account  which  Diodorus  gives  of  the  influence  of  these  laws 
and  customs  in  producing  virtue  and  moderation  in  the  kings  of 
Egypt,  must  be  regarded  as  describing  rather  the  effect  designed 
than  the  invariable  result  The  Jewish  Lawgiver  prescribed  that 
each  sovereign  should  make  a  copy  of  the  Law,  "  that  it  might  be 
with  him,  that  he  might  read  therein  all  the  days  of  his  life,  and 
learn  to  fear  Jehovah  his  God,  to  keep  all  the  words  of  the  law  and 
to  do  them8  f  yet  it  is  doubtful  if  a  single  king  of  Israel  or  Judah 
complied  with  this  injunction,  and  it  is  certain  that  even  the  living 
voice  of  the  prophets  was  unable  to  prevent  them  from  "  lifting  up 
their  hearts  above  their  brethren,  and  turning  aside  from  the  com- 
mandments." The  daily  homily  read  to  the  Egyptian  monarchs  on 
the  duties  of  sovereignty  would  degenerate  into  a  form.  The  praises 
bestowed  in  public  prayers  on  the  virtues  of  a  reigning  sovereign  are 
mere  customary  compliment!.  '  The  details  of  Egyptian  history 
exhibit  instances  of  tyranny  ;  and  a  king  who  could  command  the 
military  power  might  break  through  the  restraints  of  morality  and 
religion.  In  both  cases,  however,  it  would  be  unjust  to  deny  to  the 
legislation  the  merit  of  a  noble  aim,  in  framing  a  standard  of  duty 
for  the  sovereign,  and  providing  the  means  of  its  being  constantly 
held  up  before  his  eyes.    The  failure  to  produce  conformity  with  thi 

1  Diod  1,  72,  ad  fin.  9  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  3,  79-84 

•  Der.t  xvil  18 


28 


ANCIENT  EOYPT. 


standard  belongs  to  all  codes,  ethical  or  political.  Yet  the  general 
testimony  of  antiquity  affirms  that  Egypt  was  distinguished  among 
ancient  nations,  not  only  for  the  wisdom  of  its  laws,  but  the  obe- 
dience paid  to  them.  The  instances  of  internal  revolution  are  few 
and  late.  After  we  have  retrenched  some  thousand  years  from  its 
history,  for  false  and  exaggerated  chronology,  the  long  duration  of 
the  monarchy  remains  unexampled.  The  union  of  priestly  sanc- 
tity, military  power  and  monarchical  authority  in  one  person,  gave 
the  government  a  form  of  stability  which  could  not  belong  to  forms 
of  polity  in  which  these  powers  were  dissociated  or  hostile.  At 
the  same  time  the  influence  of  the  sacerdotal  order,  who  were 
almost  the  sole  possessors  of  knowledge,  stamped  it  with  a  charac- 
ter of  mildness  and  humanity,  as  in  the  Middle  Ages  the  influence 
of  the  Church  tempered  the  rigor  of  feudalism.  It  substituted 
religious  awe  for  constitutional  checks  and  sanctions  in  the  mind 
of  the  monarch,  and  by  this  sentiment  more  effectually  controlled 
him,  as  long  as  religion  and  its  ministers  were  respected.  Had 
the  authority  been  exclusively  in  the  hands  of  the  priests,  it  might 
have  sunk  into  that  imbecility  to  which  a  purely  sacerdotal  admi- 
nistration tends  ;  but  the  intimate  union  of  the  civil  power,  the  mili- 
tary and  the  hierarchy,  appears  to  have  secured  to  the  people  a 
government  at  once  energetic,  enlightened  and  humane. 

The  earliest  account  remaining  of  the  Egyptian  monarchy,  in  the 
history  of  Joseph,  exhibits  a  court  and  household  with  minute  gra- 
dations of  rank  and  function,  and  the  monuments  have  added  a 
long  list  of  officers,  who  ministered  to  the  state  and  luxury  of  the 
sovereign.  The  king  always  appeal's  surrounded  by  numerous 
military  and  sacerdotal  attendants.  Men  of  high  rank,  and  even 
princes  of  the  blood,  formed  his  train,  screening  him  from  the  heat, 
or  cooling  him  and  chasing  away  the  flies  with  a  feather-fan. 
Besides  these  personal  attendants  on  the  sovereign,  there  was  a 
numerous  body  of  public  functionaries,  whose  titles  and  duties  have 
been  revealed  to  us  by  the  inscriptions  in  their  tombs.    They  show 


COVSTITCTIOX   AND  LAWS. 


29 


that  the  government  was  thoroughly  organized  in  its  administrative 
department,  no  branch  of  public  service  being  without  its  chief. 
The  extent  and  magnificence  of  the  palaces  of  Thebes  attest  the 
splendor  in  which  the  monarch  lived;  but  as  the  royal  state  was 
kept  up  and  the  expenditure  in  peace  and  war  maintained  out  of 
the  produce  of  the  land,  a  third  of  which  was  allotted  to  the  king; 
the  people  do  not  appear  to  have  been  heavily  taxed,  if  at  all,  in 
the  ordinary  course  of  affairs1.  It  is  not  probable,  however,  that 
such  works  as  the  building  of  the  Great  Pyramid  could  be  carried 
on,  without  levying  oppressive  taxes,  as  well  as  exacting  forced 
labor,  and  the  sovereigns  who  engaged  in  them  were  the  objects 
of  popular  detestation3.  The  military  expeditions  would  in  modern 
times  have  been  the  cause  of  enormous  expense ;  but  ancient  war- 
fare supported  itself  by  plunder  and  exaction,  and  large  tributes 
were  paid  by  conquered  nations. 

Nowhere  in  the  ancient  world  was  the  number  of  temples  so 
great  ae  in  Egypt,  nor  the  revenue  of  the  priests  so  ample,  nor 
their  influence  in  the  whole  social  system  so  predominant.  All  the 
events  of  Egyptian  life  were  intimately  blended  with  religion,  and 
a  series  of  festivals  spread  itself  over  the  whole  year.  Every  nome 
had  a  tutelary  god,  whom  it  worshipped  with  especial  honor; 
every  city  and  town  one  or  more  temples.  The  Egyptians  were 
the  authors,  as  the  Greeks  believed3,  both  of  the  doctrines  and  the 
ritual  of  polytheism,  and  had  carried  both  to  the  utmost  limits  of 
refinement  and  subdivision.    The  priests  lived  in  abundance  and 

1  The  wpsa6oot  and  ivofopfi  which  Herodotus  (2,  109)  speaks  of  as  impose-: 
by  Sesostris  in  proportion  to  the  land,  appear  to  be  only  the  rent  for  the 
crown  lands  under  another  name.  Cobs  i6nHra^  Aia  r/V  U  t&v  irpoaoSuv  svtto- 
piav,  oi  parrri^ovai  this  tlc<pjpaii.     (Diod.  1,  73.) 

1  Herod.  2,  128. 

*  Herod.  2,  50.  Ti^cSov  reavTa  ra  ovvSfiara  twv  Otuiv  i£  Atyirrrov  i\fi\v9c  h  TT> 
'KWdSa,  58.  YLapriyipif  apa  Kai  xofiitas  Kai  irpocayuyas  vpuroi  dvdpdttoir  A  «yt«r  •-».-{ 
tin  ol  Tomviutv'st. 


30 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


luxury.    The  portion  of  the  soil  allotted  to  them,  the  largest  in 

the  threefold  division1,  was  subject  to  no  taxes2 ;  and  they  were  so 
abundantly  supplied  with  the  means  of  subsistence  that  it  was 
unnecessary  for  them  to  expend  their  private  property8.  The 
registers  of  the  temples,  of  which  some  fragments  have  been  pre- 
served, show  that  contributions  of  various  kinds  were  made  to 
them,  though  they  are  not  sufficiently  precise  to  enable  us  to  say 
whether  they  were  dues  or  voluntary  offerings.  Their  life4  was  the 
reverse  of  ascetic.  The  shaving  of  the  head  and  body  every  other 
day,  the  cold  ablution  twice  in  every  day  and  twice  in  every  night, 
the  use  of  flax  and  papyrus  instead  of  woollen  and  leather*,  in  the 
climate  of  Egypt  were  luxuries,  not  penances  and  restrictions. 
The  endless  variety  of  rites  which  they  practised6  served  to  fill  up 
their  time,  for  which  the  majority  of  them,  not  being  initiated  into 
science,  would  have  little  occupation.  Their  numbers  were  very 
great ;  instead  of  a  single  priest  or  priestess  attached  to  each 
temple,  as  among  the  Greeks,  a  long  series  of  subordinate  minis- 
ters discharged  those  multiplied  functions  in  which  their  religion 
consisted.  Herodotus  declares  that  no  female  could  fill  a  sacer- 
dotal office7,  though  it  is  evident  from  his  own  accounts,  as  well  as 

1  Diod.  1,  73. 

'  This  appears  not  to  have  been  the  case  in  the  Ptolemaic  times.  See 
the  Inscription  of  Rosetta,  in  which  the  priests  return  thanks  to  the  king 
for  decreeing  that  they  should  pay  no  more  than  in  the  first  year  of  his 
father's  reign.    (Line  16  of  the  Greek.) 

•  Herod.  2,  37. 

*  Occasionally  they  practised  rigid  abstinence  {lv  rait  hyvetan),  and  did 
not  even  allow  themselves  salt  as  a  provocative  of  appetite.  (Plut.  Is.  et 
Osir.  p.  352.) 

•  Herod.  2,  37. 

*  "AXAns  OprjdKtas  eiriTt\eov(Tt  fxvpias  wj  eiweiv  Adyw.    (Her.  ibid.) 

1  Herod.       35.     'Iparai  yvvi)  fjiiv  ovttfiia  ovre  tocevoi  deov  ovrt  8t)\cti(.     But  btf 

himself  (2,  55)  speaks  of  a  femalr  as  du^ixoktv  >■<  cav  W  Aids.  See  voL  L  p 
879. 


CONSTITUTION  AND  LAWS. 


31 


from  the  sculptures  and  documents1,  that  they  might  be  engaged 
in  duties  connected  with  the  temples'.  The  office  was  strictly 
hereditary.  In  the  temples  of  the  principal  gods  there  was  a  high- 
priest,  and  if  we  take  literally  the  statement  made  by  the  priests 
of  Vulcan  to  Hecataeus  and  Herodotus,  the  son  had  succeeded  to 
the  father  for  340  generations8.  To  the  priests  alone  polygamy 
was  forbidden4,  and  this  restriction  is  confirmed  by  the  monuments. 

The  reverence  in  which  the  sacerdotal  order  was  held  was  not 
the  result  of  their  sacred  character  only,  but  of  their  superior 
knowledge  and  education,  which  comprehended,  besides  divination 
and  augury,  all  the  human  sciences.  Their  superior  skill  in  geo- 
metry and  arithmetic,  so  important  in  a  country  whose  revenues 
were  raised  by  a  tax  on  land  proportioned  to  its  extent*,  and  where 
changes  in  the  form  and  area  of  the  fields  were  frequently  pro- 
duced by  the  action  of  the  river,  gave  them  a  considerable  control 
over  property. 

It  does  not  appear  that  the  practice  of  medicine  was  confined  to 
them.  The  army  was  attended  by  physicians*,  who  can  scarcely 
have  been  priests.  The  general  appearance  and  costume  of  the 
physicians  represented  in  the  grottos  of  Benihassan7  would  lead 

1  Champollion-Figeac,  Egypte,  L'Univers  Pittoresque,  115. 

•  The  priestesses  mentioned  in  the  Rosetta  Stone  belonged  to  the  worship 
of  the  deified  Ptolemies,  not  the  ancient  gods  of  Egypt. 

•  Herod.  2,  143,  where  however  dneSe  ixvvorav  iralSa  narpds  tKaarov  ecjvtup 
iovra  can  hardly  express  a  literal  fact,  especially  if  we  consider  the  mono- 
gamy of  the  priests.  Compare  Her.  1,  7,  where  a  similar  expression  only 
denotes  generally  an  hereditary  succession. 

4  Diod.  1,  80.    Comp.  Her.  2,  92. 

•  Herod.  2,  109.  El  rtvos  tov  K^fipov  h  Jrora/idf  r»  napcKotro,  i\6a>p  3v  npdf  top 
(JaatXea  lafjfiatve  rd  yzytvr\p.zvov'  h  Se  ZTTtjnrt  rovs  into'Kexpoy.zvovi  koi  dvapzTpfi<rovras 
Sata  iAa.v/cjv  b  x&pes  yzyove,  5ko)S  tov  Xoittov  Kara  \6yov  ri}$  Ttraypivris  (Ucfkoirjf 

Ttkzoi. 

•  Diod.  2,  82. 

1  See  voL  i.  p.  290.    Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  8,  898. 


32 


ANCIENT  EGVPT. 


us  to  refer  them  to  a  low  rank  in  society.  No  sepulchral  inscrip- 
tion has  yet  been  found  in  which  this  profession  is  mentioned,  nor 
has  the  hieroglyphic  character  for  physician  been  ascertained. 
The  embalmers  were  a  part  of  the  physicians1,  but  the  priests, 
whose  profession  required  such  scrupulous  purity,  cannot  be  sup- 
posed to  have  defiled  themselves  with  the  touch  of  dead  bodies  ; 
and  the  embalmers  are  expressly  said  by  Herodotus2  to  have  been 
artisans  who  plied  in  public.  But  all  medical  practice  was  carried 
on  in  Egypt  according  to  certain  established  formulas,  contained 
in  ancient  books.  Six  of  th&  forty-two  treatises  attributed  to 
Hermes  were  devoted  to  medicine,  and  the  pastophori,  a  special 
but  inferior  order  of  the  priests,  studied  them3.  To  the  precepts 
contained  in  these  books  the  practitioners  of  medicine  seem  to 
have  been  obliged  to  conform,  and  thus  the  sacerdotal  order  would 
possess  a  complete  control  over  the  practical  branches  of  the  art. 
So  under  the  Jewish  Law,  the  Levites  had  to  decide  on  all  medical 
questions  which  had  a  bearing  on  religion4,  such  as  leprosy,  but  do 
not  appear  to  have  been  in  other  respects  the  physicians  of  the 
people.  In  Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages,  the  knowledge  of 
medicine  was  nearly  confined  to  the  clergy,  if  we  except  the  Jews 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  leeches  who  practised  upon  the  vulgar 
on  the  other.  The  selection  and  examination  of  victims,  the  care 
ol  the  sacred  animals,  the  rigorous  attention  to  their  own  health 
and  purity  which  their  office  imposed,  could  not  fail  to  give  the 
Egyptian  priests  a  considerable  portion  of  medicinal  knowledge, 
besides  what  the  books  of  Hermes  contained. 

The  more  mysterious  doctrines  of  religion,  as  well  as  the  know- 
ledge of  the  hieroglyphic  character,  in  later  times  were  reserved  to 
the  higher  order  of  the  priesthood5,  and  this  was  probably  always 

1  Gen.  1.  2. 

'  Herod.  2,  86.     Eiai  Se  ol  iir'  avrCj  rovrij  k  ar  c  arai  koI  Tiyyr\v  l-^ovai  Tavrrjv, 

•  Clem.  Alex.  Strom.  6,  4,  p.  758,  ed.  Pott.         4  See  Leviticus,  xiiL  xiv. 

*  Clem.  Alex.  Strom.  5,  p.  670,  Pott     Oi  r<nj  imTvxwt  ivtrtdivr*  rh  fiw 


CONSTITUTION  AND  LAWS. 


sa 


the  case,  the  functions  of  the  lower  ministers  being  of  a  practical 
kind. 

According  to  ^Elian1,  the  priests  were  originally  judges,  the 
eldest  of  them  presiding.  This  appears  afterwards  to  have  given 
place  to  a  select  tribunal  which  we  shall  subsequently  describe. 
But  as  the  ultimate  authority  must  be  the  written  law,  and  as 
literature  of  every  kind  was  in  the  custody  of  the  priesthood,  it  is 
probable  that  questions  of  nice  interpretation  would  be  referred  to 
them.  So  among  the  Jews,  when  a  matter  arose  too  hard  for  the 
decision  of  the  inferior  judges,  recourse  was  had  to  the  priests  and 
Levites  and  the  chief  judge  in  the  last  resort2.  In  Europe  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  the  highest  offices  of  the  law  were  filled  by  ecclesias- 
tics, who  alone  could  read  ancient  writings  and  pen  decrees.  Sta- 
tistical knowledge  was  carried  to  greater  perfection  in  Egypt  than 
anywhere  else  in  the  ancient  world.  The  whole  country  had  been 
geometrically  measured ;  every  man's  tax  was  fixed,  every  man's 
occupation  known3,  and  the  topography  of  Egypt  was  the  subject 
of  one  of  the  sacred  books4. 

The  military  class  formed,  like  the  priesthood,  an  hereditary 
caste6.  They  were  divided  into  Calasirians  and  Hermotybians) 
names  the  signification  of  which  has  not  been  ascertained8.  Axor- 

Tvoia  dXA'  3}  fi6vni{  yt  tois  peWovcri  tnl  0a<?i\$iav  irpo'Civai  kcu  t£>v  Uptuv  tois  KpiBi'aiv 

1  jHian.  Var.  Hist  14,  34.  \ 

*  Deut  xrii.  8.  "  If  there  arise  a  matter  too  hard  for  thee  in  judgment, 
then  shalt  thou  arise  and  get  thee  up  into  the  place  which  the  Lord  thy 
God  shall  choose,  and  thou  shalt  come  unto  the  priests,  the  Levites,  and  the 
judge  that  shall  be  in  those  days,  and  inquire,  and  they  shall  show  thee  the 
sentence  of  judgment" 

*  Herod.  2,  177.    He  refers  the  law  to  the  reign  of  Amasis. 

*  Clem  Alex,  vhi  supra. 

*  Herod.  2,  166. 

6  Jablonsky  (Voc.  yEgypt  p.  69,  101.)  deduces  Calasiris  from  Hehhirx 
Coptic  for  yoxitli ;  Hermotybian,  from  armatoi  oube,  militare  contra,  aud  hi 

2* 


34 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


ding  to  Herodotus,  the  Calasirians  amounted,  when  their  numbers 
were  .argest,  to  250,000  men,  the  Hermotybians  to  160,000;  and 
if  larger  numbers  are  attributed  to  some  of  the  armies  of  Egyptian 
conquerors,  we  must  remember  that  oriental  armies  are  swollen  by 
a  train  of  unmilitary  followers.  Each  soldier  had  an  allotment  of 
land,  of  about  six  acres,  free  from  taxes.  Their  settlements  were 
almost  exclusively  in  Lower  Egypt1,  each  body  having  only  one  in 
either  Middle  or  Upper  Egypt,  namely  the  nomes  of  Chemmiss 
and  Thebes,  while  the  Hermotybians  were  established  in  five 
nomes  of  Lower  Egypt  and  the  Calasirians  in  eleven2.  It  was  on 
the  side  of  Asia  that  the  country  was  most  exposed  to  attack, 
Nubia  having  been  completely  subjugated  during  the  nourishing 
times  of  the  monarchy ;  and  the  abundance  and  fertility  of  land 
in  the  Delta  pointed  out  this  as  the  part  most  suitable  for  the 
settlement  of  the  soldiery.  The  facility  with  which  a  large  force 
was  collected  for  the  pursuit  of  the  Israelites3,  shows  that  they 
must  have  been  quartered  chiefly  in  Lower  Egypt.  All  handicrafts 
were  forbidden  to  them,  but  in  these  agriculture  was  not  included, 
which  was  an  honorable  occupation  even  among  those  by  whom 
the  mechanical  arts  were  most  despised4.  In  times  of  peace,  a 
portion  of  them  discharged  garrison-duty  in  the  frontier  towns  of 
Pelusium,  Marea  and  Elephantine ;  a  detachment  to  the  number 
of  a  thousand  of  each  acted  as  guards  to  the  king,  during  the  space 
of  a  year5.  To  these  were  given,  as  a  daily  allowance,  five  minae 
of  baked  bread  or  parched  corn,  two  minse  of  beef  and  four  arys- 
tcrs,  or  nearly  two  pints,  of  wine.  In  the  Egyptian  monuments 
we  can  distinguish  such  a  body  of  men  having  peculiar  arms, 
clothing  and  ensigns,  and  specially  engaged  in  attendance  on  the 

eupposes  the  latter  to  have  been  veterans  to  whom  the  defence  of  the  ooun. 
try  was  chiefly  entrusted. 

1  Heeren,  2,  134.    (2,  2,  578  Germ.) 

*  Herod,  ubi  supra.  4  Exod.  xiv.  6-9. 

*  Diod.  1,  28.  •  Her.  2,  168. 


CONSTITUTION  AND  LAWS. 


35 


king1.  Perhaps  other  bodies  might  be  stationed  in  seme  of  tha 
principal  towns,  where  it  has  been  thought  that  traces  of  fortified 
camps  might  be  perceived3. 

Such  a  class,  trained  and  armed  and  possessed  of  property  in 
land,  in  the  midst  of  a  population  of  priests,  agriculturists  and 
tradesmen,  must  have  had  a  preponderant  weight  in  the  social 
scale.  Yet  such  was  the  harmony  of  the  different  members  of  the 
Egyptian  state,  that  we  hear  for  many  centuries  of  no  usurpations 
or  rebellions  by  the  soldiery.  The  military  order  was  closely  united 
with  the  monarchy.  We  find  in  the  monuments  that  the  sons  of 
the  kings  held  high  posts  in  the  army3,  and  this  class  generally 
furnished  a  sovereign  to  the  vacant  throne.  The  Egyptian  military 
system,  as  it  originally  existed,  was  better  calculated  to  preserve 
order  within  the  state  and  resist  aggression,  than  the  feudalism 
of  the  Middle  Ages  or  the  universal  soldiership  of  the  Greeks. 
The  former  was  an  instrument  of  oppression,  the  latter  a  constant 
provocative  to  civil  war.  Egypt  more  resembled  Rome,  in  the  ages 
in  which  the  plebs  was  still  devoted  exclusively  to  agriculture  and 
furnished  legionaries  to  the  army.  The  commencement  of  her  fall 
was  the  encroachment  made  by  the  priests  in  the  reign  of  Sethos, 
and  the  king  in  that  of  Psammitichus,  on  the  privileges  of  the  mili- 
tary class. 

All  the  rest  of  the  population  may  be  regarded  as  forming  one 
class,  inasmuch  as  they  were  excluded  from  the  possession  of  land, 
from  the  privileges  of  the  priestly  and  military  order,  and  from 
every  department  of  political  life.  Among  themselves,  however, 
they  were  divided  into  a  variety  of  trades  and  professions,  about 
the  number  of  which  the  ancients  are  not  agreed,  nor  is  it  proba- 
ble that  any  one  has  enumerated  them  all.  The  land  was  culti- 
vated by  a  peasantry,  tenants  to  the  king,  the  priests  and  the  war- 

;  Rosellini,  Monumenti  Rcali,  tav.  c.  cii,  exxvi 

*  Champollion-Figeac,  Egypte,  p.  147. 

*  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civili,  3,  p.  313. 


3(3 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


riors,  whose  traditionary  knowledge  and  earl)r  training  enabled 
them  to  carry  the  art  to  a  much  higher  degree  of  perfection  than 
any  other  nation1.  The  marshy  districts  of  the  Delta  and  the  pas- 
tures of  the  valleys,  especially  of  the  Arabian  chain  of  hills,  main- 
tained large  numbers  of  cattle,  the  charge  of  which  created  another 
distinct  class.  The  swineherds  formed  another — a  Pariah-caste — 
to  whom  alone,  of  all  the  Egyptians,  access  to  the  temples  waa 
denied,  and  who  could  only  intermarry  among  themselves2.  The 
artificers  and  the  boatmen  and  steersmen  of  the  Nile  were  each  a 
separate  class.  The  monuments  lead  us  to  conclude  that  the  navi- 
gation of  the  sea  was  more  common  than  had  been  previously  sup- 
posed, yet  it  hardly  belonged  to  the  habits  of  the  nation  and  was 
opposed  to  its  religious  ideas,  according  to  which  the  sea-water, 
swallowing  up  the  Nile,  was  symbolized  in  Typhon  destroying 
Osiris.  Even  the  navigators  of  the  river  were  a  disesteemed  race3. 
Huntsmen  are  mentioned  'in  the  enumeration  of  Plato,  among 
whom  fowlers  would  be  included4 ;  in  a  country  so  abundant  in 
streams  and  fish,  fishermen  must  have  been  very  numerous5,  and 
therefore  probably  a  distinct  class.  On  the  establishment  of  the 
Greeks  in  Egypt,  in  the  reign  of  Psammitichus,  an  hereditary 
body  of  interpreters  was  formed  for  the  purpose  of  commercial 
intercourse6,  this  being  the  only  one  of  whose  origin  we  have  any 
historical  account,  and  we  see  that  neither  conquest  nor  religion 
had  anything  to  do  with  it,  but  the  hereditary  transmission  of 
exclusive  knowledge. 
1  Diodor.  1,  74. 

a  Herod.  2,  47.  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  1,  266,  mentions  a  herd  of  swine 
belonging  to  a  priest ;  they  were  sometimes  used  in  sacrifice  as  Herodotus 
mentions. 

3  Plut.  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  363,  c.  32,  4  I  lat.  Tim.  iii.  24 

6  Herod.  2,  93.    DioJ.  1,  36.    Isaiah  xix.  S. 

6  Herod.  2,  154.  riaiSas  jrup£/?aAe(vIf(i/i//(rj;£r>s)  Toiff'twat  Atywrrtovs,  ttiv  'EA* 
\iSa  yXticraav  ixSi 6aoK£<rdaim  and  6s  rovrwv  isjia-owruv  rijv  yXwarav  01  i'Cf  tp^flvifj  b> 
fLiyinru)  yiy6i>aai* 


CONSTITUTION  AND  LAWS 


37 


There  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  broad  line  of  social  distinction 
separated  all  these  classes  from  the  three  privileged  orders.  The 
principle  of  caste  would  have  been  annihilated,  if  the  children  of  an 
artificer  or  a  herdsman  could  have  intermarried  with  those  of  a 
priest,  a  warrior,  or  a  judge.  Religious  feeling  and  esprit  de  corps 
would  no  doubt  close  the  sacerdotal  or  military  class  against  a  man 
of  low  caste,  and  want  of  skill  would  exclude  him  from  the  higher 
departments  of  art.  We  find  some  remarkable  examples  of  the 
hereditary  descent  of  high  public  office.  The  long  succession  of 
the  high-priests  of  Memphis  has  been  already  mentioned.  Lepsius1 
quotes  an  inscription  in  which  a  chief  of  the  mining  works  declares 
that  twenty-three  of  his  ancestors  had  filled  the  same  office  before  him. 
But  there  is  no  proof  that  all  the  sons  of  a  priest  became  priests,  or  of  a 
military  man  soldiers.  The  higher  professions  appear  to  have  been 
open  to  all  of  the  higher  castes,  and  might  even  be  united  in  one 
person,  and  they  might  intermarry  with  each  other ;  so  probably 
might  the  lower,  with  the  exception  of  the  swine-herds.  A  monu- 
ment in  the  Museum  at  Naples,  to  one  who  was  himself  a  general 
of  infantry,  records  that  his  elder  brother  was  a  chief  of  public 
works  and  at  the  same  time  a  priest2.  In  India  at  the  present  day 
no  caste  but  the  Brahminical  is  strictly  preserved3,  and  this  includes 
not  only  the  priesthood,  but  the  higher  civil  professions. 

The  funeral  monuments  of  Egypt,  which  have  thrown  light  on 
the  relations  of  the  privileged  orders  and  shown  that  they  were  not 
separated  by  such  strict  rules  as  had  been  supposed,  give  us  no  cor- 
responding information  respecting  the  lower  castes.  Priests,  war- 
riors, judges,  architects,  chiefs  of  districts  and  provinces,  are  nearly 
the  only  ranks  or  classes  which  appear  in  the  inscriptions ;  we  do 

1  Lepsius,  Tour  to  the  Peninsula  of  Sinai,  p.  4,  Eng.  TransL 

1  Ampere  in  Revue  des  deux  Mondes,  1818,  p.  410.    He,  as  well  as  Rosel- 

lini,  «.     has  controverted  the  common  opinion  respecting  the  distinction 

of  castes,  from  the  evidence  of  the  monuments. 

*  Rickards,  India,  1,31.    Elphinstones  India,  1,  103- 


38 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


not  find  the  laborer,  the  agriculturist,  the  artist  or  the  physician 
receiving  those  funereal  honors  which  consist  in  the  representation 
of  the  deceased  as  offering  to  the  gods,  and  praying  for  their  pro- 
tection in  another  world1.  And  this  shows  the  wide  interval  in 
social  estimation,  by  which  the  upper  and  lower  classes  in  Egypt 
were  separated. 

The  Greeks,  from  whom  we  derive  our  earliest  knowledge  of 
Egyptian  institutions,  were  naturally  struck  with  the  rigid  distinc- 
tion of  the  different  orders  of  society :  it  had  once  existed  among 
themselves3,  but  was  nearly  obliterated  and  forgotten.  If  it  appear 
to  have  been  less  exclusively  a  distinction  of  birth  than  we  have 
been  accustomed  to  suppose,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  was  one 
of  the  most  important  characteristics  of  Egyptian  society.  Perhaps 
a  Mohammedan  traveller  in  Europe  during  the  prevalence  of  feu- 
dalism might  have  described  its  different  orders  and  their  relation 
to  each  other  in  terms  not  very  unlike  those  which  Herodotus 
applies  to  the  genea  of  Egypt.  Custom  and  sentiment  had  fixed  a 
nearly  impassable  barrier  between  the  villain  and  burgher  on  one 
side,  and  the  military  chief  and  feudal  lord  on  the  other.  The 
burghers  themselves,  arranged  in  crafts  and  guilds,  the  entrance  to 
which  was  jealously  guarded,  would  have  appeared  to  him  rather 
as  an  aggregate  of  separate  communities  than  a  uniform  mass  of 
industrial  population,  such  as  our  modern  cities  exhibit.  A  ple- 
beian would  have  as  little  chance  of  obtaining  a  maiden  of  aristo- 
cratic blood  in  marriage,  as  an  Egyptian  of  low  caste  of  marrying 
the  daughter  of  a  priest  or  military  chief;  the  executioner  or  flayer 
of  cattle  in  Germany  could  no  more  have  intermarried  with  a  pea- 
sant or  a  burgher,  than  the  swineherd  in  Egypt.  The  difference 
lies  in  the  sanction  by  which  the  separation  of  ranks  and  professions 

1  Ampere  ubi  supra. 

2  The  most  natural  explanation  of  the  fourfold  division  of  the  Ionic  popu- 
lation of  Attica  (Herod.  6,  66)  is  that  the  names  denote  their  d  ifferent  occu- 
pations 


CONSTITUTION    AND  LAWS. 


39 


was  guarded ;  in  Egypt  it  was  enforced  by  religion  ;  in  Europe  it 
was  counteracted  by  the  genius  of  Christianity  and  the  celibacy  of 
the  clerical  order,  in  which  the  humblest  birth  was  no  disqualifica- 
tion for  the  highest  dignity. 

In  a  country  so  fertile  as  Egypt,  in  which  manufactures,  art  and 
internal  commerce  were  carried  on  to  such  an  extent,  wealth  must 
have  accumulated  among  those  who  were  engaged  in  civil  life,  and 
have  given  rise  to  a  class  of  independent  proprietors,  not  included  in 
any  of  the  genea.  On  the  other  hand,  we  find  that  in  large  cities  a 
populace  forms  itself,  depending  on  casual  expedients  for  subsistence, 
and,  as  having  no  definite  occupation,  equally  excluded  from  the 
list.  Such  a  class  in  later  times  existed  in  Egypt ;  Sethos  employed 
it  in  support  of  his  usurpation1 ;  Amasis  endeavored  to  check  its 
growth  by  compelling  every  man  to  declare  his  occupation  before 
the  magistrate,  under  penalty  of  death,  if  he  made  a  false  statement 
or  followed  an  unlawful  mode  of  life9.  With  the  exceptions  which 
have  been  pointed  out,  there  can  be  no  question  that  the  rule  of 
Egyptian  society  was3,  that  every  man  should  be  strictly  limited  to 
his  hereditary  business4.  The  ancients  generally  admired  this 
limitation,  and  attributed  to  it  the  high  perfection  which  agricul- 
ture and  art  had  attained.  The  father  taught  his  son  without 
grudging  whatever  he  himself  knew ;  the  peasant  and  the  artisan 
followed  their  proper  business  without  the  distraction  of  politics 
which  engrossed  the  lower  orders  in  republics.  It  was  a  maxim 
that  it  was  best  for  one  man  to  dp  one  thing6,  which  is  undoubtedly 
true,  as  far  as  the  perfection  of  his  work  is  concerned.    The  effect 

1  Herod.  2,  141.  'KfccBai  Si  ol  tcjv  pa^i'/icdy  filv  oiStva  a.vcpiovt  KairfiXovg  61 
<  a  i  %e  i  p  u>  v  a  k  T  ai  k  al  dy  o  p  a  t  o  v  ?  nv  d  p  ajir  o  v  s. 

"  Her.  %  177.  •  Diod.  1,  74. 

4  The  law  which  Dicaearchus  attributes  to  Sesostria  is  finSiva  KaraXiircTv  r»)r 
MarfxLav  tLx?w.    Schol.  App.  Rhod.  4,  272-276. 

8  Aristot.  Polit.  2,  8.    "Er  v<p'  e.  6«  epyoi  aptar'  anoTtbtTTai*  Ssi  fit  pj  irpoorSrrc d 


40 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


of  such  u  limitation  on  the  character  of  the  man,  and  therefore  ulti- 
mately on  the  progress  of  his  art,  had  not  been  considered. 

The  great  body  of  the  Egyptian  people  appear  to  have  had  no 
public  duties  whatever,  neither  political,  judicial,  nor  military ;  the 
idea  of  a  citizen  was  unknown  among  them.  This  exclusion  of  all 
but  priests  and  soldiers  from  political  functions  would  ensure  revo- 
lution in  any  modern  government ;  but  the  privileged  orders  were 
so  firmly  established  by  the  threefold  monopoly  of  knowledge, 
sacred  and  secular,  arms,  and  landed  property,  that  we  do  not  read 
even  of  an  attempt  to  disturb  them,  on  the  part  of  the  excluded 
millions,  till  the  last  century  of  the  history  of  the  Pharaohs. 

The  division  of  Egypt  for  administrative  purposes  was  very 
simple.  The  principal  cities,  with  their  environs,  and  a  number  of 
villages  dependent  upon  them,  formed  a  nome,  as  the  Greeks  called 
it,  over  which  a  prefect  or  nomarch  appointed  by  the  king  presided, 
to  superintend  the  royal  revenues  and  the  details  of  government1. 
The  Delta  contained  ten  of  these  nomes,  the  Thebaid  ten ;  the 
intermediate  country  in  later  times  sixteen,  but  originally  only 
seven2.  This  corresponds  with  the  arrangement  of  the  Labyrinth3, 
which  had,  as  Strabo  saw  it,  twenty-seven  halls.  This  division  was 
attributed  to  Sesostris,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  boundaries  of 
each  norae  were  definitely  fixed,  when  that  general  survey  of  the 
lands  took  place,  which  is  said  to  have  been  made  by  this  sove- 
reign4. Commonly,  however,  authority  only  regulates  and  con- 
firms divisions  which  have  been  determined  by  local  and  accidental 
circumstances.  Religion  appears  in  Egypt  to  have  furnished  the 
original  principle  of  aggregation.  Each  of  the  larger  cities  was  the 
seat  of  the  worship  of  a  peculiar  divinity6,  which  had  been  esta- 

1  Diod.  1,  54.  a  Hence  the  name  Heptanomis. 

8  Strabo,  B.  17,  p.  787,  811.    Bunsen,  jEgypten'B  Stelle  (1,  179,  note). 

*  According  to  DiodorUS  1,  95,  Amasis  ra  xepl  tjvs  vofxap^as  iurafr  kui  rb 

irtoi  '  cmnirtiaav  oUovo^iav  r  Aiyvn^or,  but  this  cannot  in  either  case  relate 
to  the  firnt  establishment  »  Jlor.  2,  42. 


CONSTITUTION   AND  LAWS.  41 

blished  there  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  district,  and  the  religious 
usages  which  flowed  from  that  worship  were  co-extensive  with  the 
norne1.  Thus  throughout  the  nome  of  Thebes,  of  which  the  ram- 
headed  god  was  the  chief  divinity,  goats  were  sacrificed,  but  not 
sheep2 ;  while  in  the  Mendesian  nome,  in  reverence  for  the  god  to 
whom  the  goat  was  sacred,  sheep  were  sacrificed,  and  not  goats. 
The  number  of  the  nomes  ultimately  amounted  to  fifty-three,  but 
among  them  were  reckoned  the  Greater  and  Lesser  Oasis,  and  the 
Oasis  of  Ammon.  They  were  again  subdivided  into  (oparchics,  of 
whose  extent  we  are  not  informed.  Delegates  from  the  nomes, 
chosen  according  to  station  and  character3,  assembled  at  intervals  at 
the  splendid  palace  of  the  Labyrinth,  near  the  Lake  Moeris.  Each 
delegation  was  accompanied  by  the  priests  and  priestesses  of  its  chief 
temple,  and  was  lodged  in  its  appointed  place,  among  the  3000  apart- 
ments which  the  Labyrinth  included.  Sacrifices  and  gifts  were  made 
to  the  gods,  and  doubtful  questions  of  jurisdiction  settled.  If  the  halls 
in  the  Labyrinth  were,  as  Herodotus  says4,  only  twelve  in  number, 
only  the  larger  nomes  can  have  sent  delegates,  and  some  pre- 
eminence on  the  part  of  twelve  of  them  appears  to  be  implied  in 
the  establishment  of  a  dodecarchia  or  government  of  twelve  kings, 
after  the  usurpation  of  Sethos. 

We  have  no  distinct  information  as  to  the  mode  in  which  justice 
was  ordinarily  administered  in  Egypt  Probably  the  nomarch  and 
the  toparch  exercised  a  jurisdiction  in  matters  of  police  and  causes 
of  minor  importance.  To  judge  is  also  reckoned  among  the  func- 
tions of  the  king6.    In  the  monarchies  of  the  East  it  is  an  attribute 

1  Heeren  (2,  108,  112,  Eng.)  supposes  that  the  temples  were  foundations 
by  priestly  colonies  from  Meroe,  and  that  they  established  the  worship  of 
the  local  god  in  each  district.  The  language  of  Herodotus  implies  that  the 
people  of  the  nome  established  the  temple 

3  Her.  u.  «. 

"  Strabo,  17,  p.  81 1,  with  Tyrwhitt's  emendation  of  ipianviipf 
*  tier.  2,  148.  6  Diodor.  1,  7<L 


42 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


inseparable  from  royalty,  and  the  authority  of  all  inferior  tribunals 

is  only  a  delegation  from  the  prerogative  of  the  Sovereign.  Such 
is  indeed  the  theory,  though  not  the  origin,  of  our  own  judicial 
system.  The  principal  court  of  judicature  was  composed  of  thirty 
persons,  chosen  for  their  merit  from  the  three  most  celebrated  cities 
of  the  kingdom,  Thebes,  Memphis,  and  Heliopolis — ten  from  each. 
As  these  cities  were  also  the  most  remarkable  for  the  number  and 
learning  of  the  sacerdotal  order,  it  has  been  generally  taken  for 
granted  that  the  judges  belonged  to  this  caste.  That  they  were  of 
sacerdotal  families  appears,  from  what  has  been  already  said  on  the 
subject  of  castes,  very  probable,  but  hardly  ministering  priests, 
since  each  one  had  duties  to  perform  in  the  temple  to  which  he  was 
attached.  ^Elian,  by  saying  that  originally1  the  judges  were 
priests,  implies  that  in  later  times  it  was  otherwise.  These  thirty 
chose  a  president  from  among  themselves,  in  whose  place  the  city 
by  which  he  had  been  sent  furnished  another.  Probably  therefore 
the  original  selection  had  been  made  by  the  cities.  Their  salaries 
were  paid  by  the  king.  All  proceedings  were  carried  on  in  writing, 
that  the  decision  might  not  be  influenced  by  the  arts  of  oratory, 
nor  the  stern  impartiality  of  law  be  overcome  by  personal  supplica- 
tion. A  collection  of  the  laws  in  eight  volumes  lay  before  the 
judges:  the  plaintiff  or  accuser  declared  in  writing  how  he  had 
been  injured,  cited  the  portion  of  the  law  on  which  he  relied,  and 
laid  the  amount  of  his  damages,  or  claimed  the  penalty  which  in 
his  view  the  law  awarded.  The  culprit  or  defendant  replied  in 
writing,  point  by  point,  denying  the  fact  alleged,  or  showing  that 
his  act  had  not  been  unlawful,  or  that  the  penalty  claimed  was 
excessive.  The  plaintiff  having  rejoined,  and  the  defendant  replied 
again,  the  judges  deliberated  among  themselves.  A  chain  of  gold 
and  precious  stones  was  worn  by  the  president,  to  which  an  image 
of  Thmei,  the  goddess  of  Truth,  was  attached,  and  he  pronounced 
sentence  by  touching  with  this  image  the  plaintiff's  or  defendant's 

1  Vr\r   Hist  14,  34.     A'tKaaral  rd  ip^alov  nap  Aiyvrrr'tois  Itpcti  foav. 


CONSTITUTION  AND  LAWS. 


pleadings1.  We  are  not  told  how  the  facts  were  established,  and 
indeed  the  whole  account  suggests  the  idea  of  a  Court  of  Appeal, 
rather  than  of  primary  jurisdiction. 

From  the  complex  state  of  society  in  Egypt,  more  strikingly 
evinced  by  its  monuments  than  even  by  the  accounts  of  ancient 
writers,  we  may  conclude  that  the  laws  were,  numerous.  Yet  few 
of  them  have  been  handed  down  to  us,  and  no  document  of  tbis 
kind  has  been  hitherto  deciphered  from  the  remains  of  Egyptian 
antiquity.  The  character  of  the  legislation  therefore  must  be 
gathered  from  the  general  testimony  of  the  ancient  world,  or  by 
analogy  from  a  few  specimens  which  remain.  The  tradition  that 
Lycurgus,  Solon  and  Plato2,  had  borrowed  from  Egypt  the  laws 
of  their  real  or  imaginary  states,  is  a  proof  of  the  high  estimation  in 
which  they  were  held,  whatever  historical  value  it  may  possess. 
Their  wisdom  and  humanity  may  be  inferred  from  the  correspond- 
ence which  has  been  remarked  between  the  Egyptian  and  the  Jewish 
institutions.  If  this  be  explained  as  by  Spencer3,  who  thinks  that 
certain  laws  and  usages  to  which  the  Jews  had  become  accustomed, 
were  adopted  into  the  Mosaic  Law,  the  highest  sanction  is  given 
to  them.  If,  with  his  great  opponent  Witsius4,  we  believe  that 
they  were  copied  by  the  Egyptians  from  Abraham,  and  from  his 

1  The  resemblance  of  this  ornament  to  the  Urim  and  Thummim  worn  by 
the  Jewish  high  priest  has  been  noticed  by  all  writers  on  Jewish  or  Egyp- 
tian antiquities.  Yet  the  use  was  very  different ;  one  was  an  official  chain, 
probably  with  a  seal  attached  to  it;  the  other  answered  the  purpose  of  an 
oracle  (Exod.  xxxix.  10;  Lev.  viii.  8;  Num.  xxvii.  21).  Nor  is  there  any 
etymological  ground  for  deriving  TJtum.mim  from  the  Egyptian  Thmei, 
although  the  Seventy  may  have  been  influenced  by  the  Egyptian  usage  in 
rendering  it  by  'AA^na. 

3  Diod.  1,  69,  96,  98. 

3  See  his  great  work  De  Legibus  Hebrseorum,  p.  903,  "  Monendum  est 
iustitutorum  Mosaicorum  partem  multo  maximam  e  consuetudine  aliqn» 
qua;  apud  ^Egyptios  aut  alias  e  vicinia  gentes  inveteraverat  dimanaspe.* 

*  Witsii  /Egyptiaca,  lib.  2,  c.  1,  §  vii. 


44 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


descendants,  subsequently  to  tbeir  expulsion  and  the  giving  of  the 
Law  from  Sinai  (a  much  less  probable  supposition)1,  the  inference 
as  to  their  character  will  be  the  same. 

The  criminal  law  of  Egypt  was  mild  and  equitable'.  The  wilful 
murder  of  a  slave  was  punished  with  death,  like  that  of  a  freeman; 
the  exposure  of  infants  was  forbidden,  nor  was  the  mother  allowed 
to  be  executed  with  an  unborn  child.  False  accusation  (we  may 
presume  where  a  malicious  purpose  could  be  shown)  was  punished 
with  the  same  penalty  as  would  have  fallen  on  the  accused  if  con- 
victed ;  and  perjury  with  death.  A  thousand  lashes  were  inflicted 
on  an  adulterer,  mutilation  of  the  nose  on  an  adulteress.  A  parent 
who  had  killed  his  child  was  compelled  to  sit  three  days  and  three 
nights,  under  the  guard  of  a  public  officer,  embracing  its  body.  It 
was  a  capital  offence  not  to  have  assisted  one  who  was  slain  by 
violence,  the  legislator  presuming  complicity  where  there  had  been 
no  effort  to  prevent  murder.  Even  the  neglect  to  give  information 
of  a  robbery  was  punished  by  stripes  and  three  days'  imprisonment 
without  food.  Some  of  their  punishments  however  were  cruel ; 
others  appear  to  us  fantastic,  from  an  attempt  to  carry  out  strictly 
the  lex  talionis.  Such  was  the  punishment  inflicted  on  a  violator 
of  female  chastity  :  one  who  gave  intelligence  to  an  enemy  had 
his  tongue  cut  out ;  an  adulterer  of  the  standard  currency3,  a  falsi- 
fier of  weights  and  measures,  a  public  scribe  who  had  forged  or 
mutilated  public  writings,  had  his  hand  cut  off.  A  grave  has  been 
found  near  Saccara,  apparently  of  such  criminals,  as  the  hands  and 
feet,  have  been  cut  off  at  the  joints4.  It  is  probable  that  in  the 
times  of  the  Pharaohs5,  as  well  as  of  the  Ptolemies,  the  working 

1  Ylarptotot  xpt<&mvoi  v6jAoiaii  of  A-lyvirrioi  SXXov  ovocvn  ZmK-tcovrat  (Her.  2, 
79,  91.) 

s  Diod.  1,  77,  7  . 

'  The  Egyptians  had  no  stamped  coin,  but  used  rings  of  metal  in  ex« 

change. 

*  PeraUg  in  Vyse  on  the  Pyramids,  8,  3S 

6  Compare  Agatharchides  ap.  Phot.  ccL  11,  p.  1842,  whom  Diodoru*  fol- 


CONSTITUTION   AND  LAWS. 


4  5 


of  the  goli-mines  of  the  Arabian  Desert  was  one  of  the  punish- 
ments of  criminals.  The  labor  was  cruelly  severe,  and  was  exacted 
by  the  scourge ;  in  the  low  and  winding  passages  in  which  they 
wrought,  the  miners  were  compelled  to  assume  painful  and  unna- 
tural postures  in  order  to  carry  on  their  work1.  Their  complaints 
could  excite  no  sympathy,  for  guards  were  placed  over  them  who 
did  not  understand  their  language.  Children,  women  and  old  men 
were  employed  in  different  operations,  and  neither  infirmity  nor 
disease  procured  a  respite,  while  there  remained  any  strength  which 
blows  could  compel  them  to  exert2.  Sabaco  the  Ethiopian  intro- 
duced the  practice  of  employing  criminals  on  public  works,  instead 
of  putting  them  to  death. 

A  singular  law  prevailed  in-  regard  to  thieves8.  They  were 
organized  under  a  chief,  with  whom  their  names  were  enrolled, 
and  to  whom  everything  stolen  was  brought.  Those  who  had 
been  robbed  applied  to  him,  and  obtained  back  their  property  on 
payment  of  a  fourth  of  the  value.  This  amounts  in  fact  to  impu- 
nity for  any  one  who  was  willing  to  make  restitution  on  payment 
of  one-fourth,  and  probably  nowhere  has  stolen  property  been  so 
cheaply  recovered.  The  law  has  been  converted  by  later  authori- 
ties4 into  a  general  permission  of  theft  in  Egypt. 

The  most  sanguinary  part  of  the  Egyptian  law  was  that  which 
protected  the  sacred  animals,  as  already  mentioned6.  It  is  proba- 
ble, however,  that  the  fanaticism,  of  which  Diodorus  witnessed  an 

lows.  He  says  that  the  mines  had  been  wrought  in  the  earliest  times,  but 
the  working  had  been  interrupted  by  the  incursions  of  the  Ethiopians. 

1  IIoXAa^wj  irpds  ras  r/j$  irerpaj  t'Jt«5rijraj  fjieraa^rijiaTi^ovrii  r.i  txutftara.  (Diod. 
3,  14.) 

*  Oi  TVy^dva  (Jvyyvri>iiT}<;  liS1  Arivtai  an\ui  ovx  ap^cucros,  oi  irtnrjpwjjcvos  oi  ytyr\- 
paxxjj,  oi  yvvaiKdi  daOiveia.  (Ibid.) 

*  Diod.  1,  80. 

*  Aulus  Gellius,  11,  18,  quoting  "  Aristo  jureconsultus." 

*  Herod.  2,  65.  Cicero,  N,  D.  1,  29,  includes  the  dog  and  the  crocodile 
nmoug  the  animals  whom  it  was  a  capital  crime  to  kill.    (Diod.  1,  72.) 


46 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


example,  was  one  mode  of  expressing  national  animosity,  and  that 
it  had  not  existed  in  such  intensity  before  the  Persian  conquest. 
The  law  of  sacrilege  in  Christian  countries  has  been  equally  severe 
and  inhuman  ;  nor  would  a  Jew,  suspected  of  an  act  of  disrespect 
towards  the  rites  and  emblems  of  the  Church,  have  fared  better  at 
the  hands  of  the  multitude,  than  the  Roman  who  fell  a  victim  to 
the  fury  of  an  Egyptian  mob. 

The  condition  of  females,  according  to  Diodorus1,  was  singularly 
favorable  to  the  weaker  sex,  the  prerogatives  of  a  queen  being 
greater  than  those  of  a  king,  and  the  husband  engaging  in  the 
marriage  contract  to  obey  the  wife  in  everything.  These  state- 
ments are  rendered  suspicious  by  being  connected  with  the  mythic 
sovereignty  of  Isis.  The  marriage  of  brothers  and  sisters  was 
allowed2.  Herodotus,  contrasting  the  manners  and  customs  of 
Egypt  with  those  of  other  countries,  remarks,  that  the  women 
went  to  market  and  carried  on  retail  trades,  while  the  men  sat  in 
the  house,  occupied  at  the  loom3.  This,  however,  indicates  no 
superior  privilege  on  the  part  of  the  Egyptian  women  ;  it  is  only 
a  proof  that  weaving  was  in  Egypt  an  art  requiring  great  skill  and 
long  practice4,  not  as  in  Greece  a  part  of  domestic  economy.  The 
other  circumstances  which  Herodotus  mentions,  as  contrasts  with 
Greek  customs,  are  rather  proofs  of  the  depressed  condition  of  the 
female  sex.    Women  carried  burthens  on  their  shoulders,  men  on 

1  Diod.  I,  27. 

3  This  custom  was  explained  by  the  marriage  of  Isis  with  Osiris.  (Diod. 
ibid.)  It  is  said  to  be  confirmed  by  the  monuments,  but  I  doubt  if  sister 
and  cousin  can  be  distinguished. 

8  Herod.  2,  35.  The  Greeks,  who  despised  manufactures,  ridiculed  the 
habits  of  the  Egyptians  as  effeminate  (Soph.  (Ed.  CoL  337).  The  Ionian 
women  were  peculiarly  sedentary  (Xen.  Rap.  Lac  1,  8,  with  Hansel 
note). 

*   Nam  longe  praestat  in  arte, 

Et  solertius  est  multo  genus  omne  virile. 

Lucr.  5,  1354,  speaking  of  weaving. 


CONSTITUTION  AND  LAWS. 


47 


their  heads,  the  women  of  course  bearing  the  heavier  weights. 
Women  were  excluded  from  all  but  menial  offices  about  the  tem- 
ples ;  to  maintain  their  parents  if  in  want  was  voluntary  with  sons, 
compulsory  with  daughters.  The  monuments,  as  far  as  they  have 
hitherto  been  interpreted,  afford  no  countenance  to  the  statement 
of  Diodorus,  though  we  cannot  doubt  that  the  condition  of  the 
female  sex  in  Egypt  partook  of  the  general  character  of  humanity 
and  refinement  which  belonged  to  that  country.  Polygamy  was 
allowed  except  to  the  priests1,  and  all  children,  whether  by  wives 
or  concubines,  were  equally  legitimate.  But  even  where  several 
wives  were  taken,  one  of  them,  under  the  title  of  Lady  of  the 
House,  enjoyed  a  superiority  in  honor  and  authority  over  the  rest2. 
In  the  marshy  districts  of  Lower  Egypt  monogamy  prevailed,  pro- 
bably owing  to  the  poverty  of  the  inhabitants,  as  in  Mohammedan 
countries  the  lower  and  even  middle  classes  have  usually  only  one 
wife. 

Of  the  civil  laws  of  the  Egyptians  very  little  is  known.  Most 
of  those  which  are  specified  are  attributed  to  Bocchoris3,  who  is 
supposed  to  be  the  Pehor  of  the  monuments,  and  to  have  lived  a 
short  time  before  the  Ethiopian  conquest.  One  of  the  most  impor- 
tant was,  that  the  goods  only  of  a  debtor  could  be  taken,  and  that 
the  arrest  of  the  person  was  not  allowed,  on  the  ground  that  his 
services,  whether  a  soldier,  a  peasant,  or  an  artisan,  belonged  to 
the  state.  .  In  this  respect  the  Egyptian  law  was  wiser  and  more 
humane  than  that  of  most  of  the  Grecian  states,  which  secured  to 
a  debtor  the  implements  by  which  he  gained  his  living,  yet  allowed 
him  by  imprisonment  to  be  deprived  of  the  means  of  using  them4. 
Solon  introduced  the  Egyptian  practice  into  the  law  of  Athens.  If 
no  written  security  had  been  given,  a  man  might  clear  himself 
from  a  claim  by  his  oath — a  proof  how  general  was  the  use  of 


1  Diod.  1,  80.  Herod.  1,  92. 
•  Diod  1,  79,  94. 


3  Rosellmi,  Mon.  Civ.  8,  187. 

4  Diod  ibid 


48 


ANCIENT   EG  VPT. 


writing  for  civil  purposes  among  the  Egyptians  in  later  times,  and 
a  salutary  limitation  of  credit.  The  interest  of  a  debt  was  never 
allowed  to  amount  to  more  than  double  the  principal, — an  ample 
security  for  the  lenderSs  rights,  and  a  preventive  of  those  violent 
infringements  of  the  law  of  debtor  and  creditor,  which,  under  the 
names  of  Seisachtheia  and  Novae  Tabulce,  we  meet  with  in  Greek 
and  Roman  history.  By  a  singular  law,  passed  at  a  time  when 
there  was  a  great  want  of  circulating  medium1,  a  man  was  allowea 
to  pledge  the  mummies  of  his  forefathers  for  debt,  but  was  himself 
deprived  of  sepulture  if  he  omitted  to  redeem  them  before  his 
death.  The  prohibition  appears  to  have  included  his  descendants, 
%s  long  as  the  debt  remained  unpaid. 

*  'JL»i  'Acr6j(i»(  #«ffiA/*i»v'  ir%  if/'^tiS  iovarii  xoWijf  ^pq^irwf.      Herod.  2,  186.) 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT 


INTRODUCTION. 

AUTHORITIES  FOR  EGYPTIAN  HISTORY. 
SECT.  I.  GREEK  WRITERS. 

The  commencement  of  Grecian  intercourse  with  Egypt  is  hidden 
by  the  darkness  of  antehistoric  times.  The  warlike  expeditions  of 
the  Egyptian  kings  no  doubt  included  Ionia,  but  the  coast  of  Asia 
was  not  then  inhabited  by  Greek  settlers,  and  it  is  not  alleged  that 
Sesostris  carried  his  arms  lDto  Hellas  proper1.  The  stories  of  Egyp- 
tian colonization  in  Greece  are  generally  of  so  late  an  origin,  that 
we  cannot  even  infer  from  them  the  existence  of  a  popular  belief3. 
There  is,  however,  one  exception.  The  story  of  Io,  the  Argive 
princess,  who  was  changed  into  a  heifer,  and  after  k>ng  wanderings 
reached  Egypt  where  she  gave  birth  to  a  god,  and  herself  was 
worshipped  as  the  goddess  Isis,  points  clearly  to  the  introduction 
of  the  worship  of  Isis  or  Athor,  under  the  symbol  of  the  heifer,  at 
an  early  period  into  Argos.  As  the  worship  of  the  Moon  under 
this  symbol  appears  to  have  prevailed  in  Phoenicia,  as  well  as  in 
Egypt,  it  might  have  been  doubted  from  which  of  these  countries 
it  was  transferred  to  Argos,  but  for  the  circumstance  that  Io  is  the 
Coptic  name  of  the  Moon3,  and  the  same  term  was  preserved  in 

1  Herod.  2,  103. 

*  Even  Diodorus  (1,29)  acknowledges  the  vanity  of  these  pretensions  ou 
the  part  of  the  Egyptians. 
Peyron,  Lex  Copt  p.  69.  > 


52 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


the  dialect  of  Argos,  without  apparent  affinity  with  any  Greet 
root1.  The  story  of  the  migration  of  Danaus  and  JEgyptus  with 
their  fifty  sons  and  daughters  to  Argos  cannot  be  traced  highe* 
than  to  the  age  of  ^Escliylus  and  Herodotus  ;  but  it  was  received 
by  the  latter  as  historical,  and  the  existence  of  the  belief  is  hardly 
to  be  explained,  unless  we  admit  the  general  fact  of  an  Egyptian 
colonization. 

We  are  not  sufficiently  acquainted  with  the  history  of  naviga- 
tion among  the  Greeks,  to  assign  with  any  probability  the  time 
when  they  first  visited  the  shores  of  Egypt.  They  regarded  it  as 
at  once  a  distant  and  a  difficult  voyage8.  Even  the  life  of  a  tra- 
veller who  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  savage  people  inhabiting  the 
marshes  near  the  mouths  of  the  Nile  was  not  safe,  for  there  was  a 
time  when  the  harbor  of  Pharos  was  not  opened  for  the  admission 
of  strangers3.  The  sacrifice  of  ruddy-colored  men  appears  to 
have  prevailed  in  Lower  Egypt  in  the  early  ages  of  the  monarchy4, 
and  the  fair  and  yellow-haired  Greeks  would  be  especially  the 
objects  of  aversion  and  outrage  from  their  Typhonian  hue6.  If 
they  visited  Egypt,  they  appear  to  have  confined  themselves  to  the 
Canopic  mouth  of  the  Nile.  To  this  their  mythic  traditions  reier. 
Here  was  the  Tower  of  Perseus6,  and  a  little  further  to  the  east 
the  temple  of  Hercules,  who  on  his  return  from  Libya  had  encoun- 
tered and  slain  the  inhospitable  Busiris7.  Hither  Paris  had  been 
driven  on  his  way  from  Sparta  to  Troy.    Canopus  itself  was  sup- 

1  Yd^av  'Iovtiv  Kakovtri  rives  tvQa  0ovs  lv  dyd\jian  rrjs  'lows'  hroi  rfjg  as\fivr]i' 
'Icb  yap  fi  ct\r\vr)  Kara  tv>   rdv  'Apyctcjv  SioXekTiv.     (Eust.  fld  DionyS,  Perieg.  V. 

94) 

'  Od.  6',  483.  *  Eratosth.  ap.  Strab.  p.  802.    Diod.  I,  67. 

4  Plut  p.  380.    Porphyr.  de  Abst  p.  199. 

'Ev  riaiv  inoraii  riov  fiiv  duQownuv  rovs  nvpfovs  irpoirr}\aK(^ov(Tii  6id  rd  irvpftov 

ytyovhai  rov  Tvcpdva.  (Pint.  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  362  F.)  Busiris  was  one  of  the 
places  in  which  the  Typhonian  superstition  prevailed. 

•  Herod.  2,  15.  7  Strabo,  p.  801.  '  Diod.  4,  27.    Her.  2,  113. 


GREEK  WRITERS. 


53 


posed  to  have  derived  its  name  from  the  pilot  of  Menelaus.  who 
had  sailed  thither  on  his  return  from  Troy  and  been  detained  by 
the  anger  of  the  gods1.  The  name  of  Thon,  which  appears  in  the 
story  of  Menelaus,  was  derived  from  a  town  of  that  name,  which 
stood  near  the  Canopic  mouth2,  and  a  place  called  Heleneius  is 
mentioned  in  the  same  locality3.  The.  Canopic  mouth  was  the 
nearest  to  Greece  and  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor  inhabited  by  Greeks  ; 
it  gave  the  most  ready  access  to  the  interior,  and  afforded,  even  in 
the  earliest  times  of  Greek  navigation,  a  deeper  and  safer  anchor- 
age than  any  of  the  other  channels4. 

The  incidental  mention  of  Egypt  in  the  Homeric  poems  leads  us 
to  suppose  that  the  Greeks  in  general  were  but  little  acquainted 
with  it,  and  least  of'  all  with  upper  Egypt6.  The  island  Pharos, 
which  must  then  as  now  have  lain  close  to  the  coast,  is  placed  by 
ihe  poet  at  the  distance  from  it  of  a  day's  sail6.  If  this  arose  from 
gnorance  on  his  part,  it  proves  that  the  coast  was  not  much  fo- 
mented by  navigators ;  if,  as  seems  probable,  it  was  designed  in 
order  to  afford  a  more  appropriate  scene  for  the  "  specious  miracle" 
df  Proteus,  it  presumes  ignorance  of  the  true  position  on  the  part 
of  his  auditors.    With  the  exception  of  Thebes,  only  Lower  Egypt 

1  Od.  6',  83,  351.      *  Diod.  1,  19.      •  Hecatams  apud  Steph.  Byz.  a.  voc. 

4  *E^ec  filv  ovv  tto-ayayyas  ra  cr6uara  dXX'  ovk  ettyuEtj,  oict  fitydXus  ir\oiois  d\\'- 
iTTjperiKoTSj  6ta  to  0pa^ca  t7iat  kui  l\utitf  //aXtjra  fiivrot  ra  Kava>/?t<a>  arSftari  t%- 
iHavrp  us  ifiitop'uo.    (Strabo,  p.  801.) 

*  The  assertion  of  the  Egyptian  priests  (Diod.  1,  96),  that  it  was  recorded 
it.  their  sacred  books  that  Homer  had  visited  Egypt,  deserves  no  credit. 

*  Ntjcoj  t~cira  tis  ivTi  ttoXukXvotg)  ivl  ttovtco 

A.iyv~Tov  zpo-rdpotde  (<$>acov  it  I  KuX^oxovai) 
Tdffffov  avtvB'  oocov  tc  iravrjptpir]  yXa<pvpr]  vrjvg 
*HfT>ff£i>,  3  Xjyvs  ovpos  i-invt'iTjoiv  omodtv. — Od.  S'f  854. 
19o  deposition  of  soil  can  have  filled  up  this  interval;  nor  is  anything 
gained  by  making  Aiyvm-ov  here  signify  the  river  Kile,  contrary  to  itt 
obvious  meaning  ;  for  Pharos  is  not  TrpondpoiQs  any  part  of  the  river,  and 
much  less  than  a  day's  sail  from  the  nearest  part  of  it.    In  Virgil's  time  th« 


54 


HISTORY   OF  EGA'PT. 


is  alluded  to.  Menelaus  is  said  in  the  Odyssey1  to  have  received 
rich  presents  from  Polybus,  who  dwelt  in  Thebes,  and  in  aftertimea 
this  Polybus  was  converted  into  a  king  of  the  19th  dynasty.  The 
exaggerated  description  of  Thebes,  and  its  wealth8,  indicates  that 
it  was  known  from  the  boastful  rumor  of  the  natives  rather  than 
from  ocular  inspection.  Egypt's  abundance  in  skilful  physicians 
and  medicinal  herbs  is  noticed  in  the  Odyssey,  but  this  too  is 
turned  into  a  tale  of  wonder  in  the  description  of  the  virtues  of 
the  Nepenthe9.  Before  the  time  of  Psammitichus,  Greeks  were 
not  allowed  to  go  beyond  the  coast  of  Lower  Egypt,  and  the  occa- 
sional visits  of  traders  to  a  single  sea-port,  inhabited  by  a  people 
whose  language  was  utterly  unknown  to  them,  could  furnish  no 
accurate  knowledge  of  the  interior,  much  less  any  insight  into  the 
history  of  the  country. 

This  state  of  things  was  entirely  changed  in  the  reign  of  Psam- 
mitichus, who  gained  his  kingdom  by  means  of  Ionian  and  Carian 
mercenaries  (670  b.  a),  took  them  permanently  into  his  pay,  and 
established  a  body  of  interpreters,  by  whose  means  the  Greeks 
began  to  acquire  an  accurate  knowledge  of  Egypt4.  Amasis, 
nearly  a  century  and  a  half  later,  allowed  them  to  settle  at  plea- 
sure in  Naucratis.  Yet  Pindar  speaks  of  Mendes  as  being  "  near 
a  cliff  of  the  sea,"  though  there  is  no  cliff  on  the  coast,  nor  was 
Mendes  near  it5.  The  state  of  Greek  literature  however  has  pre- 
vented our  deriving  any  benefit  from  this  source,  in  the  interval 
between  the  reign  of  Psammitichus  and  the  Persian  conquest. 

mouth  of  the  Nile  was  too  well  known  to  be  the  scene  of  a  tale  of  wonder 
and  he  transfers  it  to  the  Carpathian  Sea.    (Georg.  4,  88*7.) 
1  Od.  6',  126. 

3  D.  » 381.    See  vol.  L  p.  150. 

'  Od.  6\  220  seq. 

*  Herod.  2,  154.    Diod.  1,  G7. 

6  Uapa  KprifAvdv  9a\d<T<ras.  (Frag.  Boeckh.  215.)  Comp.  Fr.  50,  where  Egypt 
ia  called  ayxiicpripvoi. 


GREEK   WRITERS.  51 

0 

During  this  time  Thales  and  Pythagoras  had  visited  Egypt,  and 
been  initiated  into  the  religion  and  science  of  the  Egyptians1,  but 
we  have  only  vague  traditions  of  their  travels  ;  for  history  had  not 
yet  come  into  existence  among  the  Greeks  themselves.  Still  the 
presence  of  intelligent  foreigners  controlled  the  propensity  of  the 
natives  to  give  a  marvellous  air  to  everything  in  their  history,  and 
established  a  chronology  moderate,  credible  and  continuous  for  the 
period  subsequent  to  the  reign  of  Psammitichus,  while  before  that 
time,  in  the  works  of  Herodotus  and  Diodorus,  the  history  is 
mythical  and  extravagant,  and  the  chronology  exaggerated,  uncer- 
tain and  fragmentary. 

The  overthrow  of  the  monarchy  of  the  Pharaohs  by  Cambyse^ 
coinciding  with  the  commencement  of  prose  history  in  Ionia,  at 
length  laid  Egypt  completely  open  to  the  researches  of  the  Greeks, 
and  preserved  the  record  of  them  to  succeeding  times.  The  philo- 
sophers who  visited  it  while  the  hierarchy  retained  their  power, 
were  probably  compelled  to  purchase  their  initiation  into  the  secrets 
of  science  and  the  mysteries  of  religion2  by  humble  entreaty,  and 
attain  it  through  long  preliminary  forms3 ;  and  the  jealous  sensi- 
bility of  the  multitude,  in  everything  which  regarded  their  religion, 
would  co-operate  with  the  spirit  of  secresy  and  monopoly  in  the 
priesthood,  to  render  free  inquiry  dangerous  and  difficult.  The 
Persian  conquest  made  the  professors  of  a  different  and  hostile  reli- 
gion masters  of  the  country,  opened  all  its  approaches,  and  enabled 
the  Greeks  to  visit  every  part  of  it.  The  reign  of  Darius  established 
order  and  peace  throughout  the  whole  extent  of  the  monarchy ; 

1  Antiphon  ap.  Porph.  de  Vita  Pyth.  Diog.  Laert.  8,  3.  According  to  this 
author,  the  friendly  relations  between  Polycrates  and  Amasis  obtained  for 
Pythagoras  admission  first  to  the  Heliopolitan,  then  to  the  Memphite,  and 
last  of  all  the  Theban  Priests. 

•  Diod.  1,  98. 

'  UpoaTay/jLara  oc'Xripa  iral  Kt^wpiafitva  Trjs  'EAAtjukOj  aywyrjf,  Says  Antipho  di 

the  trials  by  which  the  patience  of  Pythagoras  was  tried 


66  ANCIENT  EGYPT. 

Egypt  in  particular  felt  the  benefit  of  his  firm  but  tolerant  sway 
The 'earliest  Greek  descriptions  of  Egypt  were  probably  written 
during  his  reign1.  Cadmus  must  have  written  on  Egypt,  since 
Diodorus  (1,  37)  includes  him  among  those  who  had  given  fabu- 
lous accounts  of  the  Nile.  Hecatseus,  like  Cadmus,  a  native  of 
Miletus,  a  city  which  was  the  first  school  of  Greek  history  and 
geography,  was  a  contemporary  of  Darius,  and  had  included  Egypt 
among  the  countries  which  he  described  in  his  Periegeses  or  Peri- 
odos*.  Nothing  has  been  quoted  from  this  last  work,  by  which  we 
can  judge  whether  he  gave  its  history,  but  the  descriptive  part  must 
have  been  minute,  since  Herodotus  has  been  charged  with  almost 
literally  copying  from  him  the  passages  in  his  second  book  relating 
to  the  phoenix,  the  hippopotamus  and  the  crocodile8.  Hellanicus 
of  Lesbos,  a  few  years  before  Herodotus,  either  wrote  a  work  enti- 
tled AlyvtfrtoLxa.\or  at  all  events  introduced  many  particulars  respect- 
ing the  productions,  customs  and  dogmas  of  Egypt  into  some  of 
his  voluminous  writings.  According  to  the  judgment  of  Photius, 
it  contained  much  that  was  mythic  and  fictitious5,  but  it  might 

1  Hippys  of  Rhegium,  who  lived  M  raw  TlcpviKtZv  (Suid.),  is  reckoned  by 
Heyne  among  the  writers  on  Egypt  (De  Font.  Hist  Diod.  xxviii.),  but  no 
Buch  work  is  ascribed  to  him,  and  he  may  have  mentioned  the  antiquity  of 
the  Egyptian  people,  and  the  puritj  of  the  air  and  water  incidentally  in  his 
other  writings.  SchoL  ap.  Rhod.  4,  262,  where  the  name  is  written  'Imroiv 
in  Schol.  Paris.  • 

*  It  was  doubtful  whether  the  works  which  were  current  under  these 
names  in  the  time  of  Athenaeus  and  Arrian  were  genuine.  (Arr.  6,  6. 
Athen.  Epit  2,  p.  70.) 

*  Euseb.  Prsep.  Evang  10.  8,  quoting  Porphyry  ntpl  roi  icMmas  tivai  rovs 

*EX>i7»"if. 

*  The  title  quoted  by  Athenams,  p.  470  D.  679  F.,  is  not  decisive  evidence 
of  the  existence  of  a  separate  work  so  named,  since  Ave  find  the  Aiyvnriairi 
of  Herodotus  quoted,  evidently  the  Euterpe  (Sturz,  Hellan.  p.  40).  Plutarch 
mentions  Hellan icra  as  writing  the  name  Osiris  Usiris  (Is.  et  Os.  p.  364). 

b  Co*  ob:!  »>.  S3S,  /ivOiko  kqi  nXaonanxa  iroWd.    Two  sources,  however,  ar« 


GREEK  WRITERS. 


57 


nevertheless  be  a  faithful  account  of  what  he  had  seen  and  heard. 
Pherecydes,  who  was  three  years  younger  than  llerodotus,  but 
published  earlier,  introduced  the  mention  of  Egypt  into  his  'TtfTopi'aj, 
in  connexion  with  the  attempt  of  Busiris  to  sacrifice  Hercules1.  But 
it  does  not  appear  that  he  had  visited  this  country,  and  the  frag- 
ments of  his  work  indicate  that  he  regarded  the  history  of  all  other 
nations  fruRi  the  Grecian  point  of  view,  and  endeavored  to  inter- 
weave it  with  the  mythic  history  of  the  heroic  age. 

Probably  none  of  these  writers,  not  even  Hecataeus,  contained  a 
connected  history  and  chronology  of  Egypt.  We  may  regard  these 
as  beginning  with  Herodotus.  The  Egyptians  had  revolted  from 
Persia  at  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Darius  (486  b.  c),  but  had  been 
brought  into  subjection  early  in  that  of  Xerxes  (484  b.  c),  and  had 
again  revolted  under  Inaros  king  of  Libya  in  460  b.  c.  This  revolt 
lasted  six  years,  and  the  Athenians  had  assisted  the  Egyptians  with 
a  fleet,  which  at  first  was  successful  and  took  possession  of  Memphis, 
but  was  subsequently  destroyed  by  Megabyzus8.  Whether  Hero- 
dotus visited  Egypt  during  its  temporary  occupation  by  the  Greeks, 
or  subsequently  to  the  re-establishment  of  the  Persian  dominion  in 
i5o  B.C.,  is  uncertain.  It  is  evident  from  his  history  (2,  99)  that 
at  the  time  when  it  was  written  they  were  in  possession  of  it ;  but 
many  years  intervened  between  his  travels,  and  the  publication  of 
his  Muses  in  their  present  form.  In  either  case  it  is  evident  that 
lie  was  able  to  pass  freely  through  the  country  to  the  borders  of 
Nubia',  and  pursue  every  investigation  which  his  inquisitive  mind 
suggested.  His  residence,  however,  seems  to  have  been  chief! v 
confined  to  Lower  Egypt  and  Memphis ;  he  visited  Thebes,  but  it 

mentioned,  Hellanieus  and  ^Elius  Dionysius  (or  Dius),  and  it  does  not  appear 
what  belonged  to  each. 

1  Pherecydes,  ed.  Sturz,  pp.  182,  137.  Herodotus  probably  had  him  iu 
riew  (2,  45)  when  he  charges  the  Greeks  with  repeating  idle  talcs  respecting 
human  sacrifices  in  Egypt, 

*  Thuc  1,  104,  109.  ■  Her.  2,  29. 

3* 


58 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


was  to  ascertain  whether  its  sacerdotal  traditions  agreed  with  those 
which  he  had  heard  at  Memphis,  and  the  reader  is  surprised  that 
he  should  have  passed  over  in  profound  silence  its  temples,  palaces, 
and  sepulchres,  as  well  as  all  the  circumstances  which  give  to  Upper 
Egypt  a  character  so  different  from  that  of  the  Delta.  Thebes  had 
suffered  especially  from  the  fury  of  Cambyses1,  yet  its  buildings 
remained,  and  even  in  its  ruins  it  must  have  far  surpassed  every 
other  city  of  Egypt.  He  appears  to  have  derived  his  materials 
almost  entirely  from  the  accounts  of  the  priests3  and  the  Greeks 
settled  in  the  country :  he  never  quotes  as  authorities  the  writers 
who  had  preceded  him,  though  he  sometimes  alludes  to  their  mis- 
takes3. The  information  which  the  priests  gave  him  was  commu- 
nicated orally,  except  in  one  instance,  in  which  they  read  to  him 
from  a  papyrus  a  list  of  341  kings.  In  other  passages4  he  men- 
tions the  purport  of  inscriptions  which  had  been  explained  to  him. 

His  history  begins  with  Menes,  the  founder  of  the  monarchy  and 
of  Memphis,  succeeded  by  330  sovereigns,  respecting  whom,  as 
they  had  erected  no  monuments,  the  priests  had  nothing  further 
to  relate  than  that  eighteen  among  them  were  Ethiopians  and  one 
a  queen,  Nitocris.  The  next  name,  and  therefore  the  331st  from 
Menes,  is  that  of  Mceris,  the  author  of  the  remarkable  excavation, 
for  so  Herodotus  .considered  it,  in  the  district  of  Fyoum,  which 
received  the  overflowings  of  the  Nile.  The  conqueror  Sesostris 
succeeds  to  Mceris,  and  to  Sesostris  his  son  Pheron,  In  the  reign 
of  his  successor,  Proteus,  is  related  the  history  of  the  adventures 
of  Paris,  Menelaus  and  Helen  in  Egypt,  followed  by  the  reign  of 
Rhampsinitus  the  wealthy,  with  the  anecdote  of  the  thief  who 
robbed  his  treasury.  After  Rhampsinitus  come  the  builders  of  the 
pyramids — Cheops,  Chephren  and  Mycerinus,  followed  by  Asychis 

1  Strabo,  p.  816.  Diod.  1,  46. 

a  2,  99,  100,  102,  107,  111,  113,  118,  124,  154.    In  2,  142  he  quote*  as  hif 

authorities  A.iyvirTtoi  rs  xal  ol  Ipces. 

'  2,  16.  *  2,  125,  186,  141. 


GREEK  WRITERS. 


59 


and  Anysis,  in  whose  reign  Sabaco  the  Ethiopian  invaded  Egyp< 
and  kept  possession  of  the  throne  for  fifty  years.  His  evacuation 
of  the  kingdom  made  way  for  the  elevation  of  Sethos,  succeeded 
by  the  Dodecarchia,  or  government  of  twelve  chieftains,  whose 
power  Psammitichus  put  down  and  consolidated  the  government 
in  his  own  hands.  With  Psammitichus,  as  we  have  already 
observed,  we  reach  a  period  of  ascertained  history  and  definite 
chronology ;  but  the  effect  of  the  establishment  of  the  Greeks  in 
Egypt  is  in  some  degree  retrospective,  and  extends  this  period  as 
far  back  as  the  Ethiopian  dominion. 

In  regard  to  all  that  precedes  this  age,  the  eighth  century  before 
Christ,  it  is  evident,  from  the  inspection  of  the  history  of  Herodo- 
tus by  itself,  and  without  comparison  with  monuments  or  with  any 
other  historical  book,  that  it  cannot  be  accepted  as  true,  either  in 
its  facts  or  its  dates.  Even  the  circumstance  that  after  Menes  330 
sovereigns  are  said  to  have  succeeded  to  each  other,  without  leaving 
any  memorial  of  themselves  in  public  works,  or  legislation,  or  con- 
quest, is  sufficient  to  show  that  the  kings  and  their  chronology  are 
unhistorical.  If  we  suppose,  which  is  not  improbable,  that  Hero- 
dotus has  mistaken  the  statement  received  from  the  priests,  and 
that  the  330  kings  were  not  represented  by  them  as  intervening 
between  Menes  and  Mceris,  but  are  to  be  added  to  the  eleven  who 
succeeded  Mceris,  and  whose  reigns  are  specially  described  by  him, 
making  341  for  the  whole  number  from  Menes  to  the  extinction 
of  the  line  of  the  Pharaohs  in  Sethos,  this  would  not  be  sufficient 
to  make  his  history  credible.  The  properly  historical  information, 
from  Menes  to  the  Ethiopian  invasion,  is  comprised  in  the  single 
reign  of  his  Sesostris,  who  appears  as  a  conqueror  and  a  legislator. 
All  the  other  sovereigns  serve  only  to  explain  the  existence  of  pub- 
lic works  and  monuments,  or  connect  themselves  with  narrativos 
which  betray  their  origin  in  superstition  or  popular  credulity; 
nothing  is  recorded  of  them  analogous  to  the  facts  which  authentic 
history  (reserves  respecting  the  real  monarchs  of  powerful  and 


60 


AXCIEXT  EOYI'T. 


civilized  countries,  and  which  must  certainly  have  been  contained 
in  the  annals  of  the  Egyptians,  the  most  learned  people  in  their 
national  antiquities1  of  any  of  the  ancient  world. 

It  is  also  obvious,  that  a  considerable  portion  of  this  history  has 
been  produced,  since  the  establishment  of  the  Greeks  in  Egypt,  by 
their  earnest  desire  to  connect  their  own  mythic  history  with  that 
of  Egypt.  The  Egyptian  priests  were  ready  to  co-operate  with  them 
for  this  purpose ;  each  party  having  also  its  separate  aim,  to  exalt 
the  glory  of  their  respective  countries.  The  adventures  of  Menelaus 
in  Egypt,  detailed  even  to  the  speeches,  occupy  about  the  same  space 
(2,  112—120)  as  the  whole  reign  of  Sesostris  (102—111).  The 
Homeric  my  the  of  Proteus,  a  marine  divinity  feeding  his  phocce  on 
the  coast  of  Egypt,  and  endowed  with  the  gift  of  prophecy,  which 
he  will  only  exercise  upon  compulsion,  is  transformed  into  the  his- 
tory of  a  man  of  Memphis2,  who  succeeds  to  the'  throne  of  Egypt 
on  the  death  of  Pheron,  the  son  of  Sesostris.  This  history  Hero 
dotus  received,  and  apparently  in  undoubting  faith,  from  the  priest? 
themselves,  who,  though  they  could  furnish  him  nothing  memorable 
to  record  respecting  330  sovereigns,  relate  with  the  minuteness 
of  a  contemporary  journal  the  adventures  of  a  Trojan  prince,  cast 
upon  their  shores  ;  adventures  trivial  in  themselves  if  they  ever 
happened,  and  little  likely  to  have  found  a  place  in  sacerdotal 
annals.  But  while  the  Greeks  were  gratified  to  find  a  confirmation 
of  their  own  history  in  that  of  Egypt,  the  Egyptian  priests  rejoiced 

1  2,  77.  Or  piv  nepl  tt)v  aireipofiiv^v  Aiyvnrov  oiKtovat^  fivfijirjv  dvdpuyirwv  itavroii 
litauKtoi  Tti  fiaXitTTa,  \oyiwTaToi  elai  fxuKpu)  tuv  eyw  ct'j  didnttpav  airiKOfxriv.  Ao'ytof 

is  explained  by  Hesychius  as  rrjs  loropiai;  l^tipou  Clem.  Alex,  p.  757,  Pot- 
ter, will  show  how  much  even  the  priests  had  to  commit  to  memory,  al- 
though they  had  a  large  number  of  written  volumes. 

a  Proteus  was  worshipped  at  Memphis,  but  in  the  quarter  of  the  Tynans 
(Her.  2,  112),  and  he  was  connected  with  the  temple  of  the  Foreign  Venus. 
The  story  was  transferred  probably  by  Phoenician  colonization,  with  the 
worship  of  the  Cabin  (Her.  3,  37)  to  Pallene  (Yirg.  Georg.  4,  390).  Se< 
Kenrick's  Egypt  of  Herodotus,  p.  265. 


GREEK  WRITiTRS. 


61 


in  the  opportunity  of  exhibiting  their  ancient  sovereigns  as  exercis- 
ing justice  and  hospitality  towards  the  Greeks.  They  had  been 
accused  by  the  Greeks  of  putting  strangers  to  death  ;  but  according 
to  the  account  given  by  the  priests  to  Herodotus,  Menelaus  seized 
and  sacrificed  two  Egyptian  children  to  obtain  favorable  winds — 
an  evident  allusion  to  the  story  of  the  sacrifice  of  Iphigenia.  It  is 
also  obvious  that  Egyptian  mythology  and  popular  anecdote  have 
furnished  a  considerable  portion  of  what  Herodotus  has  given  us 
for  history.  To  the  former  class  belong  the  stories  of  the  descent 
of  Rhampsinitus  into  Hades,  and  the  grief  of  the  daughter  of  Mv- 
cerinus ;  to  the  latter  the  pleasant  tale  of  the  thief  who  was  caught 
in  the  trap,  when  endeavoring  to  rob  the  treasure-house  of  Rhamp- 
sinitus. Such  being  the  general  character  of  the  history,  even 
those  parts  which  do  not  bear  on  their  face  the  marks  of  a  mythic 
or  fictitious  origin,  lose  their  historical  evidence ;  they  are  less 
improbable  than  the  rest,  but  not  more  certain. 

From  a  history  composed  of  such  materials  no  chronology  can 
be  deduced.  Herodotus  makes  Mceris  to  have  preceded  only  by 
900  years  his  own  visit  to  Egypt ;  but  as  we  find  in  the  ascent  to 
Mceris  a  person  of  such  doubtful  historical  character  as  Proteus,  we 
can  place  no  reliance  on  any  portion  of  the  chain.  Herodotus 
besides  connects  this  date  of  the  reign  of  Mceris  with  the  assurance, 
that  in  his  time  a  rise  of  the  Nile  of  eight  cubits  was  sufficient  to 
iaundate  the  Delta  ;  whereas  in  the  historian's  own  day  a  rise  of 
sixteen  cubits  was  necessary  for  this  purpose.  This  however  sup- 
poses a  rate  of  variation  for  the  height  of  the  soil  and  river  so  dif- 
ferent from  everything  which  has  been  ascertained,  that  if  the  fact 
be  admitted  the  date  must  be  false  J  and  if  the  fact  be  incorrect,  the 
authority  of  ihose  by  whom  it  was  related,  and  from  whom  the 
whole  chrok;-Iogy  is  derived,  as  given  by  Herodotus,  is  of  no 
value. 

It  is  evident  that  a  popular  history  had  formed  itself  in  Egypt  iu 
the  time  of  Herodotus,  having  very  little  connexion  with  written  or 


62  HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 

monumental  authority,  of  which  the  leading  object  had  been  to 
satisfy  the  curiosity  of  travellers  by  furnishing,  what  they  always 
eagerly  inquire  for,  the  names  of  the  authors  of  public  works,  and 
some  anecdotes  respecting  them.  Had  he  derived  his  history  from 
a  class  of  persons  corresponding  with  those  who  in  modern  Europe 
Jiave  the  charge,  and  take  on  themselves  the  explanation  of  public 
monuments,  we  should  not  have  been  surprised  at  the  vagueness 
of  his  chronology  and  the  leaning  to  the  marvellous  in  his  narra- 
tives. But  he  repeatedly  appeals  to  the  authority  of  the  priests, 
who  as  a  body  must  in  this  age  have  retained  the  knowledge  of  the 
hieroglyphical  character  and  an  ample  religious  and  antiquarian 
literature.  I  can  only  explain  this  by  supposing  that  the  priests  with 
whom  he  conversed  were  of  a  very  subordinate  rank  and  ignorant 
of  the  antiquities  of  their  country,  who  had  framed  for  the  use  of 
visitors *such  a  history  as  would  satisfy  their  curiosity  and  excite 
their  imagination,  without  overburthening  their  memory  with 
names1.  From  the  account  of  Clemens  Alexandrinus2,  it  should 
seem  that  the  interpretation  of  the  hieroglyphic  character  was  the 
office  only  of  the  hierogrammateus,  from  whom  the  others  learnt  by 
heart  what  it  was  necessary  that  they  should  know  for  the  execu- 
tion of  their  offices.  This  may  help  to  account  for  the  extraordi- 
nary character  which  the  history  of  Herodotus  presents,  considered 
only  by  itself,  and  its  still  more  extraordinary  aspect,  when  con- 
fronted with  the  monuments. 

1  The  account  which  the  grammatistes  of  the  temple  of  Sais  gave  to  Hero- 
dotus (2,  28)  of  the  source  of  the  Nile,  which  he  describes  as  rising  between 
Syene  and  Elephantine,  and  flowing  half  towards  Egypt  and  half  towards 
Ethiopia,  proves  either  that  the  Egyptians  made  experiments  on  the  credu- 
lity of'the  Greeks,  or  that  an  inhabitant  of  Lower  Egypt,  where  the  Greeks 
chiefly  collected  their  information,  might  be  very  ignorant  of  the  geography 
of  Upper  Egypt.  The  Greeks  themselves  very  rarely  reached  the  southern 
frontier  of  the  kingdom,  much  less  did  they  venture  into  Ethiopia.  (Diod. 
Sic.  1,  37.) 

8  Strom.  6,  p.  151 


GREEK  WRITERS. 


63 


Egypt  remained  open  to  the  Greeks,  when  they  were  not  them- 
selves in  hostility  with  Persia.  Philistus,  the  Syracusan,  had  pro 
bably  visited  this  country,  during  his  long  exile,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  fourth  century  b.c.  He  wrote  a  work  on  Egypt  in  twelve 
books,  and  on  Egyptian  theology  in  three  books,  besides  a  discourse 
concerning  Naucratis1.  Democritus,  about  the  same  time,  is  said 
to  have  spent  five  years  in  Egypt,  and  to  have  written  on  the  sacred 
characters  of  Meroe2 ;  but  neither  of  his  works  nor  those  of  Phi* 
listus  has  more  than  the  titles  reached  us. 

If  we  are  inclined  to  wonder  at  the  vagueness  and  inaccuracy  of 
these  Greek  accounts  of  Egypt,  we  must  remember,  that  the  monu- 
ments in  general  precede  by  many  centuries  the  earliest  of  them, 
and  that  a  variance  between  them  does  not  therefore  necessarily 
imply  unfaithfulness  on  the  part  of  the  Greeks.  Besides  this,  many 
obstacles  stood  in  the  way  of  their  obtaining  accurate  information. 
Ignorant  themselves  of  the  language  of  the  country,  they  had  to 
depend  on  Egyptian  interpreters,  who  probably  possessed  only  that 
superficial  knowledge  of  Greek  which  enabled  them  to  cany  on 
intercourse  on  the  common-place  topics  of  commerce  and  conversa- 
tion. The  repugnance  of  the  Egyptians  for  foreign  religion  and 
manners  must  have  made  them  unwilling  to  receive  the  Greeks  inoc 
intimacy,  or  give  them  information.  Like  our  own  countrymen, 
they  bore  themselves  towards  barbarians  with  the  air  of  conscious 
superiority,  wrhich  inflames  dislike3.  The  priesthood  in  particular 
appear  to  have  endeavored  to  humble  the  national  pride  of 
the  Greeks,  by  representing  everything  in  their  civilization,  even 
their  philosophy  and  science,  as  derived  from  Egypt. 

The  next  great  event  in  the  history  of  Egypt  is  its  conquest  by 
Ptolemy,  the  son  of'Lagus,  in  the  year  322  b.c,  by  which  a  Greek 
dynasty  was  established  there  and  in  Ethiopia.    Many  of  the 


1  SuMas,  *.  o.  $tAfffro&  *  Diog.  Laert  9,  49. 

•  S«e  the  observations  of  Sir  G  Wilkinson,  M.  A  C.  5,  466. 


64 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


Greeks  subsequently  composed  Egyptian  histories ;  but  none  of 
them  has  been  preserved,  except  by  quotations  in  later  authors. 
From  a  fragment  of  Dicaearchus,  who  lived  about  300  B.C.,  it 
appears  as  if  he  had  placed  Sesonchosis  or  Sesostris  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  monarchy,  immediately  after  Horus,  whom  the 
Greeks  reckoned  to  have  been  the  last  of  the  gods1,  and  2936  years 
before  the  aera  of  the  Olympiads.  Such  a  position  of  Sesostris  is 
purely  arbitrary,  and  must  have  been  owing  to  his  celebrity  as  a 
conqueror — a  proof  that  Egyptian  history  was  still  arranged 
according  to  popular  conception  rather  than  documentary  and 
monumental  evidence.  Eratosthenes  of  Cyrene,  the  chief  librarian 
of  the  Alexandrian  library,  a  man  of  extraordinary  compass  of  lite- 
rary and  scientific  attainments,  had  occupied  himself  with  the 
genealogy  and  succession  of  the  Theban  kings2  in  the  reign  of  the 
second  Ptolemy  ;  but  his  labors  appear  to  have  had  little  influence 
upon  the  popular  history,  which,  as  it  is  given  by  Diodorus,  retains 
the  same  general  character  as  in  Herodotus. 

Diodorus  visited  Egypt  in  the  180th  Olympiad,  about  58  B.C.* 
From  what  source  the  portion  of  his  history  was  derived  which 
differs  from  Herodotus,  we  do  not  know.  He  had  seen  Memphis, 
and  probably  Thebes  ;  he  had  read  the  authors  who  had  written 
on  Egypt  in  the  times  of  the  Ptolemies,  and  quotes,  without  pro- 
fessing himself  to  have  read,  the  annals  of  the  priests.  Although 
not  admitting  that  the  Barbarians  generally  were  older  than  the 
Greeks,  the  reputed  birth  of  the  gods  in  Egypt,  the  high  antiquity 
of  astronomical  science  there,  and  the  fulness  and  importance  of 
its  historical  records,  led  him  to  begin  his  Universal  History  with 

1  Schol.  Apoll.  Rhod.  4,  272. 

*  T»>  yvuaiv  (piaiv  b  'Kparoird£vT}i  ~\a/3u)v  AlyvrrTiaKOis  vnojivfijiaai  Kal  6v6paoi  kut& 
■npSara^iv  fia<Ti\iKr)i>  rjj  'EWaSi  (piovfi  iraptippaatv  ovrwg  (Syncell.  ClirODOg.  p.  91. 

171  Dind.)    The  same  author  says  that  Eratosthenes  received  the  names  U 

TWV  ev  Aioan6\ei  izpoypanpartui*      (p.  147,  279  Dind.) 
»  Hist  1,  46. 


GREEK  WRITERS. 


that  of  Egypt,  and  prefix  to  it  a  speculation,  in  historical  garb,  on 
the  progress  of  civilization  in  that  country,  from  the  time  when 
the  inhabitants  lived  on  the  spontaneous  growth  of  the  papyrus, 
next  on  fish,  then  on  the  flesh  of  animals1,  and  lastly  on  lotus,  till 
a  king  and  queen,  Osiris  and  Isis,  discovered  the  cultivation  of 
grain. 

In  the  history  of  Diodorus  we  perceive  two  changes  which  had 
taken  place  since  the  time  of  Herodotus.  The  father  of  history, 
in  accordance  with  the  accounts  given  him  by  the  priests,  represents 
the  gods  of  Egypt  as  wholly  distinct  from  men2.  But  in  the 
interval  between  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  the  opinion  had  sprung 
up  among  the  Greeks  that  the  gods  had  been  illustrious  chiefs  and 
warriors,  inventors  and  improvers  of  the  arts  and  sciences,  raised 
to  the  rank  of  divinity  through  the  admiration  and  gratitude  of 
mankind3.  Osiris,  therefore,  who  had  been  to  Herodotus  a  god, 
answering  in  .  the  Egyptian  pantheon  to  Dionysus  in  the  Greek, 
appears  in  Diodorus  as  a  king  of  Egypt  also,  according  to  some 
accounts  the  founder  of  Thebes,  who  with  a  large  army  traversed 
the  world,  to  diffuse  the  blessings  of  civilization4.  Another  change 
is  the  endeavor  to  connect  Egyptian  history,  not  only  with  Greet 
history  generally,  but  with  the  country  of  the  reigning  dynasty. 
Osiris  is  accompanied  by  his  son  Macedo,  whom  he  leaves  as  king 
of  that  region,  a  fiction  by  means  of  which  Egyptian  pride  was 
flattered  with  the  belief  that  Egypt  had  been  conquered  by  princes 
of  its  own  blood5.    The  celebrated  wine  of  Maronea,  or  Ismarus 

Hist  1,  9.  43.  3  i,  143.    See  vol.  i.  p.  295. 

•  The  Egyptians  combined  the  ancient  with  the  modern  doctrine,  by  the 
■upposition  that  each  celestial  god  had  a  mortal  representative  mostly  cf 
the  same  name  (Diod.  1,  12,  13).  4  Diod.  1,  24,  28. 

5  Obvious  as  this  is,  the  interpreters  of  hieroglyphics  have  ought  for  a 
Macedo  among  the  names  of  the  ancient  gods  of  Egypt  (Wilkinson,  pi.  44; 
Young  in  Supp.  to  Encyclop.  Brit).  Fortunately  for  the  credit  of  theif 
science,  they  have  not  found  hi  in. 


06 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


in  Thrace,  which  in  this  age  was  included  in  Macedonia1,  was  also 
said  to  have  derived  its  name  from  Maro,  a  follower  of  Osiris  in 
his  Thracian  expedition  ;  and  Lycurgus,  a  name  occurring  in  the 
Iliad2,  is  represented  as  being  slain  in  consequence  of  his  resistance 
to  Osiris.  In  this  age  it  had  become  known  that  beer,  a  common 
beverage  in  Egypt,  was  used  among  the  barbarous  nations,  whose 
climate  could  not  ripen  grapes,  arid  this  also  Osiris  had  taught 
them  to  make3. 

The  properly  human  history  of  Diodorus  begins,  like  that  of 
Herodotus,  with  Menes.  The  line  of  his  insignificant  successors, 
of  whom  there  was  nothing  to  relate,  extends  only  to  fifty-two, 
occupying  a  space  of  1400  years.  After  this  interval  Busiris  suc- 
ceeds, and  eight  of  his  descendants,  of  whom  the  last,  Busiris  II., 
founds  the  city  which  the  Egyptians  call  the  city  of  Zeus,  and  the 
Greeks  Thebes.  At  this  point  there  is  a  break  in  the  chronology. 
Having  mentioned  the  sumptuous  temples  and  other  works  by 
which  the  kings  who  succeeded  Busiris  II.  had  adorned  Thebes, 
he  describes  at  great  length  the  monument  of  Osymandyas4 ;  and 
when  he  returns  to  his  history  and  says  that  Uchoreus,  eighth  in 
descent  from  this  king,  founded  Memphis,  it  is  uncertain  whether 
he  means  from  Busiris  or  from  Osymandyas,  probably  the  former.  " 
Mceris,  the  twelfth  in  descent  from  Uchoreus,  excavated  the  lake 
which  bears  his  name,  and  erected  in  it  two  pyramids,  on  one  of 
which  a  statue  of  himself,  on  the  other  of  his  queen,  was  placed. 
Seven  generations  later  lived  Sesoosis,  whose  history  has  so  close 
a  resemblance  with  that  of  the  Sesostris  of  Herodotus,  as  to  leave 
no  doubt  that  they  are  the  same  persons.  His  son  of  the  same  name 
succeeded  him,  and  from  the  circumstances  of  his  history  appears 
to  be  the  Pheron  of  Herodotus.    After  him  came,  in  many  gene- 

1  Strabo,  Epit.  1,  6,  331.  The  Greeks  on  their  side  alleged  that  Marea, 
near  Alexandria  (Geovg.  2,  91),  derived  its  name  from  the  Homeric  Maron 
(Od.     197.    Eu9\  o.) 

'  f,  1*4.  3  Her.  2,  11.    Diod.  1,  20.  4  1,  4/ 


GREEK  WRITERS. 


67 


rations,  whose  number  is  not  specified,  a  succession  of  kings,  who 
performed  nothing  worthy  of  record,  Amasis,  the  next  named, 
alienated  the  minds  of  his  people  by  h\s  tyranny,  so  that,  being 
invaded  by  Actisanes  the  king  of  Ethiopia,  Egypt  fell  with  little 
resistance  under  his  dominion.  At  his  death  the  Egyptians  reco- 
vered their  independence,  and  chose  Mendes  or  Marus  for  their 
king,  who  built  the  Labyrinth  as  a  sepulchre  for  himself.  An 
anarchy  which  lasted  five  generations  was  ended  by  the  election 
of  a  man  of  the  common  people,  called  Cetes  by  the  Egyptians, 
Proteus  by  the  Greeks.  The  variation  in  the  names  is  perhaps 
only  apparent ;  for  though  Kir^g  is  said  to  be  Egyptian,  its  ana- 
logy to  the  Greek  Kr}rog\  whence  the  Latin  cetus,  cete,  leads  to  the 
suspicion  that  it  represents  th3  same  idea  as  Proteus,  a  marine 
deity,  partaking  of  the  form  of  a  fish2.  The  reign  of  Cetes  must 
be  considered  in  the  chronology  of  Diodorus  to  answer  to  the  time 
of  the  Trojan  war.  The  Remphis  who  succeeds  to  Cetes  is  evidently 
the  Rhampsinitus  of  Jlerodotus.  In  comparing  the  accounts  of 
these  two  kings,  as  given  by  Herodotus  and  Diodorus,  we  see  an 
attempt  in  the  latter  to  give  an  historical  air  and  historical  proba- 
bility to  that  which  his  predecessor  had  left  in  the  vagueness  of 
mythe  and  tradition.  The  knowledge  of  the  winds  possessed  by 
Proteus  is  ascribed  to  his  intimacy  with  the  astronomers,  who  were 
supposed  to  be  capable  of  predicting  the  changes  of  the  weather ; 
his  transformations,  to  the  custom  of  the  Egyptian  rulers  to  put 
on  the  heads  of  lions,  bulls  and  serpents.  Herodotus  mentions, 
but  does  not  account  for  nor  specify,  the  immense  wealth  of  Rhamp- 

1  We  find  the  various  readings  of  Kctihi,  Ktrrjj/, -K^ya  (Diod.  1,  62),  but 
none  seems  to  represent  a  true  Egyptian  name. 

*  The  knowledge  of  the  future  was  for  some  mythic  reason,  not  necessary 
to  be  here  inquired  into,  supposed  to  belong  especially  to  the  marine  deities. 
(Hes.  Theog.  233.  Apoll.  Rhod.  1,  310.  Ov.  Met  12,  656.  8,  787.)  KW 
in  ITesiod  u.  s.  is  a  daughter  of  Hovtu  and  sister  of  Nereus;  Pioto  (ib.  243) 
i»  a  daughter  of  Nereus 


68 


HIS10RY   OF  EGYPT. 


siratus,  which  was  probably  connected  with  his  supposed  descent 
into  Hades1 ;  according  to  Diodorus  he  is  a  Henry  VIL,  rigid  in 
the  exaction  of  his  revenues  and  penurious  in  his  expenditure2 ;  he 
knows  also  the  exact  amount  of  treasure  which  he  left  behind  him. 
nam  eh  four  hundred  thousand  talents  of  gold  and  silver.  To 
Kemphis  succeed  for  seven  generations  kings  devoted  to  luxury 
and  indolence,  in  consequence  of  which  the  records  related  nothing 
of  them,  except  that  from  one  of  them,  Nileus,  the  river,  previously 
called  ^Egyptus,  took  its  later  name.  The  cause  of  the  change 
was  the  great  service  which  he  rendered  to  his  country  by  the 
construction  of  canals,  a  work  which  Herodotus  ascribes  to  Sesos- 
tris.  The  seven  faineons  were  succeeded  by  Chembes  ;  Chephres, 
or  Chabryis  ;  and  Mycerinus  or  Mechennos,  the  builders  of  the 
pyramids,  in  regard  to  whom  there  is  no  remarkable  difference 
between  Herodotus  and  Diodorus.  After  these  kings  comes  Boc- 
choris,  son  of  Tnephactus,  of  mean  person,  but  surpassing  in  talent 
and  wisdom  all  his  predecessors.  Long  afterwards  Sabaco  the 
Ethiopian  reigned  over  Egypt,  and  on  his  retirement  the  anarchy 
took  place,  which  was  ended  by  the  establishment  of  the  Dodecarchia, 
and  that  after  fifteen  years  by  the  sole  reign  of  Psammftichus. 
Incidentally  Diodorus  also  mentions  Mneves,  the  first  king  who  gave 
written  laws  to  the  people,  which  he  professed  to  have  received 
from  Hermes  ;  and  Sasyches,  who  was  not  only  a  lawgiver,  but  the 
inventor  of  geometry  and  astronomy8. 

The  variations  between  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  are  too  great 
to  allow  of  their  being  explained  by  the  causes  which  produce  dif- 
ferences in  dates,  successions  and  events,  even  in  histories  founded 
upon  documentary  evidence.  Little  stress  can  be  laid  upon  a  want 
of  congruity  in  names,  since  we  know  that  the  sovereigns  of  Egypt 

1  See  vol.  1,  p.  336. 

*  Aitre\cae  navra  tov  tov  $i\v  %p6vov  £»r:/i«Xo'^£»»o$  rwv  -rpoe&ibiv  cci  »4afnitM  ra»r«« 

yiQtv  tov  nXovrov.     (Diod.  1,  63.) 
'  I,  92. 


GREEK  WRITERS. 


09 


had  two  or  even  three1 ;  but  the  discrepancy  here  affects  every  ele- 
ment of  history.  Sixty  reigns  at  least  intervene  between  Menes 
the  founder  of  Memphis,  according  to  Herodotus,  and  Uchoreus, 
to  whom  Diodorus  attributes  its  foundation.  Herodotus  extends 
the  number  of  th el  obscure  successors  of  Menes  to  330  ;  Diodorus 
limits  them  to  52.  Herodotus  includes  in  these  eighteen  Ethio- 
pians ;  in  Diodorus  there  is  no  mention  of  Ethiopian  sovereignty 
till  the  reign  of  Actisanes,  which  corresponds  in  part  with  the 
second  Ethiopian  dominion  in  Herodotus,  that  of  Sabaco.  The 
building  of  the  Labyrinth,  the  reign  of  Remphis,  the  erection  of  the 
Pyramids,  are  all  placed  by  the  two  historians  in  different  relative 
positions;  the  Labyrinth,  which  according  to  Diodorus  was  erected 
five  generations  before  the  Trojan  War,  dates  according  to  Hero- 
dotus from  the  Dodecarchia.  Diodorus  makes  the  whole  number 
of  native  sovereigns  of  Egypt  to  have  been  470  kings  and  5  queens3. 
Herodotus3  makes  them  341  from  Menes  to  Sethos ;  but  as  only 
twenty  native  princes  at  most  reigned  from  Sethos  to  Nectanebus, 
the  accounts  cannot  be  reconciled.  The  duration  of  the  native 
monarchy  was  according  to  the  Egyptians  above  4700  years  (Diod. 
1,  89),  according  to  the  calculation  of  Herodotus  (2,  142)  11,340. 
These  discrepancies  are  so  enormous  and  so  fundamental  as  to 
preclude  the  idea  that  they  can  have  been  superinduced  by  lapse 
of  time  and  a  variety  of  narrators  on  a  history  originally  authentic. 
Nor  have  we  any  ground  for  stamping  one  with  the  character  of 
authenticity  to  the  exclusion  of  the  other.  Both  appeal  to  the 
same  authority,  the  narratives  of  the  priests  :  Diodorus,  it  is  true, 
with  a  more  frequent  allusion  to  written  documents;  but  as  he 
could  not  read  them  himself,  he  can  give  no  evidence  as  to  their 
contents.  Both  of  them  appear  to  owe  their  origin  to  the  same 
cause,  the  desire  to  connect  together  a  few  leading  facts  in  Egyp' 

1  Aiwvvjiot  teal  rpitovvn^i  noWaxii  ru»  A-tyvwricov  A  dacriXzTs  cvprjvrat.  (SyUCeli 

p.  63  A.  117  Dind) 

'  1,  44  %  142. 


70 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


tiari  history,  and  assign  the  most  remarkable  monuments  to  their 
authors.  In  the  age  of  Diodorus  the  remains  of  Thebes  attracted 
more  attention  than  in  that  of  Herodotus,  and  the  history  is 
enlarged  by  explanations  of  their  origin.  Both  authors  were 
ignorant  of  the  invasion  of  the  Shepherds;  %oth  misplaced  the 
sera  of  the  erection  of  the  Pyramids1,  and  by  these  two  great  errors 
disturbed  their  whole  chronology.  By  transposing  Cheops,  Che- 
phren  and  Mycerinus  to  the  blank  spaces,  which  in  both  historians 
precede  Moeris,  as  suggested  by  Lepsius,  we  bring  them  into  a 
general  agreement  with  the  Egyptian  authorities.  Upon  the  whole, 
the  history  of  Diodorus  has  the  more  historical  air ;  its  chronology 
is  more  moderate,  its  narratives  less  mythic;  not  because  it  is 
derived  more  immediately  from  historical  sources,  but  from  its 
being  accommodated  to  the  taste  of  an  age  which  by  arbitrary 
methods  gave  an  historical  character  to  that  which  was  mythic  in 
its  origin. 

The  variations  between  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  may  be  con- 
veniently exhibited  in  a  tabular  form8. 

Herodotus.  Diodorus. 

Menes.  Menes. 

329  kings  among  whom  are  IS     52  kings,  1400  years. 
Ethiopians  and  one  queen,  Busiris  L 

Nitocris.  7  kings. 

Busiris  II.  founds  Thebes. 

7  kings. 
Uchoreus  founds  Memphis. 
jEgyptus. 
11  kings. 

Moeris.  Mceris. 

6  kings. 

1  Diod.  1,  63,  says  that  some  reckoned  the  pyramids  to  be  above  3400 
years  old.    This  would  not  be  very  far  from  Manetho's  reckoning. 
•  See  Lepsius,  Einleitung,  1,  p.  259. 


GREEK  WRITERS. 


11 


Herodotus. 


Sesostris. 
Pheron. 


Proteus. 
Rampsiuitus. 


Cheops. 

Chephren. 

Mycerinua. 

Asychis. 

Anysis. 

Sabaco. 

Sethos. 

Dodecarchia. 

Psammitichua. 

Neco. 

Psammis. 

Apries. 

Auaasis. 


Diodobc* 

Sesoosis. 
Sesoosis  IL 

Many  generations, 
Amasis. 
Actisanes. 
Marrus. 

Five  generation* 
Anarchy. 
Proteus  or  Ketes. 
Rem  phis. 

Seven  generation* 
Nileus. 
Chembes. 
Chephren. 
Mycerinua. 
Tnephactus. 
Bocchoris. 

A  long  interval. 
Sabaco. 

Dodecarchia. 
Psammitichua. 

Three  generations, 

Apries. 
Amasis. 


The  Greek  history  of  Egypt,  though  it  can  no  longer  be  received 
as  true,  must  always  be  studied.  The  substantial  truth  of  those 
parts  which  are  not  obviously  fabulous  was  admitted  till  very  recent 
times.  The  names  of  the  eminent  persons  mentioned  in  it  passed 
into  history  to  the  exclusion  of  those  to  whom  this  place  belonged. 
Everywhere  in  ancient  and  modern  literature  wo  meet  with  allu- 
sions to  it.  The  monuments  must  be  consulted,  that  we  may  know 
what  the  history  of  Egypt  was;  the  Greek  writers,  that  we  may 
know  what  the  world  bas  till  latelv  believed  it  to  be.  Perhaiv 


72 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


the  reader  who  compares  the  imperfect  skeleton  of  the  authentic 
Egyptian  annals  with  the  animated  and  flowing  narrative  of  Hero- 
dotus will  regret  that  the  age  of  simple  faith  is  past'. 

SECT.  II.  EGYPTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 

It  was  impossible  that  those  among  the  Egyptian  priests  who 
were  versed  in  their  own  history  and  antiquities,  should  be  satis- 
fied that  they  should  be  so  imperfectly  represented  to  the  Grecian 
world  as  by  Herodotus,  nor  could  the  enlightened  Greek  sovereigns 
of  Egypt  fail  to  perceive  the  inconsistency  between  his  accounts, 
and  the  facts  which  were  before  their  eyes.  The  establishment  of 
the  Greek  dominion,  therefore,  by  the  conquest  of  Alexander,  soon 
produced  a  statement  of  the  philosophy,  religion  and  history  of 
Egypt,  from  one  whose  authority  could  not  be  called  in  question. 
Manetho,  the  highpriest  of  the  temple  of  Isis  at  Sebennytus  in 
Lower  Egypt,  in  the  reign  of  Ptolemy  Lagi  (322 — 284  B.C.),  a 
man  of  the  highest  reputation  for  wisdom2,  and  versed  in  Greek  as 
well  as  Egyptian  lore3,  published  various  works  for  the  purpose  of 
informing  the  Greeks,  and  his  History,  as  it  should  seem,  specially 
to  correct  the  errors  of  Herodotus4.    They  have  all  perished5,  but 

1  Xapij  6'  anrcp  enravra  tcv^ci  ra  fieiXi^a  8varoi{t 

'E,iri<pepoitra  rtfiav  xai  a-rtarov  ififioaro  TTiar6v 

"Efifitvai  to  itoWciki Pind.  01.  1. 
But  Pindar  was  a  philosopher  as  well  as  a  poet,  and  he  ados — 
'Apipat  6'  iiriXo  trot  paprvpES  (roQcoraroi, 

■  Locpiat  tig  axpov  i\riXaK6Ta  avSpa,  (jEL  Nat  Hist  10,  16.)  He  was  con- 
sulted by  Ptolemy  respecting  the  introduction  of  the  worship  of  Serapis. 
(Pint  Is.  et  Os.  p.  362.) 

*  Joseph.  C  Apion.,  1,  14.     Ti?s  'EAAifviK/Ji  fitrta-^K^i  natdtiai. 

*  Eustath.  ad  Iliad  A',  480,  p.  857. 

*  There  exists  under  the  name  of  Manetho  an  astrological  poem,  entitled 
'AirortXta partita,  long  admitted  to  be  spurious,  and  a  treatise  BipXos  rns  E«0£o>* 
which  Syncellua  quotes  as  ger.'HnA.    It  is  however  preyed  to  be  spuriouf 


EGYPTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 


7j 


the  respect  with  which  lie  is  spoken  of  by  heathen,  Jewish  and 
Christian  writers,  gives  a  high  value  to  the  fragments  and  inciden- 
tal notices  which  alone  remain.  The  longest  and  the  most  impor- 
tant are  those  from  his  Egyptian  History,  which  consisted  of  three 
books.  It  was  derived  partly  from  the  sacred  books,  and  partly 
according  to  his  own  confession,  from  popular  tradition,  not  war 
ranted  by  any  written  document1.  Eusebius,  in  the  Preface  to  his 
second  Book  of  the  Evangelical  Preparation2,  speaks  of  Manetho's 
works  as  copious,  and  this  accords  with  the  extracts  in  Josephus, 
which  relate  the  expulsion  of  the  Shepherds  and  of  the  Jews  so 
much  at  length,  that  if  the  whole  Egyptian  history  were  treated 
with  the  same  fulness,  it  must  have  been  very  bulky — a  circum- 
stance which  by  preventing  its  transcription  may  have  been  the 
cause  of  its  reaching  us  only  in  extracts  and  quotations.  Josephus 
declares  that  he  gave  his  extracts  in  the  very  words  of  Manetho, 
and  they  show  a  ready  command  of  Greek  language;  they  show 
also  the  desire  to  establish  a  correspondence  between  Greek  and 
Egyptian  history.  In  conformity  with  the  Argive  story,  he  makes 
Sethos  to  be  Egyptus  and  Armais  to  be  Danaus,  for  which  there 
seems  to  have  been  no  other  ground  than  the  hostile  relation  of 
the  brothers,  the  circumstances  of  the  Egyptian  history  and  the 
Argive  legend  being  in  every  other  respect  entirely  different. 

Although  the  History  of  Manetho  is  lost,  we  have  his  Dynasties 
tolerably  entire.  As  they  consisted  of  three  volumes,  the  same  num- 
ber with  the  Books  of  the  History,  it  is  probable  that  they  formed 
a  part  of  it.    They  have  reached  us  in  a  tabular  form,  but  we  know 

by  the  epithet  HJjl-tq^  which  the  introductory  Epistle  gives  to  Ptolemy — 
the  translation  of  Augxtstus,  and  never  found  among  the  titles  of  the  Ptole» 
mies.    It  was  probably  the  work  of  a  Christian. 

1  Joseph,  c  Apion.,  1,  14,  16,  26,  where  Manetho  himself  distinguishes 
that  which  he  relates  c  *  tCjv  nap'  Aiyu  -^fot?  ypann&Twv,  and  i t 

•  P.  44,  ed.  Vigor. 
V0L.  II.  4 


74 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


not  whether  they  were  appended  in  this  form  to  the  continuous 

history,  or  whether  the  Christian  writers,  by  whom  they  have  been 
preserved  to  us,  extracted  and  arranged  them.  The  first  of  these 
was  Julius,  a  native  of  Africa,  thence  generally  called  Africanus, 
bishop  of  Emmaus  or  Nicopolis  in  Judaea,  a  man  of  learning, 
research  and  probity,  who  wrote  in  the  beginning  of  the  third  cen- 
tury1. His  work  consisted  of  five  Books,  to  which  he  annexed  a 
Canon,  or  regular  series  of  years,  one  by  one,  with  the  events  of 
each  if  any  were  known.  His  object  was  to  establish  synchronisms 
between  the  history  of  the  Bible  and  that  of  the  heathen  nations; 
but  especially  of  the  Babylonians  and  Egyptians,  with  which  the 
history  of  the  Jews  is  most  closely  connected.  Had  we  a  copy  of 
his  work,  of  which  unfortunately  only  a  few  fragments  remain,  we 
should  know  very  accurately  the  dynasties  of  Manetho2.  But  it 
is  not  probable  that  he  had  read  the  historical  work  itself 3 ;  the 
notices  of  facts  which  he  gives  are  very  brief,  and  seem  to  have  been 
remarks,  appended  to  a  chronological  table.  His  successors  cer- 
tainly knew  Manetho  only  at  second-hand,  through  the  medium 
of  Africanus. 

The  first  of  these  was  Eusebius,  the  bishop  of  Caasarea,  who, 
about  100  years  later  than  Africanus,  undertook  a  more  compre- 
hensive work  of  the  same  kind,  which  owes  all  its  real  value  as 
regards  Egyptian  history  to  the  use  which  he  made  of  his  prede- 
cessor's materials.  It  consisted  of  two  parts,  the  first  of  which  was 
a  general  introduction  with  extracts  from  older  chronologers,  the 

1  Routh,  Rel.  Sac.  2,  221.  He  concluded  his  Chronicle  with  the  Emperor 
Macrinus,  a.d.  217.    Phot  Myriob.  xxxiv.  p.  19.  ed.  Hoesch. 

a  He  says  of  himself,  when  he  was  in  Egypt,  that  he  had  procured  a 
sacred  book  by  Suphis,  king  of  the  fourth  dynasty  and  builder  of  the  Great 
Pyramid.  The  remains  of  Africanus  have  been  collected  by  Routh,  Reli 
quire  Sacrse,  2,  245,  sec.  ed.  alt 

8  Two  different  recensions  of  it  appear  to  have  existed  Kara  rrjv  6tvrtpat 
Itciooiv  'AfpiKavov,  Syncellus  remarks,  p.  56,  104,  ed.  Dind.  Routh  (2,  884) 
doubts  the  fact  of  a  second  edition,  at  least  of  the  whole  ChronioJ  * 


EGYPTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 


75 


second  a  Canon,  such  as  that  of  Africanus.  This  Canon  was  trans- 
lated by  Jerome,  and  with  the  exception  of  fragments  of  the  intro- 
ductory part  chiefly  preserved  by  Syncellus,  was  all  that  was  known 
of  it  till  the  discovery  of  the  Armenian  version  of  the  whole,  in 
the  Library  of  the  Convent  of  that  nation  at  Venice,  in  1820. 
Eusebius  carried  much  further  than  Africanus  had  done  the  attempt 
to  reduce  the  chronology  of  other  nations  to  the  standard  of  the 
Jews,  and  to  establish  a  general  system  of  synchronisms  for  ancient 
history — an  undertaking  which  could  be  effected  on  no  sound 
principle  for  times  preceding  the  Olympiads,  and  he  appears  not 
to  have  scrupled  arbitrary  and  even  unfair  expedients  to  attain 
this  end1.  * 

In  the  interval  between  Eusebius  and  Syncellus,  Egyptian  chro- 
nology had  been  handled  by  two  monks  of  that  country,  Pano- 
dorus  and  Anianus,  in  the  same  spirit,  the  scriptural  chronology 
being  made  the  standard  by  which  the  other  was  corrected.  Syn- 
cellus, a  Byzantine  monk,  of  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century, 
wrote  a  general  chronology,  which  has  come  down  to  us  in  a 
tolerably  perfect  state,  and  was  executed  with  great  labor,  but  little 
sagacity,  and  with  the  same  implicit  deference  to  the  Jewish  author- 
ity. He  assumes  5500  b.c.  as  the  aera  of  the  Creation,  and  arran- 
ges all  his  dates  accordingly:  He  repeats  with  some  variations  the 
dynasties  of  Manetho,  not  having  before  him,  however,  certainly, 
the  original  work,  but  collating  the  lists  of  Africanus  and  Euse- 
bius. Having  mentioned  the  discrepancies  between  the  names  and 
dates  derived  from  Manetho  by  the  ecclesiastical  historians,  espe- 
cially in  regard  to  the  sovereign  under  whom  Joseph  ruled  Egypt 
and  Moses  led  forth  the  people,  he  says,  "I  have  therefore  deemed 
it  necessary  to  extract  and  compare  with  one  another  the  editions 

1  Bunsen,  ^Egyptens  Stelle  in  der  "Weltgeschichte,  1,  p.  118.  Syncellus, 
p.  62,  115,  ed.  Dind.,  says,  b  Evccjios  npof  rdv  oixtTov  oko-xov  roi'i  rlif 
vzvT(jcai6cKiTT\i  dvvaarcias  napa  ru  ' A<ppi  Ktivu  fepofitvovf  kutj  rfiv  S^Kai6eKOLTriv  ycyovk 

vat  \tytu    S—  also  p  65  121  Dind. 


76 


HISTORY   OF  EGTI'T. 


<  f  two  of  the  most  celebrated  men,  Africanus  and  Eusebius1."  It 
h  thus  at  the  third  hand  that  we  have  Manetho's  lists,  and  all  that 
criticism  can  attempt  is,  by  the  comparison  of  Eusebius  and  Syn- 
cellus,  to  ascertain  how  they  stood  in  the  text  of  Africanus. 

Comparing  Manetho  with  Herodotus,  we  find  that  the  latter  dis- 
t'nctly  excludes  from  the  belief  of  the  Egyptians  all  beings  partak- 
i  lg  of  a  human  and  divine  descent2,  and  passes  from  the  gods  to 
tie  reign  of  the  mortal  Menes.  But  Manetho,  after  the  reign  of 
Horus,  the  youngest  of  the  gods,  and  before  the  reign  of  Menes, 
the  first  of  mortals,  speaks  of  heroes  and  manes  as  exercising 
dominion3.  This  seems  an  example  of  the  reaction  of  Greek  upon 
Egyptian  mythology.  The  Greeks  interposed  between  gods  and 
the  actual  race  of  mortals — daemons,  who  were  the  men  of  the 
golden  age4 ;  manes,  who  were  the  men  of  the  silver  age ;  and 
heroes  or  demigods,  who  united  the  divine  and  human  nature  ;  and 
the  Egyptians  were  probably  unwilling  not  to  have  a  corresponding 
period  of  mythic  history.  We  find  no  trace  of  these  two  classes  in 
the  Turin  papyrus,  nor  is  any  nieroglyphic  character  answering  to 
them  known. 

The  lists  of  Manetho  comprehend,  besides  the  period  of  gods, 
1  P.  53,  99,  Dind. 

*  Ot>  6cK6p£voi  and  8eov  ytviaQai  avOpwnov  (2,143).     No/u£ovcr«  6'  u>v  A-iyvirrioi 

ovoiv  (2,  50).    Diodorus  (1,  44)  speaks  of  heroes,  as  reigning  along 
with  the  gods  in  a  period  of  16,000  years. 

*  Meru  vtKvas  Kai  roij  finidr.ovs  Trpcorrj  0a<J(\da  KaraptOneiTai.  (Dyn.  1. 
4  Hesiod,^.  and  D.  120,  140,  155:— 

A-irap  i~ti  Ktv  tovto  ytvos  Katix  yaia  xa\viptw 
Tot  ft  I  v  6  a  t  [a  o  v  t  s  £iff«. 

Of  the  men  of  the  stiver  age : — 

Toi  fiiv  viro%66vioi  fiaxapei  dvgrac  KaXioprmi 

Aivrepoi. 

Of  the  heroes : — 

' A.v&pu>v  f)p<j>a)v  dclov  ytvo(}  oi  (c«At«vr«i 
'H  *  i  0  r  o  t. 


EGVFTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 


11 


manes  and  heroes,  thirty  dynasties,  from  Menes  downward  to  the 
younger  Nectanebus.  In  some  of  them  the  names  of  all  the  kings 
are  given,  with  the  lengths  of  their  reigns,  in  years,  and  the  sums 
of  each  dynasty ;  in  others  the  names  do  not  now  appear,  but  the 
numbers  of  the  kings  and  sum  of  their  reigns  are  preserved.  The 
historical  facts  are  very  brief ;  of  most  of  the  kings  nothing  what- 
ever is  recorded,  and  the  synchronisms  noted  appear  to  be  due  to 
the  Christian  chronologers,  rather  than  to  Manetho  himself.  The 
sum  of  all  the  dynasties  varies  according  to  our  present  sources 
from  4685  to  5049  years1 ;  the  number  of  kings  from  300  to  350. 
and  even  500\  It  is  evidently  impossible  to  found  a  chronology 
on  such  a  basis,  but  Syncellus  tells  us  that  the  number  of  genera- 
tions3 included  in  the  30  dynasties  was  according  to  Manetho,  and 
to  the  old  Egyptian  Chronicle,  113;  and  the  whole  number  of 
years  35554.  This  number  falls  much  short  of  what  the  summa- 
tion of  the  reigns  would  furnish  according  to  any  reading  of  the 
numbers,  but  is  nearly  the  same  as  113  generations  would  produce, 
at  an  average  of  32  years  to  each6. 

That  Manetho  would  have  access  to  all  the  documentary  and 
monumental  evidence  which  the  temples  and  public  records  sup- 
plied, we  cannot  doubt ;  "but  that  from  these  it  was  practicable  in 
the  third  century  before  the  Christian  aara,  to  deduce  a  chronology 
extending  backward  to  the  foundation  of  the  monarchy,  is  by  no 
means  probable8.    The  imputation  of  having  wilfully  forged  names, 

1  Boeckh,  Manetho  un<]  die  Hundssternperiode,  p.  525. 
3  Bunsen,  1,  p.  119.  Germ.  p.  83. 

*  P.  52,  98,  ed.  Dindorf. 

*  Lepsius  (Einleitung,  1,  497)  adopts  the  number  3555,  but  rejects  the  113 
generations,  which  number  he  thinks  to  be  derived  only  from  the  old 
Chronicle. 

*  Herodotus  (2,  142)  reckons  a  generation  at  thirty-three  years  and  one- 
third. 

6  Boeckh  has  endeavored  with  great  learning  and  ingenuity  to  show  that 
the  chronology  of  Manetho  it  not  historical  but  astronomical  Boeckh 


78  HISTORY    OF  EGYPT. 

with  which  to  fill  out  vacant  spaces  in  the  early  history  of  Egypt, 
has  been  refuted  by  the  very  close  conformity  between  his  lists  and 
the  monuments, — a  conformity  which  manifests  itself  at' the  early 
period  of  the  erection  of  the  Pyramids.  According  to  Lepsius,  of 
142  kings  of  the  Old  Monarchy,  i.  e.  those  who  reigned  before  the 
invasion  of  the  Hyksos,  80  are  found  on  the  monuments.  But  we 
may  reasonably  doubt,  whether  the  means  existed  in  his  time  to 
fix  the  date  of  the  reign  of  Menes,  or  carry  the  chronology  over  the 
troubled  period  of  the  Hyksos ;  and  when  we  compare  him  with 
the  monuments,  although  there  is  sufficient  accordance  to  vindicate 

makes  the  sum  of  all  the  thirty  dynasties  to  be  5366.  This  is  just  the  sum 
of  three  Sothiac  periods,  or  4383  years,  plus  983,  the  years  that  had  elapsed 
between  1322  B.C.,  when  the  last  Sothiac  period  began,  and  339  B.C.,  the  last 
year  of  Nectanebus  II.  and  the  close  of  Manetho's  thirtieth  dynasty.  Hence 
he  concludes  that  Manetho  had  arbitrarily  assumed  the  historical  period  of 
Egypt  to  have  begun  with  a  Sothiac  period,  and  accommodated  his  chro- 
nology to  that  assumption.  He  argues  the  probability  of  this,  from  the  fact 
that  the  mythic  age  ends  with  the  17th  Sothiac  period  (24,837  years), 
whence  the  historical  which  succeeds  it  would  naturally  begin  with  ano- 
ther, and  the  time  between  Menes  and  1322  b.c  be  so  distributed  as  to  fill 
up  two.  But  Manetho,  as  reported  by  Africanus  and  Eusebius,  makes  the 
time  before  Menes  24,900  years,  and  says  nothing  of  the  reigns  of  the  gods, 
manes  and  heroes  occupying  a  certain  number  of  Sothiac  periods.  This  ia 
derived  from  the  Old  Chronicle  mentioned  before ;  and  there  is  no  evidence 
that  the  high  priest  of  Sebennytus  admitted  any  such  principle  into  hi* 
chronology  of  the  mythic  age.  Consequently  the  presumption  that  he  did 
s&  in  the  historic  times  falls  to  the  ground.  The  number  5366  is  not 
obtained  without  many  alterations,  which,  if  not  arbitrary,  derive  their 
probability  only  from  the  supposition  that  the  sum  is  right.  Even  were  the 
number  certain,  it  might  be  merely  an  accidental  coincidence  that  it 
admitted  of  division  into  two  Sothiac  periods  and  983  years. 

The  recent  work  of  Lesueur  (Chronologic  des  Rois  d'Egypte,  1848). 
crowned  by  the  French  Academy,  assumes  as  its  basis  the  Old  Chronicle, 
which  I  think  Lepsius  has  sacisfactorily  shown  to  be  an  arbitrary  adapta- 
tion of  Manetho's  true  dates,  at  once  to  the  Sothiac  period  and  the  Hebrew 
clironology. 


EGYPTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 


7S 


nis  integrity,  there  is  also  sufficient  discrepancy  to  prevent  implicit 
reliance  in  the  absence  of  monuments.  Had  the  series  of  monu- 
ments, indeed,  inscribed  with  the  names  of  the  kings  and  years  of 
their  reigns  been  ever  so  complete,  it  could  not  alone  have  fur- 
nished a  chronology,  because  the  Egyptians  do  not  appear  at  any 
time  to  have  reckoned  in  their  public  monuments,  by  an  cera,  like 
that  of  the  Olympiads,  but  only  to  have  dated  events,  as  we  date 
acts  of  parliament,  by  the  years  of  the  king's  reign. 

Syncellus1  quotes  an  old  Chronicle,  which  he  says  was  in  vogue 
among  the  Egyptians,  in  which  the  period  before  the  16th  dynasty 
of  Manetho  is  allotted  to  the  gods  and  demigods  with  15  genera- 
tions of  the  Cynic  circle.  It  was  designed  to  bring  the  work  of  the 
historical  Manetho  into  conformity  with  the  Sothiac  or  Cynic 
period,  and  comprehends  36,525  years,  or  25  of  these  periods, 
which  were  each  of  1451  years.  The  number  25  was  the  length 
of  the  life  of  Apis2.  The  Laterculus,  as  it  is  called,  of  Syncellus,  is 
another  arbitrary  arrangement  of  Egyptian  chronology,  and  the 
Sothis,  which  professes  to  be  the  work  of  Manetho,  is  manifestly 
spurious. 

If  we  suppose  that  an  accurate  record  of  the  successive  reigns 
and  the  length  of  each  was  preserved  from  the  very  commencement 
of  the  monarchy,  we  might  easily  deduce  the  chronology  of  the 
whole  interval  from  Menes  to  Nectanebus,  by  adding  together  the 
lengths  of  all  the  reigns.  But  this  implies  that  all  the  reigns  were 
consecutive ;  that  there  either  were  no"  joint  or  rival  sovereignties, 
or  that  if  they  existed,  only  one  was  fixed  on  as  the  legitimate 
monarch,  and  his  years  alone  entered  in  the  succession.  A  history 
of  Great  Britain  in  which  the  years  of  the  kings  of  England  and 
Scotland  before  the  Union  of  the  Crowns,  or  the  Stuart  and  the 

1  P.  51,  95,  Dind. 

"  See  vol.  i.  p.  282.  Lepsius  has  very  fully  investigated  the  relation  in 
which  the  spurious  works,  the  Sothis,  and  the  Old  Chron'clc  stand  to  the 
genuine  work  of  Manetho  (Einleituug,  1,  p.  413-460). 


80 


HISTORY    OF  EGYPT. 


Brunswick  princes  since  the  Revolution,  were  added  together,  would 
present  a  very  false  chronology.  To  deduce  an  Egyptian  chrono- 
logy, therefore,  from  the  lists  of  Manetho,  we  must  be  assured  that 
his  reigns  are  all  strictly  consecutive,  and  that  no  period  has  been 
reckoned  twice  over.  Eusebius  in  the  Armenian  version  of  his 
Chronicle  having  urged  that  it  is  reasonable  to  reduce  tha,  20,000 
years  claimed  by  the  Egyptians  to  as  many  months,  in  order  to 
make  them  suit  with  the  Hebrew  chronology,  thus  proceeds :  "  If 
the  length  of  time  is  still  in  excess,  we  should  carefully  consider 
that  perhaps  several  Egyptian  kings  existed  in  one  and  the  same 
age ;  for  they  say  that  Thinites  and  Memphites  reigned,  and  Saites 
and  Ethiopians  and  others,  at  the  same  time.  Other  kings  also 
appear  to  have  reigned  in  other  places,  and  these  dynasties  to  have 
confined  themselves  each  to  its  own  nome ;  so  that  single  kings  did 
not  reign  successively,  but  one  in  one  place,  another  in  another  at 
the  same  time."  As  this  is  introduced  as  a  last  resource  for  the 
avowed  purpose  of  reducing  the  Egyptian  to  the  Hebrew  chrono- 
logy, we  cannot  regard  it  as  of  any  authority.  No  other  ancient 
author  gives  us  reason  to  suppose,  that  .after  the  time  of  Menes, 
Egypt  was  divided,  except  under  extraordinary  circumstances,  the 
mention  of  which  confirms  the  belief  that  unity  was  the  rule  of  the 
monarchy.  The  Greek  and  Roman  writers  do  not  even  notice  the 
remarkable  exception  of  the  period  of  the  Shepherd  Kings,  when, 
according  to  Manetho,  a  tributary  dynasty  (the  seventeenth)  existed 
at  Thebes,  contemporaneous  with  the  Shepherd  dynasty  which 
exercised  sovereignty  at  Memphis.  In  Scripture,  also,  we  find  one 
Pharaoh  spoken  of  as  ruiing  in  Egypt,  whether  in  the  early  age  of 
Abraham,  during  the  oppression  of  the  Jews,  in  the  reign  of  Solo- 
mon, or  in  the  time  of  the  later  prophets.  It  is  also  difficult  to 
conceive  that  independent  dynasties  could  co-exist  without  civil  war, 
or  subordinate  dynasties  without  rebellion,  neither  of  which  can  be 
iced  in  the  Egyptian  annals'.  Notwithstanding  these  difficulties., 
1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  1,  p.  98. 


EGYPTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 


we  cannot  avoid  the  conclusion  that  some  great  error  exists  m  he 
numbers  of  Manetho  as  they  now  stand,  since  the  summation  of 
the  reigns  of  his  kings  exceeds  by  nearly  1500  years  the  duration 
assigned  to  them. 

Eratosthenes,  whom  we  have  already  mentioned,  drew  up  in  the 
leign  of  the  second  Ptolemy1  a  catalogue  of  Theban  kings,  which 
Syncellus  has  incorporated  in  his  work.  According  to  Apollo- 
dorus,  from  whom  Syncellus  immediately  derived  his  information, 
Eratosthenes  had  received  their  names  from  the  priests  or  hiero- 
grammats  of  Thebes,  and  at  the  command  of  the  king  had 
expressed  their  meaning  in  Greek.  These  Theban  kings  are  38  in 
number,  and  their  united  reigns  amounted  to  10*76  years.  The 
name  of  Theban  is  that  by  which  he  designates  them  collectively 
and  individually,  without  any  distinction  of  dynasty,  though  he 
notices  of  the  first  that  he  was  a  Thinite,  and  of  the  sixth  that  he 
was  a  Memphite.  The  Greek  interpretations  of  the  Egyptian  names 
have  a  general  conformity  with  the  Coptic  language,  but  the  cor- 
ruption which  they  have  suffered  in  transcription  makes  it  often 
impossible  to  trace  it.  It  appears  most  probable  that  the  list  of 
Eratosthenes  was  constructed,  though  more  scientifically,  yet  upon 
the  same  principle  as  those  of  Herodotus  and  Diodorus,  that  of 
assigning  authors  to  the  most  remarkable  monuments,  and  intro- 
ducing the  names  of  remarkable  personages.  Thus  it  includes 
Menes  the  founder  of  the  monarchy,  the  builders  of  the  Pyramids, 
Apappus  who  lived  100  years,  Nitocris  the  only  queen,  Ammene- 
mes  the  author  of  the  Labyrinth,  Mares  or  Maris,  the  Moeris  of  the 
other  Greeks ;  Phrouro  or  Neilos,  the  author  of  the  name  of  the 
river.  The  name  of  Theban  kings  seems  equivalent  to  earliest,  the 
Greeks  believing  that  Egypt  was  once  confined  to  Thebes2.  Whence 

1  Eratosthenes  was  born  275  B.C.  See  Clinton,  Fasti  Hellenici,  sub 
anno. 

*  To  S1  wf  na\ai  at  Qi)@ai  Atyv/rro?  iicaXciro  (Her.  2.  15).     'Ap^aiov  ft  Aiyvirro 

8f)/?at  KaXoiytyai  CArist.  Meteor.  1,  14). 

4* 


82 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


the  other  uames  were  derived  it  is  difficult  to  say;  they  dj  not 
appear  to  be  of  Greek  invention.  When  we  contrast  the  catalogue 
of  Eratosthenes  with  the  dynasties  of  Manetho,  they  appear  to  have 
had  a  common  or  kindred  origin.  Both  begin  with  Menes  the 
Thinite,  to  whom  his  son  Athothis  succeeds ;  the  names  in  Mane- 
tho, Suphis  Suphis  (builder  of  the  Great  Pyramid),  Mencheres,  are 
in  Eratosthenes  Saophis,  Saophis  II.  and  Moscheres  ;  though  Erato- 
sthenes takes  no  notice  of  the  erection  of  the  Pyramids.  Phiops 
according  to  Manetho,  Apappus  according  to  Eratosthenes,  reigns 
100  years;  in  each  we  have  a  solitary  example  of  a  queen  Nito- 
cris,  who  succeeds  at  the  interval  of  a  single  reign  the  centenarian 
Phiops  or  Apappus.  The  names  of  Slammenemes,  Sistosis,  Mares, 
towards  the  end  of  the  list  of  Eratosthenes,  do  not  differ  so  widely 
from  the  Ammenemes,  Sesostris,  Lamares  or  Ameres  of  the  twelfth 
dynasty  of  Manetho,  but  that  the  variation  may  be  explained  by 
the  corruptions  of  transcribers  and  the  difficulty  of  representing 
Egyptian  names  in  Greek  orthography. 

It  was  acutely  observed  by  Bunsen,  that  where  a  correspondence 
exists  between  the  names  of  Eratosthenes  and  those  of  Manetho, 
it  is  always  in  the  dynasties  which  the  latter  calls  Theban  or  Mem- 
phite ;  and  that  where  the  names  are  lost,  the  numbers  show  that 
there  has  been  no  such  correspondence  in  the  others.  And  hence 
he  infers  that  only  those  who  belonged  to  the  two  ancient  capitals 
of  Egypt  were  the  true  sovereigns  of  the  country,  whose  reigns 
give  its  real  chronology  ;  while  the  others  (the  Elephantinites, 
Heracleopolites,  Xoites),  though  called  kings,  never  exercised  a 
real  supremacy,  and  being  contemporaneous  with  the  Thebans  or 
Memphites,  do  not  enter  into  the  chronological  reckoning.  Not- 
withstanding the  ability  with  which  this  attempt  to  reconcile 
Eratosthenes  and  Manetho  is  supported,  we  cannot  feel  such  confi- 
dence in  its  soundness  as  to  make  it  the  basis  of  a  history.  We 
shall  therefore  treat  the  dynasties  of  the  latter  as  being,  what  he 
evidently  considered  them  to  be,  successive,  unless  where  there  is 


EGYPTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 


S3 


some  internal  or  independent  evidence  of  error ;  admitting  at  the 
same  time  that  no  great  reliance  can  be  placed  on  a  chronology 
■which  professes  to  ascend  to  the  very  commencement  of  the  reign 
of  mortal  kings  in  Egypt.  But  there  appears  no  evidence  that 
Manetlro  wilfully  tampered  with  facts  known  to  him,  to  favor 
cither  an  astronomical  or  an  historical  theory  ;  his  system  may  be 
baseless,  but  it  is  not  fictitious. 

The  authority  of  all  that  was  written  in  the  Ptolemaic  age,  or 
subsequently,  whether  by  natives  or  foreigners,  respecting  Egyp- 
tian history  and  chronology,  must  depend  very  much  on  the  num- 
ber and  quality  of  the  ancient  writings  which  were  extant  at  that 
period.  Herodotus  speaks  only  of  a  papyrus,  from  which  the 
names  of  330  kings  were  read  to  him  by  the  priests ;  but  it  does 
not  appear  whether  the  historical  facts  which  they  detailed  to  him 
m  connexion  with  some  of  these  names  were  derived  from  the 
F,ame  source1.  The  Egyptians  were  celebrated  among  ancient 
nations  for  their  historical  knowledge2,  the  natural  consequence  of 
the  number  and  antiquity  of  their  monuments,  the  early  possession 
and  wide  diffusion  of  the  art  of  writing,  and  the  unchanging,  tra- 
ditionary character  of  all  their  usages  and  institutions.  According 
to  Diodorus3  it  had  been  the  practice  of  the  priests,  from  ancient 
times,  to  record  and  hand  down  to  their  successors  the  stature  and 
qualities  of  their  kings  and  the  events  of  each  reign.  We  have 
seen  that  such  records  existed  in  the  time  of  Herodotus ;  they 
escaped  the  devastation  of  Egypt  by  Cambyses;  for  Diodorus4 
mentions  that  Artaxerxes,  when  he  recovered  the  dominion  of  the 

1  2,  142.  He  quotes  "the  Egyptians  and  the  priests"  as  joint  authorities 
for  these  details. 

*  Her.  2,  77.    Prisca  doctrina  pollentes  ^Egyptii.    Apuleius,  Metam.  xi. 
p.  764. 
■  1,  44. 

4  16,  51.  'Avaypa<pai  is  the  title  by  which  the  historical  annals  are  usually 
opokea  of.    See  Bunsen,  1,  p.  27.  Diod.  u.  s. 


84 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


country  from  Nectanebus,  carried  off  the  records  from  the  ancie.it 
temples,  which  the  priests  redeemed  from  Bagoas  by  the  payment 
of  a  large  sum  ;  and  nothing  had  occurred  from  this  time  to  the 
age  of  Manetho  and  Eratosthenes,  to  occasion  any  violent  and 
general  destruction  of  them.  Of  their  absolute  age  we  can  have 
no  evidence;  it  is  hardly  to  be  supposed  that  contemporaneous 
documents  from  the  foundation  or  first  reigns  of  the  monarchy 
existed  in  the  Ptolemaic  age  ;  what  was  read  to  Herodotus  was 
evidently  an  historical  and  genealogical  table,  not  a  record.  And 
analogy  would  lead  us  to  suppose,  that  from  time  to  time  the 
information  contained  in  obsolete  and  perishing  documents  would 
be  transcribed  and  incorporated  in  new  ones,  and  thus  the  chain 
of  evidence  be  prolonged  from  age  to  age.  In  this  way  it  is  not 
incredible,  that  our  historical  knowledge  of  Egypt  may  be  carried 
far  up  towards  the  commencement  of  the  monarchy,  allowance 
being  made,  first  for  the  gaps  which  time  and  periods  of  internal 
confusion  may  have  produced,  and  next  for  the  changes  which 
might  take  place  in  the  process  of  transcription.  The  means  of 
preserving  such  records  were  not  wanting  in  the  very  earliest  times  ; 
the  hieroglyphic  character  was  in  use  at  the  erection  of  the  Pyra- 
mids, and  the  reed-pen  and  inkstand,  and  scribes  employed  in 
writing,  appear  among  the  sculptures  in  the  tombs  of  Gizeh,  which 
are  contemporaneous  with  the  Pyramids  themselves1. 

Recently  among  the  papyri  in  the  hieratic  character,  several 
properly  historical  documents  have  been  found  ;  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  is  the  papyrus  of  Sallier,  which  appears  to  contain  a 
narrative  of  the  wars  of  Rameses-Sesostris,  and  to  be  of  the  same 
age.  Other  fragments  of  an  historical  nature  relate  to  the  reigns 
of  Rameses  IX.,  and  Thothmes  III.,  and  Lepsius  conjectures  that 
one,  from  its  archaic  style,  may  even  belong  to  the  Old  Monarchy, 
None  of  them  have  been  fully  read,  but  they  are  received  as 

See  Lepsiua,  Denkmaler,  Abth.  ii.  B.  1,  19. 


EGYPTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 


85 


dence  by  those  most  competent  to  judge,  *nd  zaay  hereaftei 
furnish  valuable  materials  for  history1. 

It  is  probable  that  the  priests  of  Memphis  and  Thebes  differe.d 
in  their  representations  of  early  history,  and  that  each  sought  to 
extol  the  glory  of  their  own  city.  How  otherwise  can  we  account 
for  it,  that  while  Herodotus  makes  Menes  to  he  the  founder  of 
Memphis,  and  consequently  this  capital  to  be  coaeval  with  the 
monarchy,  Diodorus  attributes  its  foundation  to  Uchoreus,  eighth 
in  descent  from  Osymandyas  or  Busiris  H.  ?  The  history  of  Hero- 
dotus turns  about  Memphis  as  a  centre;  he  mentions  Thebes  only 
incidentally,  and  does  not  describe  or  allude  to  one  of  its  monu- 
ments. Diodorus,  on  the  contrary,  is  full  in  his  description  of 
Thebes,  and  says  little  of  Memphis.  Herodotus  went  to  Thebes, 
to  ascertain  whether  the  accounts  of  the  priests  corresponded  with 
wha/  he  had  heard  at  Memphis,  and  he  seems  to  have  been  satis- 
fied »vith  the  agreement ;  but  his  visit  must  have  been  short  and  his 
inquiries  superficial,  or  he  would  have  described  Thebes  more  fully. 

Besides  properly  historical  documents,  which  appear  to  have 
been  the  work  of  the  priests  and  preserved  in  the  temples,  there 
were  others,  called  in  a  peculiar  sense  sacred  books,  from  which 
many  materials  for  illustrating  and  completing  history  might  be 
derived.  They  are  enumerated  in  a  passage  of  Clemens  Alexan- 
drinus3 ; — "  In  the  sacred  ceremonies  of  the  Egyptians,"  says  he, 
"first  of  all  the  Sinyer  comes  forth,  bearing  one  of  the  instruments 
of  music.  He  must  know  by  heart3  two  of  the  books  of  Hermes, 
one  of  which  contains  the  hymns  of  the  gods,  the  other  the  allot- 
ment of  the  king's  life4.    Next  to  the  singer  comes  the  Horoscoj  us, 

1  Lepsius,  Einleitung,  1,  53.  Select  Papyri  in  the  hieratic  character  from 
the  collection  in  the  British  Museum,  Lonl.  1844. 

*  Strom.  6,  4,  p.  756,  ed.  Potter. 

*  'Avtl\r)$ivat.     See  Plut  Agesil.  C  24.     Aoyov  dvayvoi'S  iv  0tffXy  Sv 
\iy$iv  d  v  a  A  i  J  u  v  o  AvaavSpog  iv  ru  ii?/iw. 

*  'EjcXoyiaftdp  fiaoi\i>cov  ftiov.    There  is  1*0  authority  for  rendering  tK\oyi<inb% 


80 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


who  carries  in  his  hand  a  horologium1  and  a  palm-branch,  symbols 
of  astronomy.  He,  they  say,  "must  always  have  at  his  tongue's 
end  those  of  the  books  of  Hermes  which  are  astronomical,  bemg 
four  in  number;  one  of  which  relates  to  the  arrangement  of  the 
stars  which  appear  to  be  fixed ;  one  respecting  the  conjunctions  of 
the  sun  and  moon,  and  her  illuminations ;  the  remaining  one 
respecting  the  risings  of  the  heavenly  bodies.  Next  comes  forth 
the  Hierogramvnat,  having  feathers  on  his  head  and  a  book  in  his 
hand,  with  a  rectangular  case  (xavwv)  in  which  is  contained  writ- 
ing-ink and  the  reed  with  which  they  write.  He  must  know  the 
hieroglyphics,  as  they  are  called,  and  what  relates  to  cosmography 
and  geography,  the  order  of  the  sun  and  moon  and  the  five 
planets,  and  the  topography  of  Egypt  and  the  description  of  the 
Nile  ;  and  the  enumeration  of  the  furniture  of  the  temples  and  the 
lands  that  have  been  dedicated  to  them  ;  and  concerning  the 
measures  and  the  sacred  utensils.  After  those  already  mentioned 
comes  the  Stolistes,  having  the  cubit  of  justice4  and  the  vessel  for 
pouring  libations.  He  knows  all  the  books  which  relate  to  educa- 
tion and  to  the  slaughter  of  victims.  There  are  ten  which  have 
reference  to  the  honor  paid  to  their  gods,  and  comprehend  the 
Egyptian  religion,  e.  gr.  of  sacrifices,  first  fruits,  hymns,  prayers, 
processions,  festivals  and  the  like.  After  all  these  comes  forth  the 
Prophctes',  carrying  openly  in  his  bosom  the  vessel  of  water,  fol- 

distribution,  yet  this  seems  to  be  the  code  by  which  the  occupations  of  the 
sovereign  were  regulated.    SeeDiod.  1,  70.    Oi  p6vov  tov  xpnpari^av  »}  xpiveiv 

ijy  Kaipdi  uspiop.tvos,  dWa  Kai  tov  ntpirarrio-at  Kai  \ovaaoQai  Kai  icoifirjdrivai  ptra  rijf 
yvvaticds  Kai  KaddXov  tcov  Kara  tov  (iiov  TtpaTToy.zvu>v  arravrotv. 

1  '£ln>\6yiov  is  generally  rendered  Sun-dial  (see  vol.  i.  p.  276);  but  may  it 
not  mean  a  list  of  the  hours  of  the  day  with  the  influences  of  the  constella- 
tions during  each  (see  vol.  i.  p.  292),  according  to  the  analogy  of  prjvoXoyiav, 
an  almanac  of  the  month  ? 

1  The  standard  measure  of  length,  like  the  "Shekel  of  the  Sanctuary," 
the  standard  of  weight  among  the  Jews.    (Exod.  xxx.  13.    See  vol.  i  p.  290./ 

•  HpuffiTis  in  Greek  has  no  reference  to  prediction,  as  we  might  suppow 


EGYPTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 


87 


lowed  by  those  who  carried  the  loaves  which  were  brought  forth1. 
The  prophetes,  as  being  the  president  of  the  temple,  gets  by  heart 
the  ten  books  which  arc  called  hieratic  ;  they  contain  what  relates 
to  the  laws  and  the  gods,  and  the  whole  education  of  the  priests ; 
for  the  prophetes  among  the  Egyptians  presides  also  over  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  revenues.  The  books  of  Hermes  therefore  which 
are  absolutely  necessary  are  forty-two ;  of  which  the  persons  already 
mentioned  learn  thirty-six  by  heart,  containing  the  whole  philoso- 
phy of  the  Egyptians.  The  remaining  six  tke  Pastophori*  learn  by 
heart,  being  medical,  respecting  the  structure  of  the  body,  and 
diseases,  and  instruments,  and  drugs,  and  the  eyes,  and  finally 
female  diseases3."  There  is  not  one  among  these  works,  however 
remote  its  subject  may  appear  from  history,  which  might  not  inci- 
dentally furnish  historical  illustration,  especially  the  description  of 
Egypt  and  the  Nile,  and  the  account  of  religion  and  the  laws  con- 
nected with  it.  Since  they  appear  to  have  been  in  existence  in  the 
age  of  Clemens,  at  the  beginning  of  the  third  century  after  Christ, 
it  is  not  beyond  hope  that  a  portion  of  them  may  yet  be  found 
among  the  many  unexamined  papyri  which  have  been  brought 
from  Egypt,  or  among  the  treasures  of  some  hitherto  unopened 
grave.    As  the  names  of  many  of  their  legislators  were  preserved4, 

from  our  own  use  of  prophet.  It  was  his  office  to  give  forth  the  declarations 
of  the  god,  which  might  be  prophetic  or  otherwise.    (Her.  8,  135.) 

1  01  rijv  eKircfiipiv  rcSf  aprwv  Paoratyvrts.  Offerings  of  loaves  or  cakes  to  the 
gods  are  common  on  the  monuments.  (Rbsellini,  Mon.  del  Culto,  tav.  xxxiii. 
2.)  Compare  the  aproi  -nts  wpoafopSi,  1  Kings,  vii.  48,  of  the  Jewish  Sanc- 
tuary. . 

2  The  Fastophori  were  an  inferior  order  of  priests,  whose  duty  it  was  to 
carry  about  the  shrines  (xaarot)  or  images  of  the  gods  on  a  bari  or  a  ferelnun 
in  solemn  processions. 

3  The  necessity  of  learning  so  much  by  heart,  notwithstanding  the 
copiousness  of  written  books,  will  explain  what  Herodotus  says  of  the  Egyp 

kians,  fivrtph"  iiraaxeavai  dvOpu>Tuv  itavTuv  /idXiffra,    (2,  77.) 

•  Diod.  1,  94. 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


historical  facts  and  anecdotes  must  have  been  handed  down  along 
with  them. 

The  Hieratical  Canon  of  Turin  is  a  chronological  rather  than  an 
historical  document1.  As  already  mentioned  it  begins  with  the 
dynasties  of  the  gods,  to  whom  years  are  assigned  by  tens  of  thou- 
sands, and  from  them  comes  down  to  Menes  the  founder  of  the 
monarchy.  It  contained  probably  the  titular  shields  of  250  kings' 
in  its  entire  state,  and  those  of  119  arc  still  more  or  less  legible. 
The  difficulty  which  tl^  discrepancy  between  Manetho  and  Erato- 
sthenes has  occasioned  is  not  removed,  but  increased,  by  the  dis- 
covery of  this  document,  and  from  its  mutilated  state  its  arrange- 
ment is  doubtful.  There  exist  also  fragments  of  papyri  contain- 
ing accounts  of  receipt  and  expenditure  of  the  date  of  the  18th 
and  19th  dynasties,  which  from  the  occurrence  of  the  names  of 
reigning  sovereigns,  and  the  years  of  their  reigns,  are  valuable  as 
subsidiary  to  history3.  The  majority  of  the  papyri,  however,  which 
have  been  preserved  relate  to  the  theology  of  the  Egyptians,  describ- 
ing the  state  and  changes  of  the  soul  after  death,  for  which  reason 
they  were  so  commonly  placed  in  tombs  and  the  cases  of  the  mum- 
mies. Even  though  they  contain  no  properly  historical  informa- 
tion, by  their  early  date,  and  the  proof  which  they  exhibit  of  the 
existence  of  a  theological  system  in  Egypt,  fully  developed  and 
generally  received,  they  give  collateral  evidence  to  the  accounts  of 
the  high  antiquity  of  its  arts  and  institutions.  There  appear  also 
to  be  collections  of  hymns,  from  which  when  deciphered  light  may 
be  thrown  on  history  as  well  as  theology 

1  It  has  been  published  according  to  his  own  arrangement  of  the  frag- 
ments by  Lepsius  in  his  Auswahl.  The  names  are  given  in  the  hiero- 
glyphic character  in  Lesueur's  Chronologie,  with  facsimiles  of  the  original. 

*  Bunsen's  Egypt  Eng.  p.  50.    Birch,  Tr.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit.  1,  201. 

*  Champollion,  Lettre  a  M.  le  Due  de  Blacas,  2,  pp.  80,  81,  86,  96. 

*  Lepsius.  Einleitung,  1,  p.  49,  speaks  of  a  collection  of  such  hynns  of  th« 
age  of  Rameses  IX 


EGYPTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 


89 


A  passage  in  Diodorus  proves  that  the  Egyptians  had  popular 
poetry  in  which  the  exploits  of  their  kings  were  celebrated.  Speak- 
ing of  the  reign  of  Sesoosis,  he  says,  "  that  not  only  did  the  Greek 
historians  differ  among  themselves  respecting  him,  but  even  in 
Egypt  the  priests  and  those  who  celebrated  him  in  song  did  not 
agree1."  As  a  distinction  is  here  made  between  the  priestly  and 
the  poetical  literature,  these  songs  must  have  been  something  dif- 
ferent from  those  which  Clemens  describes  the  rQSog  or  singer  as 
repeating,  and  several  of  the  circumstances  which  Diodorus  goes 
on  to  mention  have  the  air  of  being  such  exaggerations  as  a  popu- 
lar poetical  literature  deals  in.  Rosellini  has  suggested,  that  in  the 
papyrus  of  Sallier  we  have  a  poetical  account  of  the  military 
exploits  of  Sesostris;  and  that  the  long  inscription  relating  to 
Rameses  IV.  at  Medinet  Aboo  is  rather  a  song  then  an  historical 
narrative8. 

No  nation  has  left  in  its  inscribed  monuments  such  ample  materials 
for  history  as  the  Egyptians  ;  the  statues  of  their  kings  are  generally 
inscribed  with  their  names ;  the  walls  of  their  palaces  exhibit  their 
exploits,  commonly  accompanied  with  the  year  of  their  reigns; 
works  of  art  executed  for  private  individuals  and  the  tombs  of  pub- 
lic functionaries  frequently  contain  the  name  of  the  reigning  sove- 
reign. But  we  commonly  derive  no  information  from  these  sources 
as  to  the  succession  and  relative  position  of  the  sovereigns,  or  their 
absolute  place  in  a  general  system  of  chronology.  There  are  two 
remarkable  monuments,  however,  which  appear  to  give  a  certain 
number  of  kings  in  the  order  of  their  succession,  the  Tablet  of 
Abydos8  and  the  Tablet  of  Karnak*.  The  building  to  which  the 
former  belonged  was  built  or  repaired  by  Rameses  the  Great  (III.), 
and  he  is  represented  on  the  monument  sitting  on  his  throne  and 
contemplating  a  double  series  of  twenty-six  shields  of  his  predeces- 

1  2,  58.  Kai  t.1!»  kut  Aiyvtrrov  o"  rt  Itpug  k  a  I  •[  St  a  rffs  <fdfis  avrdt 
■  Mon.  Stor.  iv,  91.  'See  vol.  L  p.  88.  *  Vol  i.  p.  146. 


90 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


sors.  The  lowest  line  of  the  monument  contains  only  a  repetition  of 
his  own  name  and  titles.  The  conclusion  which  was  at  first  drawn 
from  this  monument,  that  it  exhibited  a  regnal  succession  of  fifty- 
two  monarchs  anterior  to  Rameses  the  Great,  has  not  indeed  been 
realized,  nor  has  the  anticipated  correspondence  been  established 
between  the  tablet  and  the  lists  of  Manetho,  except  for  a  tew  reigns 
in  the  later  part.  Still  its  information  is  most  important  for 
Egyptian  history.  The  tablet  of  Karnak  is  a  representation  of 
Thothmes  III.  offering  gifts  to  a  series  of  sixty-one  kings,  disposed 
in  four  lines  around  the  walls.  This  sovereign  himself  is  the  forty- 
fourth  of  the  tablet  of  Abydos,  and  it  might  have  been  expected 
that  we  should  find  here  his  predecessors  on  that  tablet,  which,  how- 
ever, is  not  the  case.  But  though  we  have  been  disappointed  in 
the  hope  of  obtaining  from  the  combination  of  these  two  monuments 
an  authentic  regnal  succession  from  Rameses  the  Great  upwards, 
and  the  tablet  of  Karnak,  like  that  of  Abydos,  cannot  be  brought 
into  exact  correspondence  with  Manetho,  there  are  evidently  materials 
in  these  monuments  for  the  construction  of  history,  when  their  true 
relation  has  been  ascertained.  The  grottos  of  Benihassan  and 
Qoorneh  contain  some  successions,  corresponding  with  a  part  of  the 
tablet  of  Abydos,  and  other  short  successions  are  found  at  Thebes1, 
but  in  none  is  a  perfect  correspondence  discernible.  At  Tel  Amarna 
and  at  Thebes  is  found  a  succession  of  several  kings  whose  names 
do  not  agree  with  any  of  the  dynasties  of  Manetho,  and  who  are 
supposed,  from  their  physiognomy  and  the  emblems  which  accom- 
pany them,  to  belong  to  a  foreign  race,  professors  of  a  peculiar 
religion,  apparently  worshippers3  of  the  Sun. 

The  earliest  event  in  Egyptian  history  which  can  be  connected 
with  a  known  date  in  that  of  any  other  country,  is  the  invasion  of 

-  / 

1  Roseliini,  M.  S.  1,  205. 

'Wilkinson,  Modern  Egypt  and  Thebes,  2,  72,  216,  255.  Trans,  Roy 
Boc  Lit  2nd  series,  1,  140. 


EGYPTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 


91 


Judaea  by  Shishak  or  Sheshonk  in  the  reign  of  Rehoboam.  As  the 
chronology  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures  is  in  this  age  definite  and 
authentic,  we  are  able  tu  fix  the  reign  of  Sheshonk  in  years  before 
the  Christian  aera.  But  this  does  not  enable  us  to  carry  backward 
an  exact  chronology  through  all  the  reigns  of  his  predecessors, 
owing  to  the  uncertainty  and  interruption  of  the  successions,  both 
in  the  MSS.  and  in  the  monuments ;  and  in  the  previous  part  of 
the  Jewish  history,  the  sovereigns  of  Egypt  are  only  mentioned  by 
the  common  name  of  Pharaoh,  which  would  not  suffice  for  their 
identification,  even  if  the  Jewish  chronology  itself  were  in  early 
ages  certain.  Could  we,  however,  connect  one  of  those  astrono- 
mical phaenomena,  whose  recurrence  is  invariable,  to  however 
remote  a  period  we  ascend,  with  the  reign  of  any  of  the  old  Egyp- 
tian kings,  we  should  have  a  fixed  point  in  the  flux  of  time  from 
which  we  might  reckon  upwards  and  downwards  with  considerable 
security.  Whether  any  such  fixed  point  is  to  be  found  is  a  matter 
for  subsequent  inquiry. 

Syncellus,  we  have  seen,  assigns  3555  years  as  the  duration  of 
Manetho's  thirty  dynasties.  These  being  Egyptian  years  are  equi- 
valent to  3553  Julian  years1,  and  added  to  339  B.C.,  when  his  30th 
dynasty  expired2,  give  3892  b.c.  as  the  commencement  of  the  reign 
of  Menes.  There  is  nothing  incredible  in  such  an  antiquity  of  the 
Egyptian  monarchy ;  but  from  what  has  been  already  said,  and 
from  what  will  appear  in  our  further  investigations,  it  cannot  be 
regarded  as  historically  proved. 

The  following  history  is  divided  into  Three  Books,  each  com- 
prising a  period  designated  respectively  as  the  Old,  the  Middle, 
and  the  New  Monarchy.  The  first  extends  from  the  Foundation 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Menes  to  the  Invasion  of  the  Hyksos.  The 
second,  from  the  Conquest  of  Lower  Egypt  by  the  Hyksos  and  the 
Establishment  of  a  dependent  Kingdom  at  Thebes,  to  the  Expulsion 
1  Lepsius,  Einleitung,  1,  p.  499. 

'  Boeckh,  Manctho  und  die  Hundssternperiode,  Abschn.  2,  §  18, 19. 


92  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 

of  the  Hyksos.  The  third,  from  the  Re-establishment  of  the 
Monarchy  by  Amosis  to  the  Final  Conquest  by  Persia1.  The 
Dynasties  of  Manetho  have  been  employed  as  subdivisions,  accord- 
ing to  the  text  of  Africanus,  because,  however  doubtful  the  reading 
or  the  numbers  may  be,  no  better  authority  exists. 

'  These  designations  are  due,  I  believe,  to  Bunsen  and  Lepsius.  Heeien, 
however  (Ideen,  2,  2,  p.  551,  note,  Germ.),  had  clearly  distinguished  the  two 
first  periods;  but  he  subdivides  the  third  into  the  flourishing  period  1500- 
700  B.O.,  and  the  period  of  decline  700  b.o,  to  the  Persian  Conquest 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


BOOK  I. 

THE  OLD  MONARCHY. 

Manetho,  according  to  the  Armenian  version  of  Eusebius,  having 
enumerated  the  gods  of  Egypt,  beginning  with  Vulcan  and  ending 
with  Horns1,  says,  "  these  first  exercised  power  among  the  Egyp- 
tians. 

Years. 

Next,  the  royal  authority  devolved  by  cond-  |  j  which  are  lunar, 

nued  succession  to  Bytis,  in  the  space  of      )  (  of  30  days  each. 

After  the  gods  heroes  reigned  .  1,255 

Then  other  kings  .        ...  ..  1,817 

Then  30  other  kings  of  Memphis  1,790 
Then  10  other  kings  of  This  .  .  350 
Then  followed  a  dominion  of  manes  and  heroes  5,813 

"The  sum  amounts  to  11,000  years  (11,025),  which,  however, 
are  lunar,  of  a  month  each." 

Without  attempting  any  other  explanation  of  tnese  successions 
find  numbers  than  what  has  been  already  given8,  we  pass  to  the 

First  Dynasty. 

"After  the  manes  and  demigods,  the  first  kingdom  is  reckoned 
to  have  consisted  of  eight  kings,  of  whom  the  first — 

1  Vol  L  p.  300.  ■  Vol.  iL  p.  76,  80. 


04 


II I  STORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Years. 

1.  Menes  the  Thinite,  reigned1     .....  .62 

He  died,  torn  to  pieces  by  a  hippopotamus. 

2.  ATnoxHis,  his  son,  reigned   67 

He  built  the  palace  at  Memphis.    He  was  a  physician,  and 
anatomical  books  of  his  are  in  circulation. 

8.  Kenkenes,  his  son,  reigned  ...   81 

4.  Ouenepuks,  his  son,  reigned  23 

Under  him  a  great  famine  prevailed  in  Egypt    He  erected 
the  pyramids  near  Cochome. 
6.  Usaphaidos  (Usathais),  his  son   .  .20 

6.  Miebidos  (Niebaes),  his  son  26 

7.  Semempses,  his  son   ...  18 

Under  him  a  great  pestilence  prevailed  in  Egypt 

8.  Bienneches,  his  son    .   26" 

In  all    .    .       .  263 


The  summation  of  Africanus  makes  the  total  253 ;  that  of  Euse- 
bius  252  in  Syncellus,  and  the  same  in  the  Armenian,  notwith- 
standing the  shortening  of  the  reign  of  Menes.  These  discrepan- 
cies will  not  be  noticed  in  future,  unless  for  some  special  reason. 

The  word  Dynasty,  which  does  not  occur  in  the  older  writers  on 
Egyptian  history,  appears  to  be  used  by  Manetho  nearly  in  the 
same  sense  as  when  we  speak  of  the  Carlovingian  or  the  Capetian 
dynasty,  as  an  hereditary  succession  of  sovereigns.  On  the  failure 
of  the  line,  election  was  resorted  to  in  Egypt.  All  the  kings  of  the 
first  dynasty  succeeded  from  father  to  son  ;  afterwards  the  mention 
of  their  relation  to  each  other  is  omitted,  but  the  descent  appears 
to  have  been  in  the  same  line  till  the  dynasty  was  changed. 

That  Menes  of  This  was  the  first  mortal  king  of  Egypt,  is  one 
of  the  very  few  points  in  which  all  the  authorities — Herodotus, 
Eratosthenes,  Diodorus,  Manetho  —agree.  This,  or  Thinis,  was  a 
town  in  Upper  Egypt,  giving  its  name  to  the  nome  in  which 

1  Eusebius  in  the  Armenian  makes  his  reign  30  years. 


THE   FIRST  DYNASTY. 


95 


Abydos  stood,  and  not  far  from  that  ancient  and  celebrated  seat  of 
the  Osirian  worship1.  We  know  little  more  of  This,  but  Abydoa 
was  next  to  Thebes  in  importance  among  the  cities  of  Upper  Egypt. 
The  agreement  of  the  historians  ends  here ;  for  while  Menes  is  to 
Herodotus  the  founder  of  Memphis  as  well  as  of  the  monarchy, 
Diodorus  attributes  to  another  monarch,  living  many  centuries 
later,  the  foundation  of  Memphis3  and  the  performance  of  the  great 
works  which  were  necessary  to  restrain  the  Nile,  and  obtain  an  area 
for  the  site  of  the  capital.  Since  their  accounts  so  entirely  differ, 
and  we  have  no  decisive  reason  for  preferring  one  to  the  other,  we 
may  doubt  if  either  of  them  rests  on  properly  historical  authority. 
According  to  Herodotus  a  reign  of  the  gods,  according  to  Diodorus 
of  gods  and  heroes ;  according  to  Manetho  of  gods,  mams  and  heroes, 
preceded  the  reign  of  Menes.  This  is  in  feet  to  confess  that  nothing 
historical  could  be  related  of  preceding  times.  It  is  indeed  common 
to  say,  that  the  reign  of  the  gods  means  a  reign  of  the  priests,  and 
that  a  period  of  sacerdotal  sway  preceded  the  monarchical,  which 
Menes  established.  It  is  not  in  itself  improbable  ;  but  had  it  been 
known  as  an  historical  fact  to  the  ancients,  it  would  have  been 
handed  down  to  us  as  such,  not  concealed  in  this  mode  of  expression3. 
Besides,  if  the  reign  of  the  gods  means  a  reign  of  the  priests,  what  is 
the  historical  equivalent  of  the  reigns  of  the  manes  and  the  heroes  ? 

The  entire  uncertainty  of  all  that  precedes  Menes  may  even 
throw  doubt  on  his  own  historical  reality  ;  for  we  do  not  com- 

1  Ptol.  Geogr.  B.  iv.  c.  5.  Steph.  Byz.  de  Urb.  s.  voc.    Str.ibo,  p.  813. 

3  He  says  (1,  51)  that  Memphis  was  so  called  from  the  daughter  of  the 
king  who  founded  it,  The  river  Nile,  assuming  the  form  of  a  bull,  fell  in 
love  with  her,  and  her  son,  ^Egyptus,  was  a  king  remarkable  for  benevo- 
lence, justice,  and  worth,  from  whom  the  whole  country  took  its  name. 
There  seems  here  some  allusion  to  the  worship  of  Apis. 

1  "  On  croit  que  ces  demidieux  etaient  des  grands  pnetres,  qui  regnaient 
au  nom  des  dieux,  dont  ils  mettaient  les  images  ou  les  momies  sur  le  trftne." 
(Leaueur,  Chronologie  des  Rois  d'Egypte,  p.  309.) 


9G 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


monly  find  the  darkness  of  a  m)Tthic  period  succeeded  at  once  by 
light  and  certainty.  The  real  founders  of  great  cities  in  ancient 
times  being  generally  unknown,  it  was  common  to  suppose  one, 
bearing  the  same  name  as  the  city  itself ;  and  as  Menfis1  (Coptic, 
Menbe)  appears  to  have  been  the  orthography  of  the  capital  of 
Lower  Egypt,  Menes  was  assumed  as  the  founder.  His  name, 
written  Mena,  is  found  in  a  solemn  procession,  in  which  the  images 
of  the  predecessors  of  Rameses  the  Great  are  exhibited2,  on  the 
walls  of  the  Rameseion  at  Thebes,  and  therefere,  if  fictitious,  it  is 
of  very  ancient  date.  The  monument,  however,  belongs  to  the 
18th  dynasty,  so  that  many  hundred  years  must  have  intervened 
between  the  origin  of  the  monarchy  and  the  date  of  the  inscrip- 
tion. The  same  combination  of  characters  occurs  also  in  the 
hieratic  manuscript  of  Turin,  and  is  thought  with  probability  to 
have  stood  at  the  commencement  of  the  list  of  kings,  which  that 
papyrus  contains.  This  evidence  also  refers  to  the  reign  of  Rameses 
the  Great3,  and  therefore  establishes  the  fact  of  a  belief  that  Menes 
had  been  the  founder  of  the  monarchy — a  predecessor  not  only  of 
Memphite  but  Theban  kings4. 

Menes  has  been  considered  as  identical  with  Mizraim,  who  is 
mentioned  (Gen.  x.  13)  as  the  father  of  several  African  nations. 

1  Tochori  dAnnec,y,  Medailles  des  Nomes.  Eratosthenes  interprets  the 
name  Menes  Aioviog.  Jablonsky,  in  De  Vignoles'  Chronology,  conjectures 
Ac'wj/toj,  which  Bunsen  adopts,  and  refers  to  the  root  men,  perpetuus. 
(Egypten,  B.  2,  p.  45,  Geini.  See  also  his  Coptic  Vocabulary,  1,  p.  673.) 
Memphis  is  denoted  by  hieroglyphics  which  read  Mennofre,  "  abode  of  good  " 
(Wilkinson,  M,  and  C.  3,  278),  or  good  abode,  Sp/xov  dyadtiv.  (Plut.  Is.  p 
S59.) 

*  Champollion,  Lettres  d'Egyptc,  p.  270. 

8  Trans,  of  Roy.  Soc.  of  Lit.  2nd  series,  1,  206. 

*  It  deserves  to  be  remarked,  that  the  name  of  Mnevis,  the  bull  of  Heliopolis, 
consecrated  to  the  Sun  and  Osiris,  is  written  hieroglyphic  ally  Mena  (Lepsiua, 
EinleituHg,  1,  261  \  and  that  Uiodorus  calls  Mneves  (1,  94)  the  first  legis- 
lator of  Egypt    Pliny  (36,  8,  Sillig)  speaks  of  a  palace  of  Mnevia. 


THE   FIRST  DYNASTY. 


97 


The  name  Mcstraia  is  hence  given  by  the  author  of  the  Latercuius 
to  Egypt.  The  Old  Chronicle  speaks  of  three  races'  as  inhabit- 
ing Egypt  successively,  the  Auritae,  the  Mestraei,  and  the  Egyptians. 
The  Auritae  derive  their  name  from  Aeria,  the  Greek  epithet  for 
Egypt,  signifying  dark1;  and  neither  name  has  any  historirnl 
authority.  The  termination  of  Mizraim,  which  is  plural,  or  as 
commonly  pointed  dual,  is  sufficient  to  show  that  no  real  person 
was  intended2,  and  that  Mizraim  stands  in  the  genealogy  only  as 
representative  of  the  nation,  and  as  indicative  of  the  relation  in 
which  the  people  of  Semitic  language  considered  the  Egyptians 
to  stand,  towards  the  common  ancestor  of  the  postdiluvian  nations. 
Mizraim  therefore  has  an  ethnological,  not  an  historical  signifi- 
cance, denoting  the  origin  of  a  people,  not  a  monarchy.  The 
name  itself  is  unknown  to  the  Egyptians  ;  they  called  their  land 
Cham  or  Chemi3,  an  appellation  which  was  also  known  to  the 
Semitic  nations,  since  Mizraim  is  described  as  the  son  of  Cham 
(Gen.  x.  6).  To  endeavor  to  combine  in  one  historical  statemen 
conceptions  originating  in  different  countries  and  from  unconnected 
sources,  can  lead  to  no  satisfactory  result.  The  name  of  Mizraim, 
however,  conveys  to  us  important  information,  since  in  its  dual  form 
it  recognizes  a  double  character  in  the  Egyptian  people.  This 
cannot  have  consisted  in  their  living  on  both  sides  of  the  Nile  ; 
for  that  circumstance  has  never  constituted  a  division  in  population, 
language,  manners,  government  or  religion.  Egypt  is  the  country 
which  the  Nile  overflows  ;  Egyptians  are  the  people,  who,  whether 
on  the  eastern  or  western  bank,  below  Elephantine,  drink  of  its 
waters4.  But  the  distinction  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt  exists  in 
geological  structure,  in  language,  in  religion,  and  in  historical  tradi- 
tion ;  and  to  this  the  dual  form  of  Mizraim  evidently  alludes,  prov- 

1  Schol.  Apoll.  Rbod.  1,  280. 

9  Misraim  non  est  nomen  hominis ;  i<l  non  patitur  forma  dualis.  (Booh 
Geogr.  Sacra,  lib.  4,  c.  24.) 

*  Pint  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  364  C.  4  Her.  2,  18.    Vol  i.  p.  4, 

VOL.  n.  5 


98 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


iug  its  origin  in  times  when  the  whole  valley  from  Syene  down- 
wards was  peopled.  The  name  exists  also  in  a  singular  form, 
Metzur1,  and  from  its  derivation  appears  to  allude  to  the  narrow 
and  compressed  shape  of  the  greater  part  of  the  country,  for 
which  reason  Egypt  is  called  by  the  prophet  Isaiah  (xviii.  2),  u  a 
nation  spread  out  in  length2." 

The  great  works  attributed  to  Menes,  as  the  founder  of  Memphis, 
are  fully  described  by  Herodotus3 ;  they  were  necessary  prelimi- 
naries to  the  establishment  of  a  capital  city  in  that  place.  To 
build  a  temple  and  unite  the  people  in  the  worship  of  a  tutelary 
god  was  as  essential  to  their  coalescence  in  a  community,  as  in  the 
middle  ages  the  erection  of  a  church.  Memphis  is  sometimes 
designated4  as  Ptah-ei,  "  the  abode  of  Ptah."  The  circumstances 
added  by  Diodorus  betray  a  later  origin.  Thus  he  says  that  the 
Egyptians  originally  lived  on  herbs,  then  on  fish,  afterwards  on  the 
flesh  of  cattle,  and  that  Isis,  or  one  of  their  ancient  kings  called 
Menas,  taught  them  tne  use  of  the  lotus  and  grain5.  This  is  not 
in  harmony  with  another  account  in  the  same  author,  that  Menas 
taught  the  Egyptians  to  worship  the  gods  and  perform  sacrifices ; 
and  that  he  also  introduced  the  use  of  tables  and  couches  and 
carpets,  and  the  whole  apparatus  of  civilized  luxury.  Tnephactus, 
the  father  of  Bocchoris  the  Wise,  making  an  expedition  into 
Arabia,  was  compelled  to  live  one  day  on  the  simple  fare  of  the  com- 
mon people,  and  enjoyed  his  meal  so  much,  that  he  denounced  a 
curse  on  the  king  who  had  first  introduced  luxury ;  and  caused  it 
k>  be  inscribed,  in  sacred  characters,  in  the  temple  of  Jupiter  at 

It  appears  to  have  been  an  archaism  of  poetry,  2  Kings,  xix.  24,  where 
"  rivers  of  besieged  places "  we  should  read  "  rivers  of  Egypt.*  (Is. 
Kix.  6;  Mich.  vii.  12,  where  a  similar  correction  should  be  made.) 

*  "YBtofa  Comp.  Boch.  G-eogr.  Sacra,  u.  «.  Strabo  (17,  p.  783) 
compares  it  to  a  long  sash  or  girdle. 

*  2,  99.    See  Vol.  i.  p.  95. 

*  Wilkinson,  M.  &  C.  3,  278.  •  DiodL  I,  4& 


THE   FIRST  DYNASTY. 


99 


Thebes.  This,  adds  the  historian,  is  the  principal  reason  why  the 
glory  and  honor  of  Menas  have  not  remained  to  succeeding  times. 
In  this  account  a  double  purpose  is  evident,  to  point  a  satire  against 
luxury,  and  to  explain  the  obscurity  in  which  the  history  of  Menas 
was  involved.  The  founder  of  Memphis  was  certainly  not  the 
person  who  introduced  religion  among  the  Egyptians,  or  taught 
them  the  use  of  grain ;  but  popular  tradition,  or  historical  hypo- 
thesis in  every  country,  is  prone  to  assume  that  the  commencement 
of  its  separate  history  is  also  the  commencement  of  civilization, 
and  to  disregard  the  law  of  development,  by  attributing  the 
changes  of  centuries  to  the  life  of  one  man1. 

Eusebius  adds  to  the  information  of  Africanus,  that  Menes  led 
an  army  beyond  the  territories  of  Egypt,  and  acquired  renown 
It  does  not  appear  from  what  source  he  derived  his  authority 
whether  from  Manetho  or  not.  Under  the  first  sovereign  of  the 
third  dynasty  it  is  said  that  the  Libyans  revolted.  These  were 
probably  the  border  tribes  on  the  east  of  the  Canopic  branch  of 
the  Nile.  They  bore  impatiently  their  incorporation  with  Egypt, 
whose  manners  and  religion  were  different  from  their  own2.  We 
may  suppose  that  their  original  conquest  and  annexation  was  the 
work  of  Menes.  In  later  times  the  Libyans  seem  to  have  assimilated 
themselves  to  the  Egyptians.  The  Oracle  of  Amun  was  estab- 
lished in  the  Great  Oasis,  and  animal  worship  prevailed  among  the 
Libyans3.  The  Lehabim,  who  are  said  to  owe  their  origin  to 
Mizraim  (Gen.  x.  13),  are  supposed  to  be  the  Libyans4,  but  this 
mode  of  expression  does  not  always  indicate  an  historical  descent. 

On  the  whole,  Menes  seems  to  fill  nearly  the  same  place  in  regard 
to  Egyptian  history  as  Romulus  to  the  Roman.  The  monarchy 
of  Egypt,  like  that  of  Rome,  must  have  had  a  founder ;  whethei 

1  Of  the  song  of  Maneros,  said  to  be  the  son  of  the  first  king  of  Egypt^ 
■ee  voL  L  p.  201. 

"  Her.  2,  18.  «  Strabo,  16,  p.  760. 

4  Michaelis,  Spio.  Geogr.  1,  262. 


100 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT, 


in  either  case  bearing  a  name  analogous  to  that  of  the  capital  of 
the  kingdom  is  doubtful.  As  Romulus  was  represented  by  later 
historical  hypothesis  to  have  established  the  principal  civil  institu- 
tions and  religious  rites  of  the  Romans1,  as  if  he  and  his  people 
had  sprung  out  of  the  earth,  instead  of  being  a  colony  from  the 
civilized  Latins,  so  Menes  was  said  to  have  taught  religion  to  the 
Egyptians,  and  introduced  the  use  of  grain  and  even  luxury  among 
them,  though  he  came  from  This,  the  ancient  seat  of  the  worship 
of  Osiris,  and  began  his  reign  over  united  Egypt  by  works  which 
certainly  do  not  indicate  the  infancy  of  art.  Romulus  vanished  by 
a  supernatural  death,  and  was  suspected  to  have  been  taken  off 
by  a  hostile  political  faction.  Menes  was  said  to  have  been  torn 
to  pieces  by  a  hippopotamus'*,  the  emblem  of  crime  in  the  Egyp- 
tian mythology.  Such  disappearances  may  generally  be  taken  as  an 
indication  that  fiction  has  been  at  work,  and  when  they  occur  at 
the  very  point  where  the  confines  of  history  and  mythology  meet, 
throw  a  shade  of  doubt  over  the  personality  of  their  subject3. 

The  establishment  of  the  capital  of  Egypt  at  Memphis  was  the 
first  step  towards  the  nation's  assuming  a  place  in  history.  Insu- 
lated in  the  Thebaid,  it  might  have  continued  for  ages  without 
any  reciprocal  action  between  it  and  the  other  great  nations  of  the 
world,  without  knowledge  of  the  sea  which  lay  beyond  the 
marshes  in  which  the  Nile  appeared  to  be  swallowed  up, — without 

1  Dion.  Halic.  Ant.  Rom.  2,  7-29. 

8  Phot.  Bibl.  Cod.  CCxlii.  p.  1047.     'O  iTTTTOirdrafios  iv  tois  Upoy\v<piKoTs  ypap/ia- 
SrjUi.    It  was  consecrated  to  Typhon  (Plut.  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  371  C.) 
and  denoted  the  Western  horizon,  as  the  abode  of  Darkness.  Euseb.  Prseb. 
Evang.  3,  12. 

*  This,  however,  affords  no  ground  for  an  identification  of  Menes  with 
the  Menu  of  the  Indians  and  the  Mannus  of  the  Germans,  as  if  he  were 
only  another  name  for  the  human  race.  See  Buttmann's  Mythologus,  2, 
239.  Menes  is  not  the  first  man,  but  only  the  first  mortal  king.  Menu 
and  Mannus  denote  simply  a  human  being  but  Menes  has  no  such  sense  in 
Egyptian. 


TDK   FIRST  DYNASTT. 


101 


eans  of  contact  with  the  civilization  which  was  advancing  from 
Mesopotamia  to  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  In  this  sense 
its  history  may  be  said  to  begin  with  Menes,  although  a  long 
period  must  have  preceded  his  reign,  in  which  the  people  was 
acquiring  the  capacity  of  a  national  existence,  and  receiving  the 
impress  of  a  national  character. 

Menes  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Athothis.  A  name  which  has 
been  read  Athoth  appears  among  the  fragments  of  the  Canon  of 
Turin,  but  the  correctness  of  the  reading  is  doubtful1.  Of  him  we 
are  told,  that  he  built  the  palace  at  Memphis  ;  that  he  was  a  phy- 
sician, and  that  books  of  anatomy  written  by  him  were  still  extant, 
whether  in  the  time  of  Manetho  or  Africanus  is  doubtful1.  It  is 
worthy  of  remark,  in  connexion  with  the  fame  of  this  early  sove- 
reign as  a  physician  and  anatomist,  that  not  only  was  Egypt  the 
most  celebrated  country  in  the  world  for  drugs  and  physicians', 
but  that  Memphis  was  the  seat  of  the  worship  of  ^lEsculapius,  and 
therefore  it  may  be  presumed  remarkable  for  the  cultivation  of  the 
art  of  Medicine*.  Books  on  the  various  branches  of  the  medica. 
art  formed  part  of  the  sacerdotal  library  of  the  Egyptians4,  all  of 
which  was  attributed  to  Hermes  or  Thoth  ;  and  it  has  been 
conjectured  that  the  name  Athoth  hides  that  of  the  god,  from  its 
signifying  "  that  belongs  to  Thoth6."    We  seem  therefore  hardly 

1  Trans,  of  Roy.  Soc.  of  Literature,  2nd  series,  1,  206.  Lesueur,  Chrono- 
logic, pi.  xiL  xiiL  The  letter  A  is  wanting,  but  it  is  often  prefixed  euphoni- 
cally  in  Coptic,  as  in  Greek. 

■  Horn.  Od.  <T,  228.    Jerem.  xlvi.  11.    Herod.  2,  84.    See  vol.  i.  p.  291. 

*  Amm.  MarcelL  22,  14.  Meraphim  urbem  frequentem,  prsesentiaque 
nnminis  ^Esculapii  claram.  The  Mohammedans  consider  the  subject  of  the 
hieroglyphical  inscriptions  to  be  the  charms  and  wonders  of  physic  (Vyse, 
,  2,  819). 

4  See  vol.  l  p.  291. 

'Translated  by  Eratosthenes  'E^yo^.  "The  Christian  Fathers  often 
cite  a  Hermetic  book,  in  which  the  second  Thoth  instructs  a  scholar  who  is 
sometimes  called  Tat,  sometimes  ^£sculapins.    See  CyrilL  adv.  Jnl  p.  8? 


102 


HISTORY    OF  EGYPT. 


yet  to  Lave  quitted  the  domain  of  mythology.  A  great  deal  of 
supposititious  literature  owed  its  origin  to  Egypt,  and  that  a  divine 
and  royal  name  should  have  been  given  to  a  work  of  the  Ptolemaic 
or  Roman  times  would  be  much  less  wonderful  than  that  a  book 
should  have  been  preserved  through  so  many  centuries. 

From  the  time  of  Athothis,  who  built  a  palace  at  Memphis,  we 
may  consider  it  as  the  capital  of  the  Old  Monarchy.  The  occa- 
sional residence  of  the  sovereign  may  still  have  been  in  the  cities 
whence  the  several  dynasties  took  their  name,  but  the  hills  near 
Memphis  appear  to  have  been  their  burial-place.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded, according  to  Eratosthenes,  by  another  Athothis,  according 
to  Manetho  by  Kenkenes,  and  here  the  accordance  between  the 
two  lists  ceases.  The  reign  of  Kenkenes  was  marked  by  no  events ; 
in  that  of  his  son  and  successor,  Uenephes,  a  great  famine  prevailed 
in  Egypt.  Its  entire  dependence  on  the  rise  of  the  Nile  makes 
famine,  when  it  occurs,  more  dreadful  than  in  countries  which  have 
a  greater  variety  of  surface,  and  derive  their  moisture  from  rain 
and  small  streams.  Egypt  has  indeed  a  remedy  against  famine,  in 
the  exuberance  of  her  harvests  in  fruitful  years,  and  the  power  of 
storing  up  the  grain  and  pulse  which  are  her  chief  productions,  to 
supply  future  deficiencies.  Yet  we  see,  from  the  history  of  Joseph, 
that  this  policy  had  not  been  adopted  before  his  time  by  the  Egyp- 
tian monarchs.  Uenephes  is  also  said  to  have  built  the  pyramids 
at  Cochome.  This  mode  of  interment  appears  in  Egypt  not  only 
to  have  been  exclusively  royal,  but  exclusively  Memphite,  pyramids 
being  scarcely  found  in  Upper  Egypt1,  and  the  great  functionaries 
who  lie  buried  around  the  pyramids  of  Gizeh  being  all  deposited 
in  excavations.    A  regal  residence  required  a  regal  cemetery,  but 

Augustin.  de  Civ.  Dei,  viii.  23.    Chron.  Pasch.  65,  68.    This  Tat  is  placed 
by  Manetho  "  (rather  the  author  of  the  spurious  Sothis)  "  among  those  godi 
to  whom  the  sacred  literature  was  attributed.    He  is  probably  the  second 
"Egyptian  king  Athothis."    (Movers,  die  Phonizier,  1,  527.) 
1  Vol.  L  p.  1 U. 


THE   FIRST  DYNASTY. 


103 


the  pyramids  were  probably  only  of  brick  or  rough  stones ;  for  the 
art  of  building  with  hewn  stone  was  not  introduced  till  the  reign 
of  Tosorthrus  of  the  third  dynasty.  The  site  of  Cochome  is 
unknown.  As  all  the  known  burial-places  of  the  Memphite  kings, 
however,  were  in  the  Libyan  hills,  on  the  western  side  of  the  Nile, 
it  is  here  that  we  should  look  for  the  pyramids  of  Uenephes.  His 
monuments  have  yielded  to  the  power  of  Time,  which  has  been 
unable  to  make  any  impression  on  the  works  of  Cheops,  Chephres, 
and  Mycerinus ;  or  they  may  have  been  among  those  numerous 
ruined  and  nameless  pyramids,  whose  existence  the  Prussian  expe- 
dition has  ascertained.  It  is  probable  that  the  method  of  embalm- 
ment was  already  practised ;  Kos  is  the  word  used  in  the  Coptic 
version  of  Gen.  1.  2,  for  the  embalmment  of  Jacob ;  it  is  found  in 
several  names  of  places1,  and  seems  to  have  entered  into  the  com- 
position of  Kochome.  Indeed  the  Armenian  Eusebius  reads  "  the 
town  (xw(A7))  of  Cko*"  Athothis  is  said  to  have  been  a  physician 
and  anatomist.  Embalmment  in  early  times  was  a  branch  of  the 
medical  art;  anatomy  also  does  not  seem  in  Egypt  to  have  pro- 
ceeded beyond  such  a  knowledge  of  the  internal  structure  as  the 
evisceration  which  accompanied  embalmment  would  furnish.  The 
bodies  of  the  predecessors  of  Uenephes  having  been  preserved  by 
this  art  would  be  naturally  transferred  to  these  receptacles ;  for  he 
is  said  to  have  raised  not  one,  but  several  pyramids.  In  the  reign 
of  Semempses  it  is  recorded  that  Egypt  was  afflicted  with  a  pesti- 
lence ;  and  Eusebius  adds  that  many  prodigies  accompanied  it , 
agreeably  to  the  experience  of  all  ages,  that  events  unnoticed  ai 
other  times  are  understood  as  significant  when  the  public  mind  in 
rendered  superstitious  by  alarm  and  suffering*. 

1  Champollion,  L'Egj-pte  sous  les  Pharaons,  1,  220. 
•  See  Bunsen,  Urk.  p.  9. 

9  Tacit  Hist  4,  26.  Quod  in  pace  fors  seu  natura  tune  fattun  et  ira  dei 
Toeabatur. 


104  I1I8TORY   OF  EGVPT. 


Second  Dynasty.    Nine  Thinite  kings. 


Year* 

1.  Boethos  (Bochus,  Euseb.)  reigned   38 

In  his  reign  a  great  opening  of  the  ground  took  place,  and 
many  persons  perished  at  Bubastos. 

2.  Kaiechob  (CHoos,Euseb.)  reigned   .  89 

In  his  reign  the  bulls  Apis  at  Memphis  and  Mnevis  at  Heli- 
opolis,  and  the  Mendesian  goat,  were  established  by  la-w- 
as gods. 

8.  Binothris  (Biorms,  Euseb.)  47 

In  whose  reign  it  was  decided  that  women  should  have  the 
prerogative  of  royalty. 

4.  Tlas     17 

5.  Sethenes  .    .       .    .   41 

6.  Chaires    17 

7.  Nepilebcheres  25 

In  whose  reign  the  Nile  is  fabled  to  have  flowed  eleven  days, 
mixed  with  honey. 

8.  Shbochius   48 

Who  was  five  cubits  three  pain  is  in  height 

9.  Ckenerhs   .    .  80 


In  all   ...    .  802 

This  dynasty,  like  the  first,  is  called  of  Thinite  kings,  although 
Memphis  had  become  the  capital.  It  is  not  said  whose  son  the 
founder  of  the  second  dynasty  was ;  probably  he  was  descended 
from  a  collateral  branch.  It  is  evident,  however,  that  though  called 
Thinite,  they  were  supposed  to  be  kings  of  all  Egypt :  otherwise  it 
would  have  been  absurd  to  have  dated  events,  changes  of  religion 
and  political  institutions  by  their  reigns1. 

The  mention  of  the  city  of  Bubastos  or  Bubastis,  which  is  situ- 
ated in  the  Delta,  on  the  Pelusiac  branch  of  the  Nile,  below  Heli- 

1  Lepsius,  however,  (Einleitung,  1,  p.  489)  considers  this  dynast/  con- 
temporaneous with  the  first. 


THE  SECOND  DYNASTY. 


10£ 


opolis1,  as  having  in  these  early  times  a  large  population,  shows 
that  when  the  priests  told  Herodotus2  that  in  the  days  of  Menes 
all  Egypt,  except  the  Theban  nome,  was  a  marsh,  and  that  below 
the  Lake  of  Mceris  nothing  had  yet  appeared  above  water,  they 
spoke  entirely  without  historical  authority.  They  saw,  what  Hero- 
dotus says  was  evident  to  one  who  only  used  his  own  eyesight,  and 
had  not  been  previously  informed  of  it,  that  the  Delta  was 
"  acquired  land,  and  the  gift  of  the  Nile9."  But  being  ignorant  of 
the  rate  at  which  such  phenomena  proceed,  and  conceiving  the  com- 
mencement of  their  own  special  history  to  be  the  commencement 
of  everything,  they  made  the  formation  of  the  Delta,  and  the  whole 
country  below  the  Theban  nome,  the  work  of  thousands  of  years, 
to  have  begun  with  Menes.  With  the  same  ignorance  of  the  rate 
of  progression,  they  represented  to  Herodotus  that  there  had  been 
a  rise  of  level  in  the  soil  of  Egypt  below  Memphis  equal  to  eight 
cubits  in  900  years4.  The  time  of  the  changes  by  which  the  Delta 
was  elevated  and  laid  dry  stretches  far  beyond  history,  and  Menes 
did  not  found  his  capital  that  he  might  reign  over  a  marsh. 

Such  an  event  as  the  sudden  opening  of  a  chasm  in  the  ground, 
and  the  consequent  destruction  of  a  great  multitude  of  people,  would 
be  regarded  as  a  prodigy,  and  therefore  be  preserved  in  the  Egyp- 
tian annals,  scanty  as  they  are.  Egypt  is  not  very  subject  to  earth- 
quakes, and  the  chasm  is  more  probably  to  be  attributed  to  the 
undermining  of  a  part  of  the  city  by  the  Nile,  on  the  bank  of 
which  it  stood.  A  similar  chasm  in  the  Forum  at  Rome  filled  the 
minds  of  the  people  with  superstitious  terror,  and  it  was  believed 
that  nothing  less  than  the  self-devotion  of  Curtius  could  have 
averted  the  omen  and  closed  the  abyss6.  Though  the  story  of  the 
expiation  may  be  false,  the  terror  was  real. 

The  reign  of  Kaiechos  is  distinguished  by  the  establishment  of 
the  worship  of  Apis  at  Memphis,  Mnevis  at  Heliopolis,  and  th« 

1  See  vol  L  p.  46.  *  Her.  2,  4.  1  Her.  2,  4,  6. 

•  Her.  2,  13.  •  Liv.  7,  6.    Pliu.  15,  20. 


106 


niSTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


Mendesian  goat  at  the  town  of  that  name.  We  have  here  a  more 
decisive  evidence  that  Lower  Egypt,  in  the  early  times  of  the  Old 
Monarchy,  was  in  a  state  not  materially  different  fjom  that  in  which 
it  was  known  to  the  Jews  and  the  Greeks.  Mendes  stood  not  far 
from  the  sea1;  the  Delta  therefore,  even  to  its  extremity,  must 
have  been  already  firm  and  dry.  It  is  not  the  introduction  of  ani- 
mal worship  among  the  Egyptians,  as  sometimes  supposed,  that  is 
here  recorded  ;  that  lies  far  beyond  the  commencement  of  history ; 
but  specially  the  establishment  of  the  worship  of  the  bull  and  the 
goat  in  the  three  cities  mentioned.  Lower  Egypt  was  the  principal 
seat  of  this  superstition.  Among  other  things  attributed  to  Menes, 
he  was  said  to  have  introduced  the  worship  of  the  bull2.  Basis, 
the  sacred  bull  of  Hermonthis  in  the  Thebaid,  is  never  mentioned 
by  the  older  writers,  and  appears  to  have  been  an  object  of  merely 
iocal  reverence,  while  Apis  was  passionately  worshipped  by  the 
whole  nation4.  Every  nome  had  its  own  animal  type  of  divinity, 
and  abstained  from  using  its  flesh  for  food ;  but  we  read  of  no  such 
extravagant  and  superstitious  homage  being  paid  lo  the  ram  at 
Thebes  as  to  the  bull  at  Memphis.  Next  to  the  bull  Apis,  the  cat 
seems  to  have  been  the  animal  most  superstitiously  worshipped  by 
the  Egyptians,  and  the  chief  temple  of  the  goddess  Pasht,  to  whom 
it  was  consecrated,  was  at  Bubastos  in  the  Delta. 

A  shield  has  been  found  by  Lepsius  in  a  tomb  near  the  pyra 
mids  of  Gizeh  containing  the  name  Ke-ke-ou,  which,  there  can  be 
little  doubt,  answers  to  the  Kaiechos  of  Manetho's  list3.  Sethenes, 
Chaires  and  Nephercheres  have  also  been  identified  with  som< 
probability4.  The  establishment  of  the  prerogative  of  royalty  01 
behalf  of  women  in  the  reign  of  Binothris,  is  not  connected  with 
the  mention  of  any  female  succession  or  claim.  History  knowt 
only  of  one  queen,  Nitocris,  and  she  is  not  said  to  have  succeeded 
to  the  throne  by  a  law  of  the  kingdom,  but  to  have  been  choset 
1  Strabo,  17,  p.  802.  5  ^Eliau,  Hist.  Anira.  11,  10 

»  '*i;ns-m  T£  %  t\  106  Germ.  4  Lesueur,  p.  270,  810. 


THE  SECOND   DYNASTY.  107 

by  a  special  act  of  the  people,  who  had  put  her  brother  to  death1 
In  the  monuments  only  one  female  appears  with  the  attributes  of 
royalty,  Set  Amen,  Amense  or  Amesses  of  the  18th  dynasty,  who 
probably  reigned  as  guardian  of  her  son  or  younger  brother.  In 
the  lists  besides  Xitocris,  Scemiophris  appears  at  the  end  of  the  12th 
dynasty,  the  sister  of  Ammenemes  ;  and  Acencheres  of  the  18th  is 
called  by  Josephus  daughter  of  Horus,  neither  of  which  is  confirmed 
by  the  monuments.  The  specialty  of  these  cases  makes  us  doubt 
whether  the  words2  imply  female  inheritance,  since  in  such  frequent 
change  of  dynasty,  had  there  been  no  Salic  law,  it  is  scarcely  pos- 
sible that  we  should  not  have  found  daughters  succeeding  to  the 
throne.  The  words  "  royal  prerogatives  "  do  not  necessarily  imply 
more  than  the  monuments  exhibit — their  exercising  regal  functions, 
without  being  included  in  the  list  of  sovereigns.  Diodorus  indeed 
says,  that  the  queen  of  Egypt  enjoyed  greater  honors  than  the 
king,  attributing  the  distinction  to  the  merits  of  Isis3;  in  accord- 
ance with  the  practice  of  a  country  which  allotted  greater  respect 
to  the  female  than  the  male.  This  appears,  however,  if  the  fact 
be  correctly  stated,  to  have  been  matter  of  courtesy  and  sentiment 
rather  than  of  legal  right4. 

In  the  reign  of  Xephercheres  the  Nile  was  fabled  to  have  flowed 
eleven  days,  mixed  with  honey.  As  rivers  were  esteemed  divine 
by  the  ancients5,  their  changes  were  noted  with  superstitious  appre- 
hension. Whatever  affected  the  Nile,  which  physically  as  well  as 
religiously  was  of  vast  importance  to. the  Egyptians,  would  be  very 
likely  to  be  recorded.    To  have  their  sacred  river  changed  into 

1  Her.  2,  100.     Tdv  di&Qtov  dnoKTzivavrts  otTto  Ixeivg  a-c&ooav  ti\v  /3aai\riir)v. 

*  'Ejrf»0i7  raj  yvvaiKas  0aoi\Uas  ytpas  t\tiv, 

b  Diod.  1.  27.  Aia  ravras  raj  airtaj  (the  merits  of  Isis)  Karahix^nvai  fici^ovoi 
IZovj'ias  icai  Tiftrji  rvYX^Mtv  T*iv  PaaiXiaaav  tov  fiaaiXeus, 

4  See  what  Herodotus  sayB  (p.  46  of  this  voL)  of  the  inferiority  of  women 
in  Egypt 

*  Athenag.  a-W.  Gentea,  quoted  in  Voss.  de  Idol.  ii.  78. 


108  HISTORY   OF  EG  FIT. 

blood  was  one  of  the  humiliations  which  preceded  their  permission 
to  the  Israelites  to  depart.  Similar  changes  in  rivers  are  among 
the  omens  which  have  been  handed  down  to  us  abundantly  in  the 
Roman  history1,  and  the  fabulousness2  of  this  account  of  the  Nile's 
Mowing  mixed  with  honey  is  no  proof  against  the  historical  cha- 
racter of  the  period  and  of  the  sovereigns.  The  great  stature 
ascribed  to  Sesochris  we  shall  hereafter  see,  has  probably  been 
transferred  by  later  authors  to  Sesostris,  whom  Herodotus  and 
Eusebius  celebrate  for  his  size,  though  nothing  of  this  kind  is 
asserted  by  Manetho  of  the  Sesostris  of  his  12th  dynasty. 

Third  Dynasty.    Nitae  Memphite  kings. 

Years. 

1.  Neciierophes  (Necherochis,  Euseb.)  reigned  28 

Under  him  the  Libyans  revolted  from  the  Egyptians,  and  the 
moon  having  increased  in  an  extraordinary  way,  were 
alarmed  and  surrendered. 

2.  Tosortiirus  (Sesorthos,  Euseb.)   .29 

He  was  called  JEsculapius  by  the  Egyptians,  in  reference  to 
his  medical  art;  and  he  invented  building  by  means  of 
polished  stones  ((cotwj/  Xidwv):  he  also  cultivated  the  art  of 
writing.  [The  remaining  six  did  nothing  worthy  of  being 
recorded,  Euseb.] 


8.  Tyre  is    1 

4.  Mesochris  17 

5.  Souphis   16 

6.  Tosertasis    .19 

7.  Aches  .  .   42 

8.  Sephouris   .80 


9.  Kerphereb    ...  .  .    .   26 

Total   ....  214 

According  to  Eusebius  there  were  only  eight  kings  in  this  dynasty, 

1  See  Bryant's  observations  on  the  Plagues  of  Egypt,  p.  26. 
*  The  expression  fivQtver  ai  rdv  NefW  /uAtrt  KtKpa^tvov  pvrjvat  must  belong 
to  Africanus,  not  Manetho. 


THE  THIRD  DV  NASTY. 


109 


and  they  reigned,  not  214,  but  107  years.  He  specifies  the  names 
only  of  Necherochis  and  Sesorthus,  for  so  he  writes  the  two  first. 
The  revolt  of  the  Libyans,  which  occurred  in  the  reign  of  Neche- 
rophis,  has  been  explained  in  speaking  of  the  conquests  of  Menes ; 
its  termination  by  the  terror  excited  through  some  unusual  appear- 
ance of  the  moon  is  quite  in  the  character  of  ancient  superstition1. 
The  reign  of  Sesorthos  or  Tosorthrus,  briefly  as  its  events  are 
summed  up,  was  evidently  one  marked  by  great  improvements  in 
Egypt ;  he  held  the  same  place  in  the  history  of  medicine  in  that 
country  as  ^Esculapius  in  Greece2 ;  and  he  introduced  the  use  of 
squared  and  polished  stones  in  architecture,  instead  of  the  rough 
surfaces  and  irregular  angles  of  their  previous  mode  of  building. 
The  improvement  or  more  extensive  practice  of  the  art  of  writing 
is  naturally  connected  with  this  change  in  building.  Writing  in 
its  earliest  stage  in  Egypt  was  hieroglyphic  engraving,  which  could 
not  be  practised  with  facility  except  on  the  surface  of  smoothed 
stones.  And  this  may  have  been  the  reason  why  both  are  attri- 
buted to  the  same  sovereign. 

There  is  no  certain  correspondence  between  the  monuments  and 
the  names  in  this  dynasty.  A  shield  which  has  been  read  Chufu 
has  been  found  in  the  grotto  of  Benihassan,  and  has  been  supposed 
to  be  the  Souphis  who  stands  fifth  in  the  list ;  it  contains,  how- 
ever, one  character  (the  arm  and  scourge)  not  commonly  found  in 
Chufu,  and  if  it  belong  at  all  to  this  dynasty  seems  rather  to  answer 
to  Sephouris,  the  eighth.  A  name  resembling  Tosorthrus  or 
Sesorthus  occurs  in  the  necropolis  of  Memphis,  and  another  which 
has  been  read  Aches3. 

1  Her.  1,  74,  of  the  eclipse  which  put  an  end  to  the  war  between  the 
Lydians  and  the  Medes. 

'  The  expression  A  i  y  v  it  r  i  o  i  s  Kara  rriv  larpiKhv  vtvofiiarM  must  be  that  of 
Africanus,  not  Manetho,  though  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  infor* 
mation  came  from  his  annals. 

*  Lesueur,  p.  311.  Lepsius  says  (Einleitung,  1,  551)  that  only  a  fe  w  datei 
of  months  are  known  to  him  of  this  dynasty. 


110 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


Fourth  Dynasty1. 

Eight  Memphite  kings  of  another  family  (seventeen,  EuseD.) 
reigned  284  years  (448  Euseb.) 

Years. 

1.  Soris   .  29 

2.  Supms   .    .  63 

He  raised  the  largest  pyramid,  which  Herodotus  says  was  built 
by  Cheops;  he  was  even  a  contemner  of  the  gods  and 
[having  repented,  Euseb.]  wrote  the  sacred  book,  "which 
I  acquired  when  I  was  in  Egypt  as  a  very  valuable  thing," 
Africanus  ["  which  the  Egyptians  cherish  as  a  very  valua- 
ble thing,"  Eusebius,  who  adds,  "  and  of  the  rest  nothing 


worth  mention  has  been  recorded"]. 

8.  Southis    .  .66 

4  Mkncheres   63 

5.  Katoises   25 

6.  BrcuEiiis   22 

1.  Seberoheres   1 

8.  Thamfhtuis   9 

Total    .           .  284 


We  may  congratulate  ourselves  that  we  have  at  length  reached 
the  period  of  undoubted  contemporaneous  monuments  in  Egyptian 
history.  The  pyramids  and  the  sepulchres  near  them  still  remain 
to  assure  us  that  we  are  not  walking  in  a  land  of  shadows,  but 
among  a  populous  and  powerful  nation  far  advanced  in  the  arts  of 
life.    And  as  a  people  can  only  progressively  attain  to  such  a  sta- 

1  According  toBunsen,  after  190  years  the  kingdom  of  Menes  was  divided, 
„pne  branch  reigning  in  Upper,  the  other  in  Lower  Egypt,  the  Memphite 
constituting  what  he  calls  the  imperial  dynasty,  alone  recognised  in  the 
chronology  of  Eratosthenes.  Each  of  these  dynasties  came  to  an  end  at  the 
same  time,  224  years  after  their  establishment,  and  the  kingdom  was  re- 
united, 414  years  after  Menes,  under  the  fourth  dynasty.  (B.  2,  voL  2,  p 
*5  foil.  Germ.) 


THE    FOURTH  DYNASTY. 


Ill 


tion,  the  light  of  historical  certainty  is  reflected  back  from  this  a3ra 
to  the  ages  which  precede  it.  There  is,  howevei  extraordinary 
variance  among  the  ancient  authorities,  nor  is  the  evidence  of  the 
monuments  altogether  free  from  difficulty. 

We  see  that  Manetho  declares  Souphis  to  have  been  the  builder  of 
the  Great  Pyramid,  taking  no  notice  of  the  building  of  the  Second ; 
and  we  shall  find  hereafter  that  he  attributes  to  Nitocris,  a  queen 
of  his  sixth  dynasty,  the  erection  of  the  third.  Eratosthenes  gives 
in  immediate  succession  Saophis,  Saophis  II.  and  Moscheres,  but 
says  nothing  of  the  building  of  the  pyramids,  as  indeed  throughout 
his  lists  he  mentions  nothing  either  of  the  works  or  the  exploits  of 
the  kings.  Herodotus  says  that  Cheops  built  the  Great  Pyramid, 
his  brother  Chephren  the  Second,  and  Mycerinus  the  Third  :  Dio- 
dorus  that  Chembes  or  Chemrnis  built  the  Great  Pyramid,  Kephren 
his  brother,  or  Chabryis  his  son,  the  Second,  and  Mecherinus  or 
Alencherinus  the  Third.  Pliny,  after  quoting  the  names  of  twelve 
authors  who  had  written  on  the  pyramids,  declares  that  the  build 
ers  of  them  were  unknown.  Till  very  lately  they  seemed  to  give 
no  evidence  on  behalf  of  their  founders.  No  inscriptions  appeared 
either  within  or  without ;  it  had  grown  into  one  of  the  common- 
places of  morality,  that  the  builders  of  these  stupendous  works  had 
been  deprived  of  the  fame  which  they  coveted1.  The  Great  Pyra- 
mid had  long  been  open,  and  the  central  chamber  contained  a 
sarcophagus,  but  without  a  name ;  Belzoni  succeeded  in  opening 
the  Second,  and  found  a  sarcophagus  beneath  it ;  but  that  also 
was  without  an  inscription.  At  length  Colonel  Vyse  in  the  course 
of  his  researches  found  a  way  into  the  chambers  already  described 
over  the  king's  chamber,  and  in  two  of  them  discovered  shields  in 

1  N.  H.  36,  12  (17).  Qui  de  hh  scripserunt  sunt  Herodotus,  Euhemerus, 
Duris  Saraius,  Aristagoras,  Dionysius,  Artemidorus,  Alexander  Polyhistor, 
Butorides,  Antisthenes,  Demetrius,  Demoteles,  Apion.  Inter  omnen  eos  non 
constat  a  quibus  facta?  sint,  justissiuio  casu  obliteratis  tanto  vanitati* 
auctoribua. 


112 


HISTORY   OF  EGYl'T. 


the  common  phonetic  character1.    They  are  drawn  with  red  pain'. 

on  the  calcareous  blocks  which  form  the  sides,  along  with  various 
other  marks,  supposed  to  be  those  of  the  quarry-men  or  masons. 
One  of  these  shields  contains  four  characters  which  it  is  agreed 
should  be  pronounced  Chufu  or  Shu/u  ;  another  is  mutilated,  but 
has  evidently  ended  in  fa,  and  therefore  probably  contained  the 
same  name.  Another  chamber  contains  a  shield  with  the  same 
group2,  but  prefixed  to  it  the  jug  and  ram  which  are  found  with 
the  figures  of  the  ram-headed  god  of  Thebes,  commonly  called 
Kneph,  Neph,  Cnuphis,  Chnoum,  or  Num.  Chufu  is  without  vio- 
lence made  to  answer  to  the  Souphis  of  Manetho,  the  Saophis  of 
Eratosthenes,  and  the  Cheops  of  Herodotus3.  And  as  it  is  impro- 
bable that  the  same  king  should  be  designated  in  two  different 
ways  in  the  same  monument,  it  has  been  concluded  that  there  were 
two  of  the  name  of  Chufu,  one  being  distinguished  by  the  addi- 
tional characters  of  the  jug  and  the  ram4.  Herodotus  speaks 
indeed  only  of  one  Cheops;  but  Eratosthenes  mentions  a  second 
Saophis,  and  Manetho  a  second  Souphis.  The  name  of  the  second 
has  been  read  Kneph-Chufu,  or  Chnonm-Chufu,  and  it  is  possible 
that  this  additional  syllable  may  have  given  rise  to  the  name 
Chembes,  which  Diodorus  attributes  to  the  builder  of  the  Great 
Pyramid. 

It  will  be  seen  by  recurring  to  the  description  of  this  struc- 
ture (vol.  i.  p.  100),  that  a  long  straight  descent  conducts  from 
the  opening  to  a  subterranean  chamber,  in  which,  however, 
no  sarcophagus  or  inscription  has  been  found.  Now  from 
the  analogy  of  all  the  other  pyramids,  we  are  led  to  conclude 

1  Vvse  on  the  Pyramids,  1,  2*79.  Vol.  i.  of  this  work,  p.  106. 

a  Lepsius  (Denkm.  taf.  vii.)  gives  a  drawing  of  an  alabaster  vase  with  the 
banner  of  a  king,  the  same  as  Ricci  found  at  Wadi  Magara,  connected  witk 
the  name  of  Chufu.  (Rosell.  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  3.) 

3  The  final  u  is  sometimes  omitted  in  the  shield  of  thi»  king. 

*  See  PI.  III.  C.  3,  at  the  end  of  vol  1. 


THE    FOURTH  DVXASTT. 


113 


that  this  was  the  place  in  which  the  interment  was  origina.ly 
designed  to  be  made.  To  this  the  passage  from  the  opening 
leads  directly.  Why  it  was  abandoned,  and  two  chambers  con- 
structed in  the  heart  of  the  pyramid  itself,  we  are  not  informed, 
nor  can  we  form  any  probable  conjecture.  The  lower  of  these  two 
is  traditionally  called  the  Queen's  Chamber,  but  there  is  nothing 
which  marks  it  as  destined  for  such  a  purpose  ;  and  it  was  not  the 
usual  practice  of  the  Egyptians  to  inter  kings  and  queens  in  the 
same  monument.  It  should  seem  that  Herodotus  had  the  subter 
ranean  apartment  in  view,  when  he  spoke  of  a  canal  which  Cheops 
introduced  from  the  Nile,  by  which  he  insulated  his  own  grave. 
The  actual  depth  of  this  apartment  below  the  ground  in  which 
the  pyramid  stands  is  ninety  feet ;  and  though  this  is  still  con- 
siderably above  the  highest  level  of  the  Nile1,  in  the  absence  of 
accurate  measurements,  it  might  be  easily  supposed  practicable  to 
bring  in  a  canal  from  the  river ;  but  this  would  have  been  too 
obviously  absurd,  if  meant  of  the  King's  Chamber  in  the  centre 
of  the  pyramid,  138  feet  above  the  ground2.  Diodorus  also 
speaks  of  (Chembes)  Cheops  as  not  being  interred  in  his  pyramid, 
but  in  some  secret  place,  that  his  body  might  not  be  exposed  to 
the  insults  of  the  oppressed  people'.  Now  we  know  that  in  the 
time  of  Strabo,  the  Great  Pyramid  was  open4 ;  probably  therefore 
in  the  time  of  Diodorus.  But  these  authors  seem  to  have  known 
nothing  of  any  sepulchral  vault  except  the  subterranean  ;  the  way 
to  that  was  open,  from  the  mouth  in  the  side  of  the  pyramid  ;  but 
all  access  to  the  Queen's  and  King's  Chambers  was  barred  by  the 
block  of  granite  which  closed  the  place  at  which  the  passage  to 
them  diverges ;  nor  do  they  appear  ever  to  have  been  seen  till  a 
forced  passage  was  made  by  the  Caliphs6.    The  subterranean  vault 

1  "On  the  23d  of  October,  1838,  the  level  of  the  river  (it  being  High 
Nile)  was  137  feet  3  inches  below  the  base  of  the  Great  Pyramid."  (Vjse, 
8.H8.)  a  Vyse,  2,  111.  »  1,  64. 

4  Lib.  17,  p.  808-  "  Abdollntif  in  Col.  Howard  Vyse  2,  340. 


114 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


being  empty,  the  tradition  of  Diodorus  had  a  natural  origin.  It 
seems  then  not  improbable  that  Cheops  or  Chufu,  abandoning  his 
original  intention  to  construct  himself  a  monument  beneath  a 
pyramid,  began  the  structure  which  now  exists,  and  that  his  sarco- 
phagus was  placed  in  what  we  call  the  Queen's  Chamber.  It  cer- 
tainly contained  a  sarcophagus  when  this  part  of  the  pyramid  was 
opened  under  the  Caliphs1.  It  is  in  the  very  centre  of  the  struc- 
ture, which  may  originally  not  have  been  carried  much  higher. 
His  successor,  the  second  Chufu,  distinguished  by  the  addition  of 
the  ram  and  jug,  appears  to  have  continued  his  work  and  con- 
structed for  himself  the  King's  Chamber,  in  which  his  sarcophagus 
still  remains.  The  mixture  of  stones  containing  the  names  of  the 
two  Chufus  in  the  vacant  spaces  over  the  King's  Chamber,  may 
be  explained  by  the  supposition  that  the  second  used  some  mate- 
rials which  his  predecessor  had  prepared,  and  which  had  been 
marked  by  his  name.  It  is  not  surprising,  that  as  both  bore  the 
same  name,  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  should  have  considered  ^th  em 
as  one. 

The  Second  Pyramid  contains  no  name  in  any  part  of  it 
but  in  the  adjacent  tombs2  the  shield  of  a  king  whose  name 
reads  Shafre*  has  been  found,  and  the  figure  of  a  pyramid.  In 
nim  we  recognize  without  difficulty  the  Chephren  of  Herodotus 
and  Diodorus,  though  there  is  no  corresponding  name  either  in 

1  Edrisi  quoted  in  Vyse,  2,  335.  "The  alley  is  ascended  until  a  door  is 
reached  near  a  block  of  stone  by  which  one  ascends  towards  another  sloping 
alley. — By  this  door  a  square  room  is  entered  with  an  empty  vessel  in  it — 
Returning  hence  to  the  place  through  which  one  enters,  the  second  alley  is 
ascended.  Another  square  room  is  then  reached — an  empty  vessel  is  seen 
here  similar  to  the  former." 

a  The  tomb  was  that  of  his  chief  architect,  who  calls  his  master,  "  the 
great  one  of  the  Pyramid."  (See  Lepsius,  Denkmaler  taf.  viii.  D.)  The 
pyramid  is  here  always  represented  with  a  square  base  projecting  beyond 
the  pyramidal  part. 

»  Birch  in  Vyse,  2,  98 


THE   FOURTH  DYNASTY. 


115 


Manetho  or  Eratosthenes.  Diodorus  mentions  a  tradition  that  he 
was  not  the  brother,  as  Herodotus  represented  him,  but  the  son  of 
Cheops,  and  that  his  name  was  not  Kephren,  but  Chabryis1.  Aa 
there  were  two  Chufus,  he  might  be  the  son  of  one  and  brother 
of  the  other ;  and  the  difference  between  Shafre  and  Chabryis  is 
not  so  great  as  to  decide  that  they  were  not  the  same  person. 
Herodotus  in  his  account  of  the  Second  Pyramid  says,  that  it  was 
inferior  to  the  first  in  other  respects,  and  also  in  not  containing 
any  subterranean  chambers2.  In  fact,  however,  its  only  known 
chamber  is  subterranean. 

The  Third  Pyramid  is  assigned  by  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  to 
Mycerinus,  Mecherinus  or  Mencherinus3.  In  Manetho,  Mencheres 
immediately  follows  the  second  Suphis,  but  is  not  mentioned  by 
him  as  the  builder  of  the  Pyramid.  All  doubt  on  this  subject  has 
been  removed  by  the  discovery  of  the  coffin4,  inscribed  with  the 
name  of  Menkera.  Herodotus  calls  him  the  son  of  Cheops,  which 
is  not  very  probable,  if  according  to  his  statement  the  brother  of 
Cheops,  Chephren,  had  reigned  after  Cheops  fifty-six  years.  The 
accounts  of  this  king  are  very  inconsistent.  According  to  Hero- 
dotus he  was  a  mild  and  humane  monarch,  who  opened  the 
temples  which  had  been  closed  for  106  years,  and  relieved  the 
people  of  their  burdens.  And  yet  he  built  a  pyramid,  which, 
though  it  fell  short  of  both  the  others  in  dimensions,  exceeded 
them  in  costliness  of  material  and  execution5.  His  justice  was 
such  that  he  was  more  extolled  by  the  Egyptians  than  any  of  their 
kings6 ;  yet  he  was  said  to  have  indulged  an  unnatural  passion  for 
his  own  daughter,  who  died  of  grief  at  the  outrage  which  he 
offered  to  her.  He  was  remarkable  for  his  piety,  and  yet  endea- 
vored to  make  the  oracle  of  Buto  "  a  liar7."    These  things  excite 

'  I,  64.  a  Herod.  2,  127. 

•  Tiwj  fiiv  "KepTvov  leg.  Mcrgapfrttr.  (Diod.  1,  64.  Bockh,  Manetho,  p.  597 

YoL  L  p.  111.  6  Her.  2,  129.  8  Diod.  1,  64. 

QtXuv  to  fiai/rfj  ioi  <pevc6^ov  drodi$at.    (Herod.  2,  133.) 


116 


HISTORY    OF  EGYPT. 


a  suspicion  that  two  kings  of  the  same  name,  but  very  different 
characters,  have  been  blended  in  one  tradition1.  Il  the  tablet  of 
Abydos,  which  here  first  begins  to  be  legible,  we  have  in  the 
fifteenth  shield  the  evident  traces  of  the  name  of  Menkera ;  the 
fourteenth  appears  to  have  contained  the  same  name,  though  little 
of  it  is  now  left ;  with  the  addition  of  the  hatchet,  which  signifies 
god*.  It  had  been  observed  by  Lepsius,  that  the  name  of  Menkera 
occurs  in  the  Ritual  of  the  Dead3  as  a  deceased  king,  and  that  it 
is  frequently  found  on  scarabaei  which  had  been  used  as  amulets, 
and  which  from  the  style  of  their  workmanship  must  have  been 
executed  long  after  his  death.  This  clearly  points  to  a  deifica- 
tion of  Menkera,  or  to  some  cause  for  which  his  name  was  held 
in  special  reverence.  The  same  group  of  characters  which  is 
found  on  the  mummy-case  in  the  Third  Pyramid  is  inscribed  in 
red  paint  on  a  slab  in  one  of  the  smaller  pyramids  of  Gizeh,  tradi- 
tionally supposed  to  be  fhe  tombs  of  queens.  The  sarcophagus 
which  it  contains  has  no  sculpture,  and  the  mummy-case  which 
it  once  contained  has  been  reduced  to  dust ;  but  from  its  small 
size  and  the  appearance  of  a  tooth  which  was  found  in  it,  it  has 
been  concluded  that  it  had  received  the  body  of  a  young  female — 
the  wife  or  daughter  of  Menkera4. 

The  106  years  occupied  by  the  reigns  of  Chufu  and  Shafre  were 
regarded  by  the  Egyptians  as  a  period  of  national  oppression  and 
suffering.  The  people  were  worn  out  by  forced  labors  in  the 
quarries  and  at  the  pyramids,  and  the  temples  were  closed,  that- 
the  celebration  of  the  sacred  rites,  which  occupied  so  large  a  portion 

1  Lepsius,  Einleitung,  1,  p.  309,  observes  that  Psammitichus  lias  the 
addition  Menkera  in  his  shield,  and  supposes  that  he  has  been  mixed  up 
with  Mencheres  the  builder  of  the  Third  Pyramid. 

'  See  "Wilkinson's  copy  in  the  Hieroglyphics  of  the  Egyptian  Society,  PI.  98. 

8  It  is  written  in  the  Ritual  (Das  Todtenbuch,  col.  64),  as  on  the  tablet  of 
Abydos,  with  a  single  character,  he,  for  "offering;"  on  the  coffin  this  cha 
racter  is  thrice  repeated,  making  the  plural  ken.  *  Vysc,  2,  48. 


THE   FOURTH   DY  VASTY.  117 

of  the  Egyptian  year,  might  not  draw  off  the  people  from  their 
work.  So  strong  was  the  hatred  with  which  their  memory  was 
regarded,  that  the  common  Egyptian  was  unwilling  even  to  name 
them,  and  would  gladly  have  thrown  the  odium  of  their  erection 
on  a  foreign  race.  In  concluding  his  account,  Herodotus  observes, 
that  the  Egyptians  alleged  them  to  have  been  built  by  the  shep- 
herd Philition,  who  then  fed  his  flocks  in  this  district.  Nowhere 
else  is  such  a  person  mentioned,  and  it  has  been  supposed  that  in 
this  obscure  passage  we  have  an  allusion  to  the  Palsestinian  Shep- 
herds1, who,  under  the  name  of  Hyhsos,  appear  subsequently  in 
Egyptian  history,  oppressing  the  people  for  several  hundred  years, 
and  destroying  their  temples.  The  builder  of  the  Great  Pyramid 
was  specially  the  object  of  popular  dislike,  which  embodied  itself 
in  the  Greek  tale  of  his  compelling  his  own  daughter  to  prostitu- 
tion, in  order  to  obtain  funds  for  his  work2.  Manetho  admits  the 
impiety  of  his  Souphis3,  but  represents  him  to  have  also  composed 
"  the  sacred  book,"  the  subject  of  which  is  unknown. 

Soris,  the  king  whose  name  stands  at  the  head  of  this  dynasty, 
is  thought  to  be  the  same  with  the  Shoure,  whose  shield  has  been 
discovered  in  the  necropolis  of  Memphis4.  In  the  present  state  of 
our  knowledge,  however,  little  reliance  can  be  placed  on  these 
insulated  identifications.  What  is  more  important  is,  that  the 
dominion  of  Egypt,  in  the  aera  of  the  building  of  the  Pyramids, 
extended  to  the  northern  part  of  the  Arabian  peninsula.  The 
motive  of  the  Egyptian  kings  for  establishing  themselves  here  was 
evidently  to  obtain  possession  of  the  copper-mines,  which  have  been 

1  Kenrick^  Egypt  of  Herodotus,  p.  167.  9  Her.  2,  126. 

*  Possibly  the  idea  of  impiety  may  have  been  connected  with  the  erec- 
tion of  a  building  so  lofty  that  it  seemed  to  invade  the  skies.  Comp.  Gen. 
xi.  4.    "Let  us  make  us  a  tower  wlnse  top  may  reach  to  heaven." 

*  Lesueur,  Chronol.  p.  271,  311.  Birch  (Vyse,  3,  22),  gives  the  name 
Shoure  to  a  king  whose  shield  is  found  at  Abouseir,  and  read  by  Lepsiua 
Aruchura  (Bunsen,  B.  2,  99). 


118 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


already  described1.  The  whole  land  was  called  in  hieroglyphics 
Mafkat,  or  the  Copper  Land3,  and  the  principal  mines  were  at 
Wadi  Magara  and  Sarabit  el  Kadim.  Large  mounds  of  ore,  and 
masses  of  scoriae,  attest  the  extent  of  the  ancient  operations. 
Numerous  stelse  record  the  names  of  the  kings  in  whose  reigns  the 
mines  were  wrought.  Those  at  Wadi  Magara  are  the  oldest. 
Both  the  Chufus,  Shoure,  and  a  king  whose  name  is  found  in  the 
Pyramid  of  Reega,  and  read  Ousrenre  or  Ranseser8,  are  seen  in  acts 
of  adoration,  with  dates  of  their  respective  reigns.  Shoure  is 
represented  as  in  the  act  of  smiting  a  captive  whose  hair  he  grasps, 
and  therefore  probably  made  conquests  in  this  region. 

The  seventh  king  in  Manetho's  list  is  Sebercheres  ;  this  has  been 
corrected  by  Lepsius  into  Nephercheres4,  and  identified  with  the 
Nefrukera  whose  name  occurs  in  the  necropolis  of  Memphis,  and 
on  the  tablet  of  Abydos  follows  that  of  Menkera.  A  Nepher- 
cheres, however,  is  actually  found  in  the  fifth  dynasty  of  Manetho, 
who  may  seem  to  have  a  preferable  claim. 

The  glimpse  which  we  thus  obtain  of  the  condition  of  Egypt,  in 
the  fifth  century  after  Menes,  according  to  the  lowest  computation, 
is  far  from  satisfying  our  desire  for  details,  but  on  the  other  hand 
it  reveals  to  us  some  general  facts  which  lead  to  important  infer- 
ences. In  all  its  great  characteristics  it  was  the  same  as  the  Egypt 
of  a  thousand  years  later.  It  was  a  well-organized  monarchy ; 
the  tombs  of  Gizeh  preserve  the  names  and  offices  of  various 
public  functionaries,  military  and  civil.    Its  religious  system  was 

1  Vol.  i.  p.  51. 

a  See  Lepsius,  Tour  to  the  Peninsula  of  Sinai.  Comp.  Hieroglyph,  of  the 
Eg.  Society,  pi.  41  Xo. 

1  Birch,  in  Vyse,  3,  12.  2,  5.  The  block  on  which  the  name  is  found  at 
Reega  appears  to  have  been  taken  from  some  other  monument.  Among 
the  hieroglyphics  is  the  figure  of  an  obelisk. 

4  The  pra;nomen  Neferkera  has  been  found  also  on  the  cover  of  a  small 
ivory  box,  now  in  the  Louvre,  but  it  is  not  probable  that  it  is  of  such  hig> 
antiquity  (Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  15). 


THE  FOURTH  DYNASTY. 


lift 


already  elabow.ied  and  extended  throughout  the  country;  the 
Memphite  sovereign,  the  second  Chufu,  takes  for  his  difference  the 
hieroglyphic  of  the  tutelary  god  of  Thebes  and  Elephantine.  On 
the  coffin  of  Menkera  we  see  the  same  formulary  phrases  which  are 
familiar  to  us  in  so  many  later  funereal  inscriptions1.  The  deceased 
king  is  identified  with  Osiris ;  his  regal  dignity  is  indicated  by  the 
bee  and  branch  prefixed ;  the  same  epithet,  "  living  for  ever,"  is 
given  him,  which  is  assigned  to  Ptolemy  on  the  Rosetta  stone. 
The  system  of  hieroglyphic  writing  was  the  same,  in  all  its  leading 
peculiarities,  as  it  continued  to  the  end  of  the  monarchy  of  the 
Pharaohs.  We  possess  no  contemporary  manuscripts,  but  tho 
inscriptions  in  the  pyramids  show  that  the  linear  hieroglyphic  had 
been  already  introduced,  which  prepared  the  way  for  the  hieratic. 
As  the  character  of  the  inkstand  and  reed-pen  is  seen  in  these,  we 
cannot  doubt  that  linen  or  papyrus  was  already  used  as  a  writing 
material.  We  have  no  statuary  of  this  age,  but  the  hieroglyphics 
in  the  tombs  are  cut  with  great  force  and  precision.  While  the 
present  surface  only  of  the  pyramids  was  examined,  they  might 
seem  a  barbarous  monument  of  wasted  labor  rather  than  of  skill ; 
but  the  accurate  finishing  of  the  masonry  with  which  the  passages 
and  even  the  exterior  were  lined  and  cased,  and  the  precise  orien- 
tation of  the  whole,  show  that  both  art  and  science  had  attained 
to  considerable  perfection2. 

The  relation  of  the  Meraphian  monarchy  to  Upper  Egypt  remains 
obscure.  No  mention  is  even  incidentally  r^de  of  Thebes ;  a  city 
may  have  existed,  there,  but  not  of  sufficient  importance  to  be  the  seat 

1  Birch  in  Yyse,  2,  96. 

3  These  inferences  are  fully  supported  by  the  drawings  from  the  tombs 
near  the  Pyramids  contained  in  the  "Denkmaler  aus  yEgypten  und  /Ethi- 
opien,"  the  fruit  of  the.  Prussian  expedition  under  Lepsius;  of  which  the 
First  Part  has  appeared  while  this  work  was  passing  through  the  press. 
The  opinion  expressed  in  vol.  i.  p.  229,  of  the  inferiority  of  art  in  this  age, 
must  now  be  somewhat  modified. 


120  HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 

of  a  rival  power  to  Memphis.  Hitherto  no  trace  of  the  dominion  of 
the  Memphian  kings  has  been  found  at  Thebes  or  elsewhere  in  Upper 
Egypt,  except  some  alabaster  vases  from  Abydos,  bearing  the  stand- 
ard of  Chufu ;  and  portable  antiquities  afford  no  decisive  evidence. 
But  this  is  no  proof  of  Theban  independence,  since  the  fixed  monu- 
ments of  this  age  are  entirely  sepulchral ;  and  the  Memphian  kings 
and  their  great  officers  would  be  buried  near  their  own  capital.  If 
Thebes  has  no  monuments  of  Memphian  dominion,  neither  has  it 
any  of  its  own,  and  it  appears  probable  that  till  the  12th  dynasty 
of  Manetho  it  continued  to  be  a  place  of  little  account. 

Fifth  Dynasty. 

Eight  kings  from  Elephantine1.    (Thirty-one,  Euseb.) 

Years. 

1.  Usercheb.es  reigned  28 


2.  Sephres   18 

8.  Nepiierchere8   20 

4.  Sisires   7 

5.  Cheres   20 

6.  Rathures   44 

7.  Mencheres   9 

8.  Tancheres   44 

9.  Onnos   83 


Total    ....  218 

Although  the  heading  says  eight  kings,  nine  are  mentioned,  and 

the  sum  agrees  with  the  separate  numbers'. 

• 

1  Eusebius  has  transferred  here  by  mistake  the  names  of  Othoea  an«J 
Phiops  from  the  6th  dynasty. 

8  Bunsen,  2,  190  (Germ  ),  would  remove  Onnos  to  the  beginning  of  the 
6th  dynasty,  and  supposes  that  Othoes  stands  there  by  a  false  reading  of 
the  transcribers.  Onnos,  it  is  true,  has  33  years  and  Othoes  30,  but  thifl 
last  number  is  assigned  to  Onnos  in  the  Turin  papyrus. 


THE   FIFTH    DYNASTY.  121 

The  supposition  that  some  of  the  dynasties  of  Manetho  are  coi 
lateral,  is  nowhere  more  probable  than  in  regard  to  this  dynasty  of 
Elephantine  kings.  No  one  fact  is  recorded  concerning  them. 
They  appear,  however,  to  be  a  branch  of  the  Memphite  dynasty,  as 
the  names  Sephres,  Nephercheres,  Mencheres,  bear  a  close  analogy 
to  those  which  we  have  already  found  in  use  among  them.  Use- 
serkef  has  been  found  by  Lepsius1  among  the  tombs  of  Gizeh,  and 
he  seems  to  be  the  Usercheres  of  Manetho.  Although  he  stands 
at  the  head  of  this  dynasty,  yet  if  it  were  a  derivative  and  depend- 
ent line,  he  might  be  interred  among  his  ancestors  of  the  Mem- 
phite dynasty.  Snephres  (Snefru),  which  we  may  suppose  Mane- 
tho to  have  written,  instead  of  Sephres,  has  also  been  found  at 
Gizeh9  and  Karnak ;  and  Nephercheres,  the  third  in  his  list,  fol- 
lows Menkera  on  the  tablet  of  Abydos,  and  has  been  found  on 
alabaster  vases  from  Abydos'.  The  tablet  of  Abydos,  however, 
does  not  agree  with  Manetho  ;  the  shields  which  follow  that  of 
Mencheres  exhibit  different  names  from  his4,  yet  names  combined 
out  of  similar  elements,  so  as  to  favor  the  supposition  that  they 
contain  another  derivative,  though  not  royal  line6.  Sesrenre  would 
be  the  reading,  according  to  Lepsius,  of  the  name  usually  read 
Ousrenre  (see  vol.  i.  p.  262),  and  this  would  answer  to  Sisires, 
No.  4.  Unas  or  Onas  is  found  in  a  fragment  of  the  Royal  List  of 
Turin,  and  appears  to  be  the  Onnos  of  Manetho*.  The  phonetic 
value  of  some  of  the  characters  in  these  early  shields  is  uncertain. 

1  Bunsen,  B.  2,  p.  180,  Germ.  Lesueur,  p.  312. 

*  Denkmaler  au3  ^Egypten  und  J^thiopien,  altes  Reich.  Abth.  il  BL  2. 

8  Bunsen,  2,  186.  He  observes  that  the  name  is  written  with  a  different 
character  from  the  earlier  Xephercheres. 

4  See  Wilkinson's  copy  in  Hierogl.  of  the  Egyptian  Society,  pL  47.  Some 
of  them  are  no  longer  legible  on  the  tablet  in  the  British  Museum. 

6  Bunsen,  u.  «.  p.  188. 

8  Bunsen,  184.  He  supposes  a  name  beginning  with  the  sign  of  Thoth  to 
be  Tatkeres,  which  he  conjecturally  substitutes  for  Tancheres,  eighth  in  the 
list    This  king  is  supposed  by  others  to  be  represented  by  an  inscription  at 

VOL.  II.  6 


122 


niSTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


If  Othoes  were  the  same  as  Onnos,  it  would  appear  that  thii 
Elephantine  dynasty  was  brought  to  a  close  by  a  conspiracy  of  his 
life-guards,  by  whom  he  was  murdered,  and  a  new  Memphite 
dynasty  succeeded.  If,  however,  the  Elephantine  was  not  a  sove- 
reign, but  a  collateral  dynasty,  then  the  kings  whose  names  are 
about  to  be  enumerated  must  be  regarded  as  the  immediate  suc- 
cessors of  the  fourth  dynasty,  in  which  the  builders  of  pyramids 
were  included.  It  is  possible  that  these  Elephantine  kings  may  be 
the  Ethiopians  of  whom  Herodotus  speaks1,  Elephantine  being  on 
the  boundary  of  that  country,  but  the  number,  eighteen,  does  not 
agree. 

Sixth  Dynasty.    Six  Memphite  kings. 

Years. 

1.  Othoes  reigned  ....80 

He  was  killed  by  his  life-guards. 

2.  Phios   68 

3.  Methosuphis  7 

4.  Pmops.    Beginning  to  reign  at  six  years  old,  he  con- 

tinued to  100 

6.  Menthesuthis  .    .    .   .  1 

6.  NrrocRis,  the  most  spirited  and  beautiful  woman  of  her 
time,  of  a  ruddy  complexion.  She  erected  the  Third 
Pyramid,  and  reigned  .    .  .12 

203 

Saccarah,  read  thus :  "  The  king  (Tankera),  son  of  the  Sun  (Assa)."  One 
character  in  the  first  shield,  however,  is  doubtful,  and  according  to  analogy, 
Assa  should  be  the  proper  name  (Lesueur,  Chronologie,  p.  312). 

1  2,  100.  "  The  priests  read  to  me  a  list  of  330  other  kings,  and  in  so 
many  generations  18  were  Ethiopians  "  Lepsius  considers  both  the  5th  and 
6th  dynasty  as  Ethiopian  (Einl.  1,  255),  and  makes  them  amount  together  to 
15,  to  which  are  to  be  added  the  three  Ethiopian  kings  of  the  25th  dynasty. 
The  evidence  for  these  arrangements  has  not  yet  been  published,  nor  that 
on  the  ground  of  which  he  pronounces  (517)  'hat  the  5th  dynasty  was  not 
collateral. 


THE  SIXTH  DYNASTY.  123 
• 

Eusebius  gives  only  Nitocris  by  name,  but  the  number  of  years 
is  the  same.  The  similarity  of  the  names  Phios  and  Methosuphis 
and  Phiops  and  Menthesuphis  in  this  list,  has  given  rise  to  a  sus- 
picion that  they  are  really  the  same.  We  find  in  Eratosthenes  the 
following  succession : — 

Years. 

Apappus  100  within  an  hour. 

A  nameless  king  1 

Nitocris,  instead  of  her  husband  .....  6 

It  would  be  against  all  probability  that  such  coincidences  should 
be  accidental1.  The  names  Apappus  and  Phiops  do  not  indeed  in 
their  actual  form  appear  the  same.  The  hieroglyphics  of  the  king 
whose  name  is  read  Pepi  may  however  be  read  Apap,  and  if  we 
retrench  the  final  s  from  Phiops,  which  was  an  addition  made  to 
give  it  a  Greek  termination,  we  have  a  name  also  not  very  remote 
from  Pepi.  The  shields  of  Pepi  have  been  found  at  Chenoboscion 
and  elsewhere  in  much  greater  numbers  than  those  of  any  preced- 
ing king,  though  not  with  dates  which  confirm  the  account  of  his 
extraordinary  long  reign2,  the  sixteenth  year  being  the  highest; 
nor  has  any  yet  been  found  in  Lower  Egypt3,  a  singular  circum- 
stance, as  the  dynasty  is  called  Memphite.  The  identification  of 
Pepi  with  Phiops  and  Apappus  must  therefore  be  considered  as 
still  problematical.  No  other  name  belonging  to  this  dynasty  has 
been  identified  hitherto  on  the  monuments.  There  is  a  group 
which  reads  Mentopt  or  Mentuotep,  twice  occurring,  one  of  which 
Bunsen4  refers  to  Mentheophis,  his  correction  of  the  Menthesuphis 
of  the  lists,  and  the  other  to  the  eighth  dynasty.  They  may  belong 
to  the  Middle  monarchy  or  to  the  eleventh  dynasty.  A  fragment  of 

1 1  have  already  explained  (p.  82  of  this  vol.)  the  principle  on  which  I 
believe  the  list  of  Eratosthenes  to  have  been  compiled. 

a  The  long  life  of  Phiops  is  not  more  incredible  than  that  of  Gorgias  of 
Leontini,  who  is  said  (Cic.  Sen.  5)  to  have  lived  to  107. 

Lepsius,  ESnl  1,  265.  4  B.  2,  104.  Ark.  p.  64,  note. 


124  HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 

the  Canon  of  Turin  contains,  without  a  name,  the  number  90  yeara 
as  the  duration  of  a  reign1,  and  from  its  length  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  it  refers  to  Phiops.  It  is  followed  by  a  date  of  1  year 
1  month,  which  appears  to  be  that  of  Menthesuphis. 

The  figure  of  Pepi  is  found  in  a  singular  combination  with  that 
of  another,  whose  name  is  read  Remai,  or  Maire.  The  two  princes 
appear  seated  on  their  thrones  in  the  Hall  of  Assembly,  wearing 
one  the  crown  of  the  upper,  the  other  that  of  the  lower  country ; 
whence  Wilkinson  concludes3  that  either  they  were  contemporary 
sovereigns,  one  ruling  at  Thebes  and  the  other  at  Memphis,  or  that 
Pepi  was  the  phonetic  name  of  Remai,  and  that  they  were  the 
same  monarch.  This  distinction  of  the  names  becomes  hencefor- 
ward important  and  will  require  to  be  explained. 

In  the  oldest  monuments,  as  those  of  the  pyramids  and  tombs 
of  Gizeh,  the  names  of  the  Egyptian  kings  are  enclosed  in  oval 
rings  or  shields,  and  each  king  has  only  one.  The  characters 
included  in  the  shield  are  phonetic,  and  express  the  name  of  the 
king  as  it  was  pronounced,  Mena,  Chufu,  Shafre,  &c.  In  later 
times,  however,  each  king  has  usually  two  shields ;  over  the  first 
are  placed  a  bee  and  a  branch  of  a  plant';  over  the  second  the 
figure  of  a  vulpanser  and  the  disk  of  the  sun,  which  are  read  Son 
of  the  Sun.  Where  two  shields  are  found,  the  second  always  con- 
tains the  name  of  the  sovereign  in  phonetic  characters ;  thus  in  the 
eighteenth  and  succeeding  dynasties  it  is  the  name  in  the  second 
shield  which  corresponds  to  the  lists  of  Manetho.  The  first  shield,, 
if  there  are  two,  contains  always  the  disk  of  the  Sun  or  Re,  and 
joined  to  this  two  or  more  characters.  Champollion  considered 
the  signs  included  in  these  shields  as  symbolical  titles,  rather  than 
names  of  the  kings;  and  they  are  not  alphabetical  letters,  like 
those  of  the  second  shields.  They  are,  however,  in  one  sense  pho- 
netic ;  for  the  objects  and  ideas  which  they  represent  had  of  course 

1  Lesueur,  p.  266.  9  Manners  and  Customs,  3,  282. 

•See  PL  IL  voL  1,  Nos  11,  12,  and  p.  270. 


THE  SIXTH  DYNASTY.  125 

names  in  the  old  Egyptian  language,  and  these,  if  pronounced, 
would  become  a  compound  name.  Thus  the  two  shields  in  Plato 
II.  11,  12,  read,  "The  king  (Ee-seser-Tmei,  Sun,  Guardian  of  the 
Truth),  Son  of  the  Sun  (Amtinmai  Rameses)."  Each  king  had  a 
combination  of  these  signs,  by  which  he  is  as  readily  distinguished 
from  all  others  as  by  his  phonetic  shield ;  but  those  of  the  same 
family  usually  preserved  a  general  similarity  in  their  signs.  In  the 
case  of  the  two  royal  figures  on  the  monument  of  the  Cosseir  road, 
the  shield  on  the  left,  if  they  are  considered  to  be  distinct  persons, 
will  be  read  Remai  or  Maire ;  but  if  the  same,  then  it  will  be  con 
sidered  as  a  title  of  Papi,  and  explained  "  beloved  of  Re,"  which  is 
the  meaning  of  the  word  Remai.  Such  a  title,  it  has  been  thought, 
might  give  rise  to  second  names,  as  we  sometimes  call  the  Ptole- 
mies simply  Philadelphus  or  Epiphanes.  Lepsius,  however,  has 
observed1  that  he  has  not  found  a  single  indisputable  example  of 
the  titular  shield  passing  into  a  proper  name2 ;  and  its  phonetic 
reading  is  in  most  cases  conjectural. 

There  is  a  third  way  in  which  the  kings  of  Egypt  were  distin- 
guished. Each  had  a  standard3  on  which  a  group  of  characters  is 
represented,  sometimes  placed  beside  the  shields,  and  which  serves 
to  discriminate  them  in  the  absence  of  these.  On  the  obelisks, 
where  all  their  titles  are  usually  set  forth,  the  standard  is  found 
immediately  under  the  pyramidion ;  over  it  is  represented  the 
hawk  of  Horus,  sometimes  crowned  with  the  pschent,  and  accom- 
panied by  the  uraeus  or  royal  serpent  and  the  disk  of  the  sun  ; 
*he  standard  itself  contains  a  group  of  symbolical  characters  not 
strictly  phonetic,  but  like  those  of  the  titular  shield  capable  of 
passing  into  a  name,  by  the  pronunciation  of  the  words  answering 

*  Einleitung,  1,  p.  255. 

*  Bunsen  supposes,,  though  with  little  probability,  that  Papi,  or  Phiopa 
Apappus,  with  the  title  Maire,  is  the  Mceris  of  the  Greeks,  the  author  of  th« 
great  works  in  the  Fyoum,  B.  2,  209. 

'  Roseliini,  Mon.  Stor.  1,  156. 


126  HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 

to  the  objects  delineated.  An  example  of  this  may  be  seen  in 
PI.  II.  No.  15,  where  the  standard  of  Rameses  III.  is  given.  It  is 
surmounted  by  the  hawk  of  Horus  crowned,  with  the  uraeus  and 
disk  ;  the  banner  itself  reads,  "  The  strong  bull,  beloved  of  Truth." 
The  hawk  sometimes  appears  (ib.  15)  as  an  emblem  of  royalty, 
with  the  character  for  gold,  and  is  called  "  the  golden  Horus." 

The  standard  and  the  titular  shield  were  assumed  no  doubt  by 
the  king  on  his  accession  ;  the  phonetic  name  belonged  to  him  as 
an  individual,  but  when  he  ascended  the  throne  he  enclosed  it 
within  a  shield  as  a  mark  of  royalty.  The  standard  or  the  titular 
shield  alone  is  sufficient  to  distinguish  one  king  from  another ; 
and  the  phonetic  shield  is  not  found  on  the  tablet  of  Karnak,  nor 
that  of  Abydos,  except  in  the  case  of  the  king  by  whom  it  was 
erected ;  but  it  is  the  phonetic  shield  which  connects  them  with 
history.  So  the  armorial  bearings  of  a  modern  sovereign  discrimi- 
nate him  from  others  ;  but  it  is  only  by  the  knowledge  of  his  name 
that  his  historical  place  is  ascertained. 

The  sixtn  name  in  the  list  of  Manetho  is  that  of  Nitocris,  whom 
he  describes  as  a  woman  of  great  beauty  and  spirit,  and  the  builder 
of  the  third  pyramid.  She  is  no  doubt  the  same  as  the  Nitocris 
of  Herodotus,  if  identity  may  be  predicated  of  persons  who  agree  in 
name,  but  differ  in  almost  everything  else.  The  Nitocris  of  Hero- 
dotus, after  having  drowned  the  Egyptians  who  had  put  her  brother 
to  death,  committed  suicide  by  plunging  herself  into  a  pit  full  of 
ashes — a  mode  of  destruction  common  as  a  punishment  among  the 
Persians,  but  unheard  of  among  the  Egyptians.  The  Nitocris  of 
Manetho  is  the  builder  of  the  third  pyramid,  a  work  not  to  be 
accomplished  in  the  short  interval  between  her  accession  and  her 
suicide.  Another  difficulty  is,  that  we  have  seen  that  Mencherea 
was  deposited  in  the  third  pyramid,  and  is  therefore  to  be  pre- 
sumed to  have  been  its  builder.  This  difficulty  has  been  .partly 
removed  by  the  researches  of  Colonel  H.  Vyse,  and  the  ingenious 
combinations  of  Bunsen.    By  a  reference  to  the  description  already 


THE  SIXTH  DrHASTT. 


127 


given  of  this  pyramid1,  it  will  be  seen,  that  in  a  large  chamber, 
which  is  nearly  under  its  centre,  a  sarcophagus  of  red  granite  had 
been  placed,  the  fragments  of  which  are  strewed  about2.  The  sar- 
cophagus of  Mencheres  was  in  an  interior  and  lower  chamber,  to 
which  a  passage  led  from  the  larger.  This  larger  chamber,  besides 
the  passage  by  which  it  is  now  entered  from  the  exterior,  has 
another  going  off  at  the  same  angle,  but  which  never  reaches  the 
exterior.  The  upper  passage  had  been  worked  by  the  chisel  from 
the  north  or  exterior,  the  lower  from  the  interior  ;  whence  Perring 
concludes  that  the  upper  must  have  been  formed  first,  and  the 
lower  cut  outward  through  the  pyramid3.  These  appearances  have 
been  explained  by  supposing  that  Mencheres  built  a  pyramid  of 
much  smaller  size  than  the  present,  of  which  the  entrance  was  the 
passage  which  is  now  closed  up.  It  would  have  reached  the 
exterior  at  about  the  same  height  above  the  ground  as  the  pre- 
sent passage,"  and  the  pyramid,  if  its  angle  of  inclination  were  the 
same  as  that  of  the  present  structure,  would  have  a  base  of  ISO 
feet  and  a  height  of  145.  In  this  state  Mencheres  left  his  pyramid  ; 
Nitocris  enlarged  it  to  its  actual  dimensions,  cased  it  with  red 
granite,  and  designed  at  least  that  her  body  should  be  placed  in  it, 
but  was  perhaps  frustrated  in  this  purpose  by  her  own  suicide  or 
the  vengeance  of  the  people.  .  Thus  the  traditions  which  ascribed 
it  to  Mencheres  and  to  Nitocris  would  have  each  a  portion  of 
truth. 

Another  story  is  related  by  Herodotus  which  at  first  appears 
simply  absurd-^that  this  pyramid  was  built  by  a  celebrated  Greek 
courtezan  of  Naucratis  of  the  times  of  Amasis  or  Psammitichus, 

1  VoL  i.  p.  110. 

9  So  Bunsen  says  (B.  2,  168),  perhaps  from  the  personal  communication 
of  Perring  ;  but  Col.  Vyse  says  (2,  81),  that  these  pieces  of  the  granite  could 
not  have  been  fragments  of  a  sarcophagus.  The  portcullises  were  of  this 
material,  which  was  also  used  in  the  passages. 

•  Howard  Vyse,  2,  79.    See  vol.  i.  p.  110,  of  tin-  work. 


128 


HISTORY    OF  EGYPT. 


respecting  whom  Strabo  tells  a  tale  very  similar  to  that  of  Cinde 
rella  and  her  slipper.  As  she  was  bathing,  an  eagle  snatched  her 
shoe  from  the  attendant,  and  carrying  it  to  Memphis,  dropped  it  in 
the  lap  of  the  king,  who  was  sitting  in  the  open  air  to  administer 
justice.  Charmed  with  the  elegance  of  the  shoe,  the  king  sent 
tli rough  the  land  to  discover  its  owner,  and  having  found  her  at 
Naucratis,  made  her  his  queen,  and  after  her  death  she  received 
the  third  pyramid  as  her  burial-place1.  It  was  acutely  observed 
by  Zoega,  however,  that  the  courtezan,  Rhodopis,  had  been  created 
by  the  interpreters  out  of  the  queen  Nitocris3.  Both  were  celebrat- 
ed for  their  beauty,  and  the  name  Rhodopis  or  "  rosy-faced "  is 
exactly  descriptive  of  Nitocris,  who  is  said  to  have  been  "ruddy  in 
complexion." 

No  such  name  as  Nitocris  has  been  found  upon  the  monuments 
of  this  age ;  but  it  occurs,  written  Neitakreti,  in  the  Canon  of 
Turin8.  If  we  may  venture  to  combine  Herodotus  with  Manetho, 
the  husband  whom  she  succeeded,  and  whose  death  she  avenged, 
was  Menthesuphis,  who  reigned  only  one  year.  The  following 
dynasty  points  to  some  violent  change  in  the  government,  to  which 
the  death  of  Nitocris  gave  occasion. 


Seventh  Dynasty. 


Seventy  Memthtte  kings,  who  reigned  seventy  days 

(Eusebius,  Five  Memphite  kings  who  reigned  75  days.  Arm. 
75  years.) 


70 


Eighth  Dynasty. 


Twenty-eight  Memphite  kings,  who  reigned  

(Eusebius,  Five  Memphite  kings,  who  reigned  100  years.) 


Years, 
146 


1  Strabo,  17,  p.  808. 

*  De  Obelise,  p.  390.    See  also  Bunsen,  2,  p.  236,  Germ. 

•  Lepsius,  Einl.  1,  262.    Lesueur,  p.  313,  places  it  in  the  eighth  dynaity 


NINTH  TO   ELEVENTH  DYNASTIES. 


129 


Ninth  Dynasty. 

Year* 

Nineteen  Heracleopolitan  kings,  who  reigned  .    409 

(Eusebius,  Four  Heracleopolitan  kings,  who  reigned  100  years.) 
The  first  of  whom,  Achthoes,  the  most  atrocious  of  all  who 
had  preceded  him,  did  much  mischief  to  the  people  of  all 
Egypt,  and  afterwards  fell  into  madness  and  was  destroyed 
by  a  crocodile 

Tenth  Dynasty. 

Nineteen  Heracleopolitan  kings,  who  reigned   18d 

Eleventh  Dynasty. 

Sixteen  Diospolitan  kings,  who  reigned  ...  .48 

Afte^j  whom  Ammenemes    .  •  ....  16 

"Thus  far  Manetho  brought  his  first  volume,  altogether  192 
kings,  2300  years,  70  days." 

The  difficulties  which  this  concluding  portion  of  the  first  volume 
of  Manetho's  dynasties  offers  are  very  great.  The  seventy  Mem- 
phite  kings,  who  reigned  seventy  days,  must  have  been  a  tempo- 
rary government,  formed  of  the  chief  men  of  the  kingdom,  and 
ruling  each  for  a  day;  for,  as  Herodotus  (2,  147)  observes,  the 
Egyptians  could  not  exist  without  kingly  government.  The  Roman 
senators,  on  the  death  of  Romulus,  exercised  authority  each  for  five 
days1.  The  number  of  seventy  days  is  no  doubt  correct,  for  it 
occurs  again^  in  the  summation  at  the  end,  and  can  only  have 
arisen  here,  as  the  odd  nurrfber  of  days  is  not  elsewhere  mentioned 
in  giving  the  length  of  each  king's  reign.    Eusebius  has  made  a 

1  Liv.  1,  17.  Rem  inter  se  centum  patres,  decern  decuriis  factis,  singu- 
lisque  in  singulas  decurias  creatis  qui  summaj  rerum  praeessent,  consociant ; 
decern  imperi  tab  tint,  unus  cum  insignibus  imperii  et  lictoribus  erat:  quin- 
que  dierum  spatio  finiebatur  imperium  ac  perjornnes  in  orbem  ibat,  Comp 
Diod.  1,  66. 


130 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


correction,  but  as  it  appears  arbitrarily,  and  reads,  according  to  the 
Armenian  version,  "five  kings  who  reigned  seventy-five  years"; 
but  then  it  would  be  unexplained  how  seventy  days  should  appear 
in  the  sum  of  the  first  volume.  Other  corrections  have  been  sug- 
gested, but  they  are  too  arbitrary  to  be  received1. 

There  were  in  Egypt  two  towns  called  Heracleopolis2.  Hera- 
cleopolis  Magna  was  situated  at  the  entrance  of  the  valley  of  the 
Fyoum,  on  an  island,  as  the  ancients  called  it,  formed  by  the  Nile, 
the  Bahr  Jusu.",  and  a  canal.  After  Memphis  and  Heliopolis  it 
was  probably  the  most  important  place  in  Lower  Egypt.  Hera- 
cleopolis Parva,  which  is  only  mentioned'  in  later  times,  was  near 
Pelusium,  in  the  Sethroite  norae,  and  beyond  the  westernmost 
branch  of  the  Delta.  If  it  existed  under  the  old  Monarchy,  it  was 
quite  insignificant,  so  that  it  is  not  likely  its  king  Achthoes  could 
have  inflicted  much  mischief  upon  all  the  inhabitants  of  Egypt. 
But  if  a  powerful  state  sprung  up  at  Heracleopolis  Magna,  after  a 
revolution  at  Memphis,  which  left  the  government  in  a  feeble  con- 
dition, it  was  well  adapted  by  its  position  relatively  to  the  Upper 
and  Lower  country  and  the  Fyoum,  to  domineer  over  them  all. 
With  the  eighth  dynasty  Memphis  appears  to  have  lost  its  pre- 
eminence. It  passed  first  to  Heracleopolis,  afterwards  to  Thebes, 
finally  to  the  towns  of  Lower  Egypt,  Tanis,  Bubastis,  Sais.  We 
hear  nothing  more  of  a  Memphite  dynasty. 

The  tyranny  of  the  founder  Achthoes  is  absolutely  all  we  know 
of  these  two  Heracleopolitan  dynasties.    The  text  of  Africanus 

1  Bunsen  would  transplant  twenty  (K)  from  the  number  of  reigns  of  the 
eighth  dynasty  (KZ),  which  he  thinks  shouM  be  eight  instead  of  twenty- 
eight,  and  with  Eusebius  read  five  as  the  number  of  kings  in  the  seventh. 
The  whole  wonld  then  stand  thus: 

Seventh  Dynasty. — Five  Memphite  kings,  reigned  20  years  70  days. 

Eighth  Dynasty. — Eight  Memphite  kings,  reigned  146  years.  (B.  2,  p. 
248,  Germ.) 

9  Strabo,  17,  p.  789,  809.  Steph.  Byz.  s.  v.  Champollion,  L'Egypte  sous  lee 
Pharaona,  1,  309,  2,  80     Ptolemy,  Geog.  4,  5. 


NINTH  TO   ELEVENTH   DYNASTIES.  135 

assigns  to  them  together  the  inciedible  length  of  594  years;  that 
of  Eusebius  285.  To  a  dynasty  reigning  here  at  the  entrance  of 
the  Fyoura,  it  seems  most  natural  to  assign  the  commencement  of 
those  great  works  which  tradition  connected  with  the  name  of 
Moeris.  Xo  king  of  that  name  has  been  found  in  the  lists  or  the 
monuments  ;  and  therefore  probably  Moeris  is  the  designation  of  the 
natural  collection  of  waters  at  the  western  side  of  the  Fyoum,  the 
Birket-el-Kerun.  The  word  Jfou  in  Coptic  signifies  icater,  and 
appears  to  be  the  first  syllable  of  this  word,  which  was  variously 
spelt  Moiris  or  Minis  by  the  Greeks.  Joined  to  res1,  which  denotes 
the  south  in  the  same  language,  it  would  naturally  describe,  in  con- 
trast with  the  Mediterranean,  this  great  southern  lake,  which  in  its 
extent,  the  quality  of  its  waters  and  the  form  of  its  shores,  so  much 
resembled  the  sea,  as  to  suggest  the  idea  that  it  had  been  originally 
a  portion  of  the  Mediterranean2.  The  dimensions  assigned  by 
Herodotus  (2,  149)  to  the  lake  Moeris  (3600  stadia)  cannot  have 
belonged  to  an  excavation  in  the  centre  of  the  Fyoum  ;  nor  would 
any  one  describe  the  length  of  a  canal  as  the  perimeter  of  a  lake. 
It  is  indeed  impossible  to  reconcile  all  the  accounts  which  the 
ancients  give  us  of  the  lake  Moeris;  but  one  circumstance  appears 
decisive :  if  the  Birket-el-Kerun  be  not  the  lake  Moeris  of  Hero- 
dotus, Diodorus,  and  Strabo,  these  three  eye-witnesses  have  passed 
over  one  of  the  most  remarkable  objects  in  Egypt.  There  was  no 
doubt  also  an  artificial  reservoir  in  the  centre  of  the  Fyoum,  which 
retained  the  water  of  the  inundation  to  be  dispersed  when  it  was 
needed  over  the  adjacent  country  ;  and  Linant  has  partially  traced 
its  embankment.*  That  it  was  designed  to  render  this  service  to 
any  other  district  than  the  Fyoum  is  not  asserted  by  the  ancients 
and  appears  improbable. 

1  The  terminations  res  and  ris  are  constantly  interchanged.  Thus  we 
have  Uaphris,  Sesostris,  Sesochris,  as  well  as  Meneheres,  Nephercheres,  th« 
origin  of  both  forms  being  Re  or  Ra. 

■  Strabo,  1,  50.  17,  S09.  »  See  voL  L  p.  42. 


132 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


If  the  Fyoum  was  rendered  habitable  and  fertile  by  the  kings  of 
the  Heracleopolitan  dynasties,  it  will  be  explained  how  it  becomes 
of  so  much  importance  under  the  twelfth.  Sesortasen  erected  an 
obelisk  and  Ammenemes  built  the  Labyrinth  there ;  previously  to 
this  time  we  find  no  monument  and  no  mention  of  it  in  history. 

The  name  Achthoes  is  the  only  one  preserved  in  the  lists,  between 
Nitocris,  the  last  of  the  sixth  dynasty,  and  Ammenemes,  the  last 
of  the  eleventh.  There  is  therefore  no  room  for  any  comparison 
between  the  lists  and  the  monuments.  Eratosthenes  has  also  no 
name  which  corresponds  with  the  monuments  in  this  interval1. 

Achthoes  is  said  to  have  been  killed  by  a  crocodile.  This  cir- 
cumstance may  have  been  invented  to  explain  the  animosity  which 
the  people  of  Heracleopolis  nourished  against  the  crocodile ;  and 
their  worship  of  the  ichneumon,  which  was  believed  not  only  to 
destroy  its  eggs,  but  even  to  creep  down  its  throat  and  eat  away 
its  vitals2.  The  mention  of  this  circumstance  is  an  additional  pre- 
sumption that  Heracleopolis  Magna  was  the  seat  of  this  dynasty. 


THE  SECOND  VOLUME  OF  MANETHO. 


Twelfth  Dynasty.    Seven  Diospolitan  kings. 

Yeara 

1.  Sesonchosis,  the  eon  of  Ammenemes,  reigned   46 

2.  Ammenemes,  who  was  killed  by  his  own  guards  of  the  bed- 

chamber   ....  38 

3.  Sesostris   .       .    .  48 

He  subdued  all  Asia  in  nine  years,  and  part  of  Europe  as  far 
as  Thrace  (everywhere  erecting  memorials  of  his  occupation 

1  Comp.  Bunsen,  B.  2,  p.  252  foil.,  who  has  proposed  various  correction* 
of  Eratosthenes.  In  his  system  1  be  two  Heracleopolitan  dynasties  are 
•ollateral 

_3  Strabo,  17,  p.  812. 


THE  TWELFTH  DYNASTY.  133 

Years. 

of  the  nations,  engraving  masculine  emblems  on  tablets 
where  the  men  had  been  valiant,  feminine  where  they  had 
been  cowardly),  so  that  he  was  esteemed  by  the  Egyptians 
first  after  Osiris. 
(Eusebius  adds,  He  is  said  to  have  been  four  cubits  three 


palms  two  fingers  in  height.) 

4.  Laouaees  (Lamaris,  Eus,  Lampares,  Arm.)   9 

He  prepared  the  Labyrinth  in  .the  Arsinoite  nome  as  a  tomb 
for  himself. 

6.1  Ameb.es  8 

f       6.  Ammenemes   S 

7.  Scemiopiibis,  his  sister   4 


160 

Until  a  recent  time,  this  dynasty,  notwithstanding  the  complete- 
ness of  its  list  of  names,  appeared  to  have  no  confirmation  from 
the  discoveries  in  hieroglyphics.  Even  its  historical  character, 
though  marked  by  so  conspicuous  a  name  in  the  Egyptian  annals 
as  that  of  Sesostris,  was  hardly  established  ;  for  this  conqueror  is 
known  to  us  from  Diodorus  and  Herodotus,  who  place  him  much 
later  in  the  history.  The  Labyrinth  was  another  work  which 
might  have  rescued  this  dynasty  from  any  doubt  of  its  historical 
existence,  but  its  remains  had  not  been  explored,  so  as  to  ascertain 
the  name  of  its  founder ;  and  Herodotus  had  referred  its  erection 
to  so  late  an  age  as  that  of  thS  Dodecarchia.  Several  shields  had 
been  discovered  bearing  the  names  of  kings  which  began  with  the 
letters  A  M  N,  but  the  other  characters  being  unknown,  they  had 
not  been  referred  to  the  Ammenemes  whose  names  recur  so  often 
in  this  dynasty,  but  to  some  unknown  kings.  The  monumental 
evidence  indeed  seemed  to  fix  them  to  a  later  dynasty.  Champol- 
lion  had  ascertained  the  names  of  several  of  the  kings  of  the  18th 

1  Instead  of  Ameres,  Ammenemes  and  Scemiophris,  Eusebius  has  After 
Lunaris  "  his  iuccesBors,  years  42." 


134 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


dynasty,  beginning  with  Ahmes  or  Amosis,  whose  titular  shield  ia 
the  40th  in  the  tablet  of  Abydos1.  The  17th  dynasty  consisted 
of  Shepherd  kings,  who  could  not  be  expected  to  be  recorded  on 
an  Egyptian  monument.  The  five  which  preceded  Ahmes,  it  was 
natural  therefore  to  conclude,  must  represent  the  five  kings  of  the 
16th  dynasty,  who  were  Thebans 'according  to  Eusebius.  On  the 
obelisks  of  Heliopolis  and  the  Fyoum,  the  latter  of  which.  bor6 
marks  of  antique  workmanship  in  the  bluntness  of  the  pyramidion 
and  the  unusual*  proportions  of  the  height  and  breadth2,  a  name 
had  been  read  Osortasen,  which  from  the  titular  shield  connected 
with  it,  appeared  to  belong  to  a  sovereign  whose  name  stood  first 
in  a  succession  of  four  in  one  of  the  grottoes  of  Benihassan,  and 
the  third  and  fourth  of  these  were  the  same  as  the  35th  and  36th 
of  the  tablet  of  Abydos.  The  names  corresponding  to  the  37th, 
38th  and  39th  shields  were  afterwards  discovered,  and  found  to  be 
another  Osortasen  and  two  beginning  with  the  letters  A  M  N, 
followed  by  the  same  unknown  characters — evidently  therefore 
belonging  to  one  royal  family. 

Major  Felix,  to  whom,  in  conjunction  with  Lord  Prudhoe,  the 
discovery  of  this  succession  is  due,  conjectured  that  these  kings 
were  really  those  of  Manetho's  12th  dynasty,  whose  names  ought 
to  have  been  given  as  those  of  the  17th,  and  made  the  immediate 
predecessors  of  Amosis,  founder  of  the  18th.  Sir  Gardner  Wil 
kinson8  considered  the  dynasties  between  the  13th  and  18th  to  have 
been  interpolated  or  contemporary  ir  Lower  Egypt.  Dr.  Hincks, 
in  the  transactions  of  the  Royal  Irish  Academy*,  had  also  ad 
vanced  the  opinion,  that  the  five  names  on  the  tablet  of  Abydos, 
which  precede  the  18th  dynasty,  constituted  the  12th  dynasty  of 
Man etho,  and  that,  the  five  dynasties  between  the  12th  and  the 

1  Birch,  Gall.  Brit.  Mus.  pi.  29. 
1  Bonomi,  in  Trans.  Roy.  Soe.  Lit  8vo.  1,  169. 
Manners  and  Customs,  1,  36  Vcl.  19,  P.  2,  p.  6ft 


THE   TWELFTH  DYNASTY. 


135 


18th  were  either  contemporaneous  or  imaginary.  The  names,  read 
as  they  were  by  the  authors  of  these  suppositions,  Osortasen  and 
AmniArieith-Thote  or  Amun-m-gori,  did  not  however  answer  to  the 
names  of  Manetho.  Lepsius  had  been  led,  by  the  circumstance 
that  some  of  the  work  of  the  so-called  Osortasen  at  Thebes  had 
been  surrounded  by  a  construction  of  the  kings  of  the  18th  dynasty1, 
to  conclude  that  a  considerable  period  must  have  intervened  between 
this  dynasty  and  that  to  which  he  belonged,  and  one  of  desolation 
for  Egypt;  that  consequently  he  could  not  have  be,en  of  the  17th 
dynasty,  but  probably  lived  before  the  invasion  of  the  Shepherds. 
The  letters  of  uncertain  sound  in  the  shields  of  the  three  kings  he 
read  het,  and  the  whole  name  becoming  thus  Amun-em-het,  there 
could  be  little  difficulty  in  identifying  it  with  the  Ammenemes  of 
Manetho.  The  authority  for  reading  the  first  letter  in  the  shield 
of  Osortasen  0  was  very  slight ;  Lepsius  considered  it  as  an  S,  and 
made  the  name  Sesortasen.  Thus  he  had  obtained  an  ascending 
series,  going  backward  from  Amosis3 ;  Ammenemes  (IV.),  Amme- 
nemes (III.),  Sesortasen  (III.),  Sesortasen  (II.),  Ammenemes  (II.), 
Sesortasen  (L),  Ammenemes  (L),  and  the  first  five  of  these  corre- 
sponded to  the  five  shields  (39-35)  on  the  tablet  of  Abydos,  which 
preceded  that  of  Amosis.  It  seemed  therefore  impossible  to  avoid 
the  conclusion,  that  the  tablet  of  Abydos  passed  over  all  the 
dynasties  intermediate  between  the  12th  and  the  18th,  and  con- 
nected these  immediately  with  each  other.  Into  the  reason  for 
this  omission  we  shall  have  to  inquire  hereafter ;  at  present  it  is 
sufficient  to  say,  that  the  coincidences  between  the  names  of  the 
shields  and  those  of  Manetho's  lists  are  such,  that  we  must  re- 
nounce all  attempt  at  identification  if  we  do  not  admit  them  tc 
be  the  same. 

As  the  lists  now  stand,  however,  the  coincidence,  though  strik 
ing,  is  not  complete.    We  have  three  Ammenemes,  but  instead  of 


1  See  vol.  i.  p.  146. 


•  Bunsen,  B.  2,  \\  287,  Gww 


136 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


Sesortasen  we  have  Sesonchosis  and  Sesostria.  The  latter  name 
does  not  differ  so  widely  from  Sesortasen,  but  that  they  may  well 
have  been  the  same,  allowance  being  made  for  the  change  which 
an  Egyptian  name  would  undergo,  in  being  adapted  to  Greek  pro- 
nunciation. In  this  case,  as  the  name  had  become  very  celebrated 
among  the  Greeks,  the  change  to  which  it  had  been  subjected 
would  be  greater  than  ordinary,  and  Manetho,  who  wrote  for  the 
Greeks,  might  adopt  the  form  in  which  they  would  recognise  the 
well-known  conqueror.  The  change  of  Sesonchosis  into  Sesortosis 
would,  perhaps,  be  improbable  if  it  stood  alone,  but  ceases  to  be 
so  amidst  so  many  coincidences.  The  descending  series  thus 
becomes — 

1.  Ammenemes  I.  .  .  .  Last  of  the  11th  dynasty. 

2.  Sesortosis  L  The  Sesonchosis  or  Gesongosis  of  the  MSS.1 

3.  Ammenemes  II. .  .  .  Second  of  the  12th  dynasty. 

4.  \  Sesostris  or  [  il  .  Third  of  the  same  dynasty. 
(  Sesortosis  ) 

Here  we  find  again  a  variance  between  the  monuments  and 
Manetho  ;  for  while  they  furnish  a  third  Ammenemes,  his  text 
reads  Lachares  or  Lamares,  who  is  followed  by  Ameres.  To  this 
Lamares5,  called  Labaris  by  Eusebius3,  the  building  of  the  Laby- 
rinth in  the  Arsinoite  nome  is  attributed,  but  the  unquestionable 
evidence  of  the  Labyrinth  itself  declares  that  Ammenemes  was  its 
founder.  In  Eratosthenes  we  have  Mares  or  Maris,  as  the  thirty- 
fifth  king,  in  a  position  answering  generally  to  the  Lamares  of 
Manetho  ;  and  according  to  Diodorus4,  Marus  was  the  name  which 

1  rEEONTOSIS,  the  reading  of  one  MS.,  does  not  differ  very  widely 
from  EEEOPTOEIE.    See  Bunsen,  Urk.  p.  22,  Germ. 

*  The  titular  shield  of  Ammenemes  III.  has  been  read  Ra-n-mat,  and  it 
has  been  supposed  that  this  gave  rise  to  the  name  Lameres,  R  and  L  being 
interchangeable,  but  there  is  no  clear  example  of  the  titular  name  finding 
its  way  into  the  lists. 

'  Chron.  Can.  p,  15,  e<L  Scalig  *  1,  61. 


THE  TWELFTH  DYNASTY. 


137 


some  assigned  to  the  builder  of  the  Labyrinth.  All  these  names, 
Marus,  Maris,  Ammeres,  appear  to  owe  their  origin  to  an  attempt 
to  connect  the  foundation  of  the  Labyrinth  with  the  creation  of 
the  Lake  Mceris.  In  the  form  Labaris  preserved  by  Eusebius,  and 
assigned  as  the  founder  of  the  Labyrinth,  we  have  apparently  the 
origin  of  Laraares,  Lamparis,  Lachares,  and  an  evident  attempt  to 
etymologize  the  Greek  name.  The  Imandes  or  Maindes  of  Strabo1 
.  n  the  contrary  appears  to  be  a  corruption  of  Ammenemes,  and 
so  also  the  Mendes  of  Diodorus  (u.  a.)'.  Dismissing  Lamares  and 
Ammeres,  we  may  substitute  in  their  place  the  two  Ammenemes 
of  the  monuments.  Three  reigns,  all  of  eight  years,  succeeding 
each  other,  are  certainly  not  very  probable. 

Continuing  our  list,  therefore,  we  have  after  Sesostris — 

5.  Ammenemes  III.  substituted  for  Labaris  and  Ameres ; 

6.  Ammenemes  IV.,  the  Ammenemes  of  Manetho's  list. 

This  arrangement  is  conformable  to  the  Turin  papyrus,  in  which 
we  have  in  succession  the  titular  shields,  which  are  ascertained  to 
belong  to  Ammenemes  I.,  Sesortasen  I.,  Ammenemes  IL,  Sesor- 
tasen  IL,  Sesortasen  III.,  Ammenemes  IIL,  Ammenemes  IVa. 

According  to  Manetho,  Ammenemes  (IV.)  was  succeeded  by 
his  sister  Scemiophris,  reigning  four  years.  No  such  person  has 
been  discovered  in  the  monuments  ;  but  a  king  whose  name  is 
read  Sebeknofre,  is  found  in  the  Turin  papyrus  after  Ammenemes 
IV.,  and  on  the  Karnak  Tablet,  to  whom  a  reign  of  3  years  10 
months  24  days  is  assigned,  and  it  is  a  probable  conjecture  of 
Lepsius  that  the  queen  Scemiophris  is  no  other  than  this  king, 
supposed  to  be  a  female  from  the  apparently  feminine  termination. 
A  third  Sesortasen  appears  in  the  monuments,  who  is  not  men- 
tioned by  Manetho.  He  succeeded  the  second  Sesortasen.  Amine* 
nemes,  the  father  of  Sesonchosis  (Sesortosis  I.),  was  probablr  the 

1  17,  811.    Epit.  p.  1312,  Almel. 

•  Buns«n,  2,  299.    Lesueur,  31fi,  317,  who  give  the  lengths  of  the  reigns. 


138 


HISTORY    OF  EGYPT. 


same  as  the  Ammenemes  who  closes  the  eleventh  dynasty.  His 
name  is  found  in  the  grottoes  of  Benihassan,  and  on  two  tablets 
of  the  Louvre  it  is  conjoined  with  that  of  Sesortasen  I.1,  whence 
their  joint  reign  has  been  inferred.  From  the  investigations  of 
Lepsius  and  Bunsen  it  also  appears  that  after  the  death  of  Amme- 
nemes I.,  Sesortasen  I.  reigned  alone  for  several  years,  and  that 
in  the  latter  part  of  his  life  Ammenemes  II.  was  associated  with 
him  in  the  government2.  The  reign  of  Sesortasen  III.  was  pro- 
bably included  in  that  of  Sesortasen  II.,  the  father  having  admitted 
the  son  to  share  his  power.  If  the  father  survived  the  son,  and 
consequently  resumed  the  sole  sovereignty,  this  would  account  for 
the  absence  of  the  son's  name  in  Manetho's  list. 

Of  Ammenemes,  whom,  according  to  this  arrangement,  we  are 
to  call  the  Second,  it  is  only  recorded  that  he  was  assassinated  by 
his  own  officers  of  the  bed-chamber3. 

Sesostris  succeeded  to  Ammenemes  II.  The  resemblance  of  the 
names  of  several  Egyptian  sovereigns,  and  the  more  remarkable 
coincidence,  that  three  of  these  appear  to  have  been  conquerors, 
have  produced  a  confusion  in  the  history  of  Sesostris,  which  till 
lately  it  was  impossible  to  clear  up.  Four  kings  of  very  distant 
ages, — Sesochris,  the  eighth  of  the  second  dynasty  ;  Sesostris,  the 
third  of  the  twelfth  ;  S  ethos- Sesoosis-Rameses,  of  the  nineteenth  ; 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  page  46. 

8  Bunsen,  B.  2,  p.  293.  A  stele  in  the  Museum  at  Leyden  mentions  the 
43rd  year  of  Sesortasen  I.  as  being  also  the  2nd  of  Ammenemes  IL 

3 1  take  the  word  tit  <i  .  *  in  its  etymological  sense.  We  have  I  think 
no  evidence  of  the  prevalence  in  Ancient  Egypt  of  the  practice  which  pre- 
vailed in  Assyria  and  is  now  common  throughout  Egypt  and  Western  Asia. 
That  its  introduction  was  attributed  to  Semiramis  is  a  presumption  that  it 
was  not  an  Egyptian  custom  (Her.  3,  92.  Ammian.  Marcell.  14,  6.  Claud. 
Eutrop.  1,  339)  Pliny's  Nectabis  (36,  13,  2)  lived  after  the  Persian  con- 
quest. The  use  of  £"HD  (Gen.  xxxvii.  36)  is  nc  proof  of  the  custom,  the 
name  being  used  for  a  great  officer,  as  1  Sam.  viiL  15.  Rosellini  (M.  Civ. 
ui  2,  137)  thinks  that  real  evirati  appear  in  the  monuments. 


THE  TWELFTH  DYNASTY. 


i39 


Sesonchis,  of  the  twenty-second,  have  all  partially  contributed  tc 
the  history  of  one  king,  who  has  been  variously  placed,  according 
to  different  hypotheses.  The  gigantic  stature  which  Herodotus 
assigns  to  Sesostris1  is  the  historical  attribute  of  Sesochris,  who 
was  five  cubits  and  four  palms  in  height2.  The  erection  of  monu- 
ments recording  his  own  victories  beyond  the  limits  of  Egypt8 
belongs,  as  far  as  we  know,  only  to  Sesoosis-Rameses,  of  whom 
monumental  tablets  have  been  found  at  Nahr-el-Kelb,  on  the 
Syrian  coast.  The  erection  of  two  obelisks  at  Heliopolis4  again 
belongs  to  Manetho's  Sesostris,  the  Sesortasen  II.  of  the  monu- 
ments, the  Sesoosis  II.  of  Diodorus,  since  the  name  of  this  sove- 
reign appears  on  that  which  still  remains,  and  they  were  usually 
placed  in  pairs.  Another  form  under  which  the  name  of  this 
sovereign  and  warrior  has  come  down  to  us,  is  Sesonchosis,  as  it 
stands  first  in  the  twelfth  dynasty.  Had  it  occurred  only  there, 
we  might  have  acquiesced  in  the  correction  of  Sesortosis  before 
mentioned.  But  the  Scholiast  on  Apollonius  Rhodius  (4,  272) 
says  that  "  Sesonchosis,  king  of  all  Egypt  after  Orus,  son  of  Isis 
and  Osiris,  conquered  all  Asia  and  the  greater  part  of  Europe  ;" 
adding  that  Herodotus  calls  him  Sesostris.  It  is  not  probable  that 
the  same  corruption  of  Sesortosis  into  Sesonchosis  should  have 
taken  place  here,  and  therefore  we  are  compelled  to  believe  that 
this  passage  exhibits  a  further  confusion  of  Sheshonk  or  Sesonchis, 
the  Shishak  of  Scripture,  with  Sesostris.  Sesonchis  was  really  a 
great  foreign  conqueror,  and  inscribed  the  palace  of  Karnak  with 
the  representations  of  numerous  sovereigns  whom  he  had  led 
captive.  To  this  Sesonchosis,  Dicaearchus,  whom  the  Scholiast 
appears  to  follow,  ascribes  the  institution  of  castes,  and  of  the  use 
of  horses  for  riding — a  fresh  illustration  of  the  propensity  to  refer 
the  origin  of  customs  lost  in  immemorial  antiquity  to  some  e\m- 
nent  name.  How  little  chronology  was  regarded  in  these  matters 
1  2,  106.    Diod.  1,  55.  *  See  page  104  of  this  volura* 

'  Herod.  2,  102.    Diod  1,  56.  *  Diod.  1,  6«. 


140 


HISTORY   OF  EGYl'T. 


is  evident  from  the  circumstance,  that  Dicsearchus  makes  this 
Sesonchosis  to  be  the  successor  of  Orus,  the  last  of  the  gods,  con- 
founding him  with  the  Menes  of  the  common  story.  It  would  be 
lost  labor  to  endeavor  to  reconcile  such  contradictions,  and  build 
them  up  into  a  chronological  system. 

The  account  which  is  given  by  Africanus  of  the  conquests  of 
Sesostris  may  seem  to  leave  no  doubt  that  he  is  really  the  here  of 
the  Grecian  story.  We  have  already  seen,  however,  that  Africanus 
interposes  remarks  of  his  own  among  the  names  of  the  Manetho- 
nian  lists ;  and  what  is  said  of  Sesostris  has  such  a  close  verbal 
resemblance  to  Diodorus,  that  as  Africanus  does  not  appear  ever 
to  have  seen  the  work  of  Manetho,  it  is  probable  that  he  has  copied 
this  notice  from  Diodorus1. 

Since,  therefore,  the  traditions  of  the  Greeks  respecting  Sesostris 
either  belong  to  the  historical  Rameses,  or  are  wholly  vague,  we 
cannot  venture  to  attribute  to  the  Sesortasens  of  the  monuments 
anything  which  is  recorded  of  Sesostris2.  The  monuments  them- 
selves, however,  attest  the  power  of  the  twelfth  dynasty.  Rosellini 
dug  up  near  the  Second  Cataract  a  stele,  now  preserved  in  the 
Florentine  Museum3 ;  it  stood  in  an  edifice  raised  by  Rameses  I., 
on  the  spot  where  Sesortasen  I.  had  placed  a  memorial  of  his  own  * 
victories.  He  is  represented  upon  it  standing  in  the  presence  of  a 
hawk-headed  deity,  named  Mandoo,  who  holds  in  his  hand  a  cord 
to  which  are  attached  shields  whose  edge  represents  the  battle- 

1  The  error  with  regard  to  the  significance  of  the  emblems  which  he  is 
said  to  have  inscribed  on  his  stelae  is  much  more  likely  to  have  originated 
with  the  Greeks  or  their  half-learned  interpreters  than  with  a  high  priest 
Such  emblems  do  occur  among  the  hieroglyphics,  but  in  a  widely  different 
sense  from  that  attributed  to  them  by  Herodotus  and  Diodorus. 

2  Bunsen  (B.  2,  p.  309,  Germ.)  considers  Sesortasen  II.  a6  the  great  Sesos- 
tris, and  supposes  him  to  have  conquered  Ethiopia  as  far  as  the  shores  of 
the  Red  Sea,  and  crossed  into  Arabia,  and  thence  to  the  continent  of  Asia 
(Strabo,  16,  p.  76U). 

*  Moa.  Stor.  iil  1,  p.  38.    Mon.  Reali,  tav.  xxv.  4. 


THE  TWELFTH  DYNASTY. 


141 


nients  of  a  town,  and  which  are  surmounted  by  the  upper  half  of 
the  human  figure,  with  the  hands  bound  behind.  This  is  the  way 
in  which,  on  the  monuments  of  Egyptian  conquerors,  their  van- 
quished  enemies  are  usually  exhibited1.  The  nations  thus  led  cap- 
tive appear  from  the  absence  of  beard  to  be  African,  though  they 
exhibit  nothing  of  the  negro  physiognomy.  Five  are  still  extant 
on  the  monument,  and  when  perfect  it  must  have  exhibited  several 
others.  The  inscription  on  the  base  has  not  been  fully  made  out, 
but  it  appears  to  record  a  sacrifice  or  offering  to  Mnevis,  the  white 
bull  of  Heliopolis.  At  Thebes  Rosellini  found  a  fragment  of  a 
statue  of  Sesortasen  I.,  which  from  the  manner  of  its  insertion 
among  later  constructions,  appeared  to  have  been  preserved  as  a 
relic  of  some  building  raised  by  him,  and  afterwards  destroyed  in 
the  devastations  of  the  Shepherds.  The  tombs  of  Benihassan  are 
memorials  of  this  dynasty,  and  in  one  of  them,  where  a  chief  of  the 
name  of  Ammenemes  was  buried,  is  an  inscription  to  this  king, 
who  is  there  called  "  ruler  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt2."  The  obe- 
lisk of  Heliopolis  gives  him  the  same  title,  along  with  others  of  a 
more  mystical  kind,  but  records  no  historical  fact.  That  of  the 
Fyoum  is  equally  destitute  of  information,  but  adds  the  title 
"  beloved  by  Ptah."  Several  funeral  tablets  have  been  found  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Memphis  and  of  Abydos,  dedicated  to  per- 
sons who  held  office  under  him  ;  the'y  bear  various  dates,  from  the 
ninth  year  of  his  reign  to  the  forty-fourth3.  Manetho  assigns 
forty-six  as  the  duration  of  the  reign  of  his  Sesonchosis,  whom  we 
have  supposed  to  represent  Sesortosis  I.  The  occurrence  of  his 
name  at  the  copper-mines  in  the  peninsula  of  Sinai4  shows  that  this 
region  still  remained  in  the  possession  of  Egypt. 

1  Rosellini  reads  the  names  Kas  or  Kos  (which  may  be  the  Cush  of 
Scripture),  Shiameik,  Soa  and  Skiat,  with  two  not  perfectly  legible* 
*  RoselUni,  M.  Stor.  iii.  1,  30. 
1  Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  iii.  1,  37. 
«  Wilkinson.  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  406 


142 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


There  is  in  the  grottoes  of  Benihassan  a  remarkable  picture  of 
the  age  of  Sesortasen  II.  or  Sesostris1.  The  name  of  the  occupant 
of  the  tomb  has  been  read  Nevopth  ;  and  his  son,  who  like  the 
father  was  of  the  military  caste,  is  represented  as  standing  to 
receive  a  procession  of  foreigners.  They  are  preceded  by  a  royal 
scribe,  who  holds  out  a  scroll,  on  which  is  written  the  sixth  year  of 
Sesortasen  IL,  and  it  is  declared  that  the  strangers  having  been 
vanquished,  they  are  brought  hither  to  the  number  of  thirty-seven. 
Such  at  least  appears  to  be  the  general  sense  of  the  inscription,  but 
the  interpretation  of  the  characters  is  by  no  means  certain.  Instead 
of  thirty -seven,  only  twelve  adults  and  three  children  actually 
appear  in  the  procession,  and  none  of  them  are  bound.  To  the 
royal  scribe  another  Egyptian  succeeds,  and  is  followed  by  the  king 
of  the  strangers,  who  leads  an  ibex  by  the  horn  and  bows  reveren- 
tially. He  is  uncovered,  and  wears  a  tunic  of  bright  colors  and  an 
elaborate  pattern ;  in  his  hand  he  carries  a  curved  staff  not  unlike 
that  which  is  seen  in  the  hand  of  Osiris.  Another  stranger  fol- 
lows, of  humbler  rank,  leading  an  ibex.  Four  men,  armed  with  a 
kind  of  club  or  bow  and  spear,  precede  an  ass,  carrying  two  child- 
ren in  a  pannier,  along  w  ith  an  instrument  whose  use  it  is  not  easy 
to  define,  but  which  appears  to  represent  some  kind  of  shield.  A 
boy  on  foot  armed  with  a  lance  is  followed  by  four  females,  and 
these  by  another  ass  with  panniers.  The  whole  procession  is 
closed  by  two  men,  one  of  whom  carries  a  lyre  and  a  plectrum,  the 
other  a  bow  and  a  club.  The  inscription  contains  apparently  the 
name  of  the  strangers,  but  it  has  not  been  satisfactorily  made  out. 
Their  lighter  color  and  their  aquiline  noses  show  that  they  are 
neither  Egyptians  nor  natives  of  a  more  southern  country  than 
Egypt.  As  they  bring  no  gift  but  the  ibex,  it  is  probable  they 
belong  to  a  pastoral  tribe2,  Arabian  or  Palestinian.    They  have 

»See  \ol  1,  pp.  40,  41.  Roaellini,  M.  Stor.  iii.  1.  48.  M,  R.  Tav 
xxvi.-xxriiL 

4.        J  Compare  Isaiah  lx.  7.    "  The  rams  of  Nebaioth  shall  minister  unto  thee." 


THE  TWELFTH  DFNA81T. 


US 


been  thought  to  represent  the  migration  of  Jacob  and  his  family, 
and  certainly  the  bringing  of  children  in  panniers  looks  like  the 
removal  of  a  family,  unless  we  suppose  them  to  be  hostages.  But 
the  figure  of  a  prisoner  is  inconsistent  with  this  idea ;  and  the 
most  probable  supposition  is,  that  the  picture  represents  the  bring1 
ing  of  tribute,  by  one  of  the  nations  bordering  on  the  Asiatic  fron- 
tier of  Egypt,  whom  Sesortasen  had  reduced1.  Champollion 
believed  them  to  be  Greeks,  induced  partly  by  their  garments,  on 
which  is  seen  the  pattern  which  we  call  Greek,  and  find  on  the  old 
fictile  vases.  But  nothing  else  recommends  this  conjecture,  and 
when  we  consider  the  close  connexion  of  Greek  with  Phoenician 
art,  such  a  coincidence  will  not  appear  surprising. 

These  grottoes  of  Benihassan  are  the  best  record  of  the  state 
of  manners  and  art  in  the  flourishing  period  of  the  12th  dynasty, 
when  the  prosperity  of  Egypt  was  about  to  receive  a  check  by  the 
invasion  of  the  Shepherds.  We  have  already  described  the  archi- 
tecture of  this  age,  so  closely  resembling  the  Doric2.  The  pictures 
of  Egyptian  life  testify  to  a  state  of  civilization,  in  which  both  the 
elegant  and  the  useful  arts  had  been  carried  to  a  high  degree  of 
perfection.  It  may  appear  singular  that  as  this  dynasty  as  well 
as  the  preceding  is  called  Diospolitan,  scarcely  any  trace  of  them 
should  be  found  at  Thebes.  The  fragment  of  the  statue  of  Sesor- 
tasen which  has  been  preserved,  however,  shows  that  it  was 
adorned  by  them. 

Whether  Sesortasen  were  the  first  who  made  conquests  in 
Nubia  depends  on  the  place  which  we  allot  to  the  kings  who  bear 
the  names  of  Sebekatep,  or  Sebekotph,  and  Nefruatep3,  and  are 
found  in  the  Tablet  of  Karnak  and  the  Turin  Papyrus.    If  they 

1  Mr.  Osburn  (Egypt  and  her  Testimony  to  the  Truth  of  the  Bible,  pp,  i>6, 
39)  reads  the  namet  Jebusites. 

2  Vol.  i.  pp.  213,  214. 

*  Five  Sebekateps  and  two  Nefruateps  may  be  distinguished  in  the  monu 
men  ts.  * 


144 


HTBTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


belong  to  the  eleventh  dynasty,  which  was  Theban,  Nubian  con 
quest  would  seem  to  have  begun  with  them,  as  the  name  of  Sebe- 
katep  occurs  at  Semne,  in  the  inscriptions  which  Lepsius  suppers 
to  record  the  rise  of  the  Nile,  along  with  that  of  Arnmenemes1. 
Their  place  however  is  doubtful,  and  they  have  been  reckoned 
with  the  kings  of  the  Middle  Monarchy3.  Three  kings  of  the 
name  of  Nantef  have  also  been  found,  who  from  their  pkee  in  the 
Tablet  of  Karnak3  and  from  their  sepulture  at  Qoorneh  appear  to 
have  belonged  to  a  Theban  dynasty,  probably  the  11th.  Sesor- 
tasen  I.  certainly  carried  his  arms  into  Nubia;  under  the  18th 
dynasty  when  the  monarchy  revived  in  greater  splendor  than  ever, 
it  seems  to  have  been  completely  incorporated  with  Egypt,  and 
the  banks  of  the  Nile  were  covered  with  temples  in  which  their 
titles  are  recorded.  These  facts  conclude  very  strongly  against 
the  opinion  that  civilization  descended,  either  with  conquest  or  the 
gradual  spread  of  population,  along  the  Nile  from  Meroe  and 
Nubia  to  Egypt.  It  has  been  supported  by  the  claims  of  the 
Theban  priests  which  Diodorus  admitted,  by  the  unfounded  opinion 
of  the  superior  antiquity  of  the  remains  of  Meroe,  and  perhaps  by 
the  fame  of  the  poetical  Ethiopians ;  but  is  contradicted  by  the 
monuments,  which  show  us  that  Lower  and  Middle  Egypt  were 
the  seats  of  powerful  governments  before  Thebes  had  attained  to 
any  renown,  and  that  Nubia  had  no  civilization  before  her  conquest 
by  Egypt,  which  began  with  the  11th  or  12th  dynasty. 

The  age  of  the  Labyrinth  and  the  name  of  the  sovereign  by 
whom  it  was  built  have  been  most  variously  stated  by  the  ancient, , 
writers,  and  nothing  but  the  evidence  of  the  ruins  themselves  has 
enabled  us  to  assign  with  certainty  Arnmenemes  as  its  founder. 
Herodotus,  we  have  seen,  attributes  the  building  to  Ihe  twelve 

Boeckh,  Manetho  und  die  Hundssternperiode,  p.  627,  note  s. 
Bunsen,  iEgyptens  Stelle,  Mittleres  Reich,  pi.  iv. 
3  See  Hierogl.  of  the  Egyptian  Society,  pi.  96.    Burch  in  GKddon's  Egyp- 
tian Archaeology,  p.  80. 


THE  TWELFTH   DYNASTY.  145 

kings  or  chiefs  who  composed  the  Dodecarchia ;  not  only  making 
no  mention  of  any  other,  but  expressly  calling  thera  "  the  original 
founders1."  This  is  in  itself  very  improbable,  if  we  consider  how 
vast  was  the  work,  surpassing,  as  Herodotus  says,  not  only  all  the 
works  of  Grecian  architecture,  but  the  Pyramids  themselves.  It 
is  also  in  the  highest  degree  improbable  that,  though  after  tho 
Egyptian  fashion  each  of  these  chiefs  may  have  prepared  a  tomb 
for  himself  during  his  lifetime,  they  should  have  been  deposited 
there  after  Psammitichus  had  dethroned  them.  Probably  the  cir- 
cumstance that  the  number  of  the  principal  halls  was  twelve,  led 
to  their  erection  being  attributed  to  these  twelve  kings.  Diodorus 
gives  a  different  account.  He  describes,  as  Herodotus  does,  the 
twelve  kings  as  designing  to  leave  a  common  memorial  of  them- 
selves in  the  place  which  they  prepared  with  all  imaginable  art  for 
this  purpose  ;  and  he  fixes  very  precisely  on  the  spot  on  which  the 
Labyrinth  actually  stood — the  entrance  of  the  Canal  into  the  Lake 
of  Mceris2 ;  but  he  does  not  call  it  the  Labyrinth.  On  the  con- 
trary, he  says3,  that  the  Labyrinth  was  built  by  a  much  earlier  king, 
who  lived  long  before  the  building  of  the  Pyramids,  by  some 
called  Mendes,  by  others  Marrus.  Even  here,  however,  we  may 
trace  some  analogy  to  the  account  of  Herodotus  ;  Mendes  or 
Marrus  was  make  king  immediately  after  the  termination  of  the 
Ethiopian  invasion  under  Actisanes  ;  and  in  Herodotus,  the  retreat 
of  the  Ethiopians  is  followed  by  an  interregnum  of  the  priest 
Sethos,  and  then  by  the  builders  of  the  Labyrinth. 

Strabo  describes  the  Labyrinth  as  standing  upon  a  plateau, 
about  thirty  or  forty  stadia  from  the  entrance  of  the  canal,  and  as 
consisting  of  the  same  number  of  palaces  as  the  nomes  of  Egypt 

1  2,  148.  <f>ancvoi  6fiKag  airoQi  elvai  tuiv  Tt  dp^rjv  rdv  "kaffvoivdov  toutov  oikoSo' 
firioautvuv  8aoi\'zu)v  kcu  tmv  u'Civ  KpoKotisiXoM.  These  kings  can  be  no  other 
than  those  whom  he  has  before  mentioned — the  Dodecarchs,  who  he  sayf 
determined  to  leave  the  Labyrinth  as  a  memorial  of  themselves. 

*  1,  66.  ■  1,  61. 

VOL.  II.  1 


146 


HISTORY  OF  KGrPT. 


**  formerly  amounted  to1.     What  this  number  was  he  does  not 

specify,  but  from  Herodotus  and  Pomponius  Mela  we  learn  that  it 
was  twelve1.  The  establishment  of  an  oligarchy  of  twelve,  during 
the  temporary  suspension  of  monarchy,  points  to  such  a  territorial 
division  previously  existing,  and  probably  corresponding  to  that  of 
the  temples  of  the  gods  of  the  second  order.  One  stadium  from 
the  Labyrinth  stood  a  pyramid,  400  feet  square  at  the  base  and 
of  equal  altitude,  in  which,  says  Strabo,  a  king  named  Imandes 
(Maindes)  lies  buried.  This  is  the  pyramid  of  Howara,  which 
stands  on  a  desert  plain  between  the  Bahr  Jusuf  and  the  ravine 
called  Bahr-be-la-ma,  which  runs  down  to  the  north-eastern  end 
of  the  Lake  of  Kerun.  Its  present  height  is  about  106  feet,  and 
its  base  300s.  It  is  constructed  of  crude  bricks,  mixed  with  straw, 
and  has  been  originally  cased  with  stone.  The  sepulchral  chamber 
has  been  explored  by  Lepsius,  and  the  discovery  of  the  name  of 
Ammenemes  III.  has  removed  all  doubt  respecting  the  time  and 
purpose  of  its  erection.  He  is  the  same  sovereign  whose  shield 
occurs  everywhere  in  the  ruins  of  the  Labyrinth. 

These  varying  accounts  may  be  partly  reconciled  by  the  obser- 
vation that  the  pyramid  and  the  labyrinth  are  sometimes  spoken 
of  as  having  a  common  destination,  and  sometimes  discriminated. 
Strabo  discriminates  them  ;  the  labyrinth  was  .according  to  him  a 
collection  of  palaces*,  the  pyramid  a  place  of  sepulture.  Herodo- 
tus, on  the  authority  of  the  inhabitants,  speaks  of  the  kings  and 
sacred  crocodiles  as  being  interred  in  the  subterranean  chambers 
of  the  labyrinth  ;  Manetho  (or  Africanus)  says  Lamares  built  the 
Labyrinth  as  a  sepulchre  for  himself;  and  Pliny,  following  Lyceas, 

1  B.  16,  p.  787,  811. 

3  Psanametichi  opus  Labyrinthus  domos  ter  uiille  et  regias  duodecim 
amplexus.    (Pomp.  Mela,  1,  9,  65.) 

3  Perring  on  the  Pyr.  3,  8S. 

4  The  Memnoneion  of  Abydos,  which  was  a  palace,  was  (Strabo,  17,  813) 
a  building  in  the  style  of  the  Labyrinth,  only  less  complex. 


THE  -TWELFTH  DYNASTY. 


147 


calls  it  the  sepulchre  of  Mceris.  It  appears  quite  contrary  to  Egyp- 
tian usages  that  the  same  building  should  be  used  as  a  palace  and 
a  cemetery.  Notwithstanding  therefore  the  tradition  of  the  neigh- 
borhood recorded  by  Herodotus,  the  fact  of  the  Labyrinth  being 
at  all  a  place  of  royal  sepulture  is  questionable.  It  is  however  not 
unlikely  that  the  embalmed  crocodiles  may  have  been  deposited 
in  the  vaults.  The  name  Peicsuchis,  which  Pliny  gives  to  the 
king  who  founded  the  Labyrinth  4600  years  before  his  time1,  evi- 
dently alludes  to  this  destination  of  the  building  ;  for  Suchos  was 
the  tame  croc  -dile  of  the  Arsinoite  nome,  and  Pet  or  Pet-n  occurs 
frequently  in  similar  combinations2.  It  is  not  probable  that  the 
Labyrinth  was  all  built  by  a  single  sovereign  ;  Diodorus8  speaks  of 
its  being  left  unfinished  by  its  founders,  and  we  have  seen  reason  to 
conclude  that  the  Pyramids,  though  attributed  by  the  ancients  to 
a  single  reign,  were  not  begun  and  concluded  by  the  same  person4. 

The  name  Labyrinth  appears  to  be  of  Greek  origin,  and  we  do 
not  know  what  word  corresponded  to  it  in  the  ancient  Egyptian. 
It  originally  denoted  a  complicated  system  of  passages  and  gal- 
leries6, such  as  are  found  in  mines,  catacombs  and  internal  quarries. 
As  they  were  usually  of  unknown  age,  mythical  personages  were 
assigned  as  their  authors.  Those  at  Nauplia  were  attributed  to 
the  Cyclops6,  that  at  Cnossus  to  Daedalus.  The  last-mentioned  is 
usually  supposed  to  have  been  a  building,  like  the  Egyptian  ;  but 
no  one  speaks,  as  an  eye-witness  of  it ;  and  the  story  probably 
originated  from  the  existence  of  a  real  labyrinth,  excavated  in 
times  of  unknown  antiquity  at  Gortys  in  prete7.    The  idea  of  per- 

1  Cod.  Bamb.Plin.  36,  19  (13). 

•  See  voL  i.  p.  323,  note  *  *  1,  66. 

•  No  name  except  that  of  Amm^nernes  III.  appears  to  bave  been  dis- 
covered by  the  Prussian  Expedition,  but  only  'Jie  foundations  are  left. 

'  Such  a  gallery  was  called  by  the  Greeks  Acmpa,  from  which,  pronounced 
AdFpi,  AS/lpa,  \a$vptvdos  would,  be  formed  by  a  regular  analogy.  (Word* 
worth,  Athens  and  Attica,  p.  209.    Hoeckh's  Creta,  vol.  1,  p.  62.) 

•  Strabo,  8,  p.  369.  1  Walpole's  Travels,  2,  402. 


148 


HISTORY    OF  EGYPT. 


plexitv  which  we  associate  with  the  name,  and  which  the  mythe 

represents  as  the  designed  end  of  the  construction,  was  the  neces- 
sary consequence,  in  the  one  case  of  the  multitude  of  intersecting 
passages,  in  the  other  of  the  endless  succession  of  apartments, 
repeating  each  other.  Herodotus  describes  the  Labyrinth  of  Eg\pt 
as  the  palace  of  Versailles  might  be  described  by  one  who  had 
been  led  through  it  by  a  guide,  and  had  been  at  once  astonished 
and  bewildered  by  what  he  had  seen.  We  can  distinguish,  how- 
ever, in  his  description,  hypostyle  halls,  which  were  roofed  by 
single  blocks  of  stone1,  rilling  the  whole  space  of  the  inf  creolumnia- 
tions,  closed  apartments  adjoining  to  these,  and  por'icoes  leading 
to  other  roofed  apartments.  The  multitude  Hid  similarity  of  these 
buildings  might  well  make  it  impracticable  for  a  stranger  to  find 
his  way  through  them,  especially  as  the  majority  of  them  had  no 
light2.  Herodotus  says  they  were  in  all  3000,  1500  above  ground 
and  an  equal  number  below.  The  ex-w'tness  of  this  statement 
rests  of  course  on  the  fidelity  of  his  guides,  who  delight  in  large  and 
round  numbers,  which  are  rendered  more  doubtful  by  the  circum- 
stance that  the  building  was  only  one  story  high  above  the  ground. 
The  ruins  which  have  been  explored  by  the  Prussian  Expedition, 
show  that  the  whole  was  a  rectangle  of  800  feet  by  500.  Pliny 
speaks  of  this  as  well  as  the  other  Labyrinths  as  being  arched, 
fornicibus  tecti ;  but  there  is  no  trace  of  the  use  of  the  arch  here 
or  in  any  other  building  of  this  age.  It  appears  to  have  been 
chiefly  built  of  a  hard  white  limestone,  which  has  been  mistaken 
for  Parian  marble';  but  jhe  fragments  of  granite  which  lie  scat- 
tered about  show  that  this  more  costly  material  had  also  been  used 
for  columns,  shrines  and  statues.    The  white  limestone  was  proba- 

1  Strabo,  p.  811.  • 

*  Pliny,  N.  H.  36,  19  (13).    Majore  in  parte  transitus  est  per  tenebraa. 

3  Plin.  36,  19,  (13)  2.  ^Egyptius  labyrinthus  (quod  miror  equidem) 
mtroitu  lapide  e  Pario,  columnis  reliquis  e  Syenite,  molibus  compositis, 
quas  dissolvere  ne  saeeula  quhlem  possint. 


THE   TWELFTH  DYNASTY. 


149 


bly  brought  from  the  Gebel-el-Mokattara,  where  an  inscription 
records  the  working  of  a  quarry  of  hard  white  stone,  in  the  reign 
of  a  sovereign  of  the  name  of  Ammenemes,  whose  precise  place  in 
the  series  cannot  be  ascertained,  as  his  distinctive  title  does  not 
accompany  his  phonetic  name1. 

Manetho,  according  to  Africanus,  reckoned  2300  years  from 
Menes  to  Ammenemes  I.  (see  p.  129).  If  to  this  we  add  160 
years  for  the  12th  dynasty,  we  have  2460  years  for  the  duration 
of  the  Old  Monarchy.  That  there  is  some  great  error  of  excess  in 
these  numbers  cannot  be  doubted,  but  they  can  be  corrected  oniy 
by  unauthorised  conjecture.  Bunsen,  taking  Eratosthenes  for  his 
standard,  reduces  the  Old  Monarchy  to  1076  years.  The  question 
can  be  settled  in  no  other  way  than  by  the  discovery  of  some  evi- 
dence to  show  whether  any  and  which  of  the  dynasties  of  Mane- 
tho were  contemporaneous. 

1  The  cornice  of  the  stele  bears  the  date  "43rd  year,"  and  the  builder  of 
the  Labyrinth  reigned  only  twelve.  But  this  date  is  no  part  of  the  inscrip- 
tion, nor  does  it  express  the  reign  of  Ammenemes.  (Birch  in  Vyse,  Pyra- 
mids. 8,  94.    Tourah  Quarries,  Tablet  No  1.) 


BOOK  II. 


THE  MIDDLE  MONARCHY. 

Thirteenth  Dynasty. 
Smr  DiosrouTAN  Kings,  who  reigned   453 

Fourteenth  Dynasty. 
Skventy-six  Xoite  Kings,  who  reigned.     ...  .  .  184 

Fifteenth  Dynasty. — Of  Shepherds. 

Six  Foreign  Phoenician  Kings,  who  also  took  Memphis.  They  like- 
wise founded  a  city  in  the  Scthroite  nome,  advancing  from  which 
they  reduced  the  Egyptians  into  subjection.    The  first  of  these 

who  reigned  was  Saitks   ....  19 

From  him  the  Saitic  nome  was  called. 

2.  Bnon   44 

8.  Pachnan   ....      61 

4  Staan    60 

6.  Archles   49 

6.  Aphobis  .   61 

284 

Sixteenth  Dynasty, 
Thirty  other  Shepherd  Kings,  reigned  518 

Seventeenth  Dynasty. 

Forty-three  other  Shepherd  Kings,  and  Forty-three  Theban  Dio% 
polites.    Together  the  Shepherds  and  Thebans  reigned  ...  151 


THIRTEENTH  TO   SEVENTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


151 


Eusobius  gives  these  dynasties  with  very  important  variations. 


Thirteenth  Dynasty. 

Yeara 

Sixty  Diospolitan  Kings,  reigned    .       ...   463 

Fourteenth  Dynasty. 

Seventy-six  Xorra  Kings,  reigned    .   184 

[484  in  another  copy.] 
Arm.  434. 

Fifteenth  Dynasty. 
DioarouTAN  Kings,  reigned  260 

Sixteenth  Dynasty. 
Five  Thxban  Kings,  reigned   190 

Seventeenth  Dynasty. 

(Four)  Foreign  Phoenician  Shepherd  Kings1  (brothers),  who  also  took 
Memphis. 

First,  Saites  reigned   ....  19 

From  him  the  nome  Satis  was  called.  They  founded  a  city  in 
the  Sethroite  nome,  advancing  from  which  they  subdued 
Egypt. 

2.  Bnon  40 

3.  Aphophis   14 

4.  After  him  Archleb   .    .       .  30 

103 


No  name  is  preserved  by  Africanus  or  Syncellus  from  the  thir- 

1  For  Yloiytivts  riaav  dit\<pol  Qoivikcs  we  should  probably  read  HE  AN  A  (four) 
<£OINIKEE.  Syncellus  complains  of  the  arbitrary  manner  in  which 
Eu8ebius  had  transposed  the  15th  Dynasty  into  the  17th ;  his  motive  was 
to  adapt  the  Egyptian  to  the  assumed  Biblical  chronology.  (P.  62,  115 
Dind.) 


352 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


teenth  and  fourteenth  dynasty ;  consequently  we  are  deprived  of 

the  means  of  comparing  them  witb  the  monuments.  Xois  was  a 
town  of  considerable  size  in  Lower  Egypt,  lying  near  the  centre  of 
the  Delta,  in  an  island  formed  by  the  Sebennytic  and  Fhatnit.ic 
branches  of  the  Nile1. 

The  establishment  of  the  Shepherd  Kings  at  Memphis,  which  is 
so  briefly  noticed  in  the  extracts  by  Africanus,  is  fortunately  related 
at  great  lengtli  by  Josephus  in  a  passage  quoted  by  him  from 
Manetho.  Apion  the  Grammarian,  one  of  those  vain  pedants 
whom  the  school  of  Alexandria  produced  in  such  abundance2,  had 
attacked  the  Jews,  who  were  very  odious  to  the  Egyptians,  and 
especially  to  the  Alexandrians,  in  a  work  on  the  Jewish  history,  in 
which  he  gave  a  very  reproachful  account  of  the  origin  of  their 
nation.  To  this  work  Josephus  replied.  In  a  remarkable  Intro- 
duction he  shows  how  iate  was  the  origin  of  Greek  letters  and  his- 
tory, compared  with  the  Egyptian,  Babylonian,  and  Phoenician,  and 
opposes  to  the  unfavorable  accounts  of  the  Graeco-Egyptian  Apion, 
what  he  considers  to  be  the  honorable  testimony  to  the  Jewish 
people,  which  Manetho  had  delivered  from  the  Egyptian  records. 
Having  described  Manetho  as  a  man  well  skilled  in  Grecian  learn- 
ing, and  who  had  derived  his  materials,  according  to  his  own 
declaration,  from  the  sacred  records  of  his  country,  he  thus  pro- 
ceeds with  his  quotation  from  the  second  book  of  his  1  Egyptiaca' 
(Cont  Apion.  1,  14) :— 

"  We  had  once  a  king  called  Timaeos,  under  whom,  from  some 
cause  unknown  to  me,  the  Deity  was  unfavorable  to  us,  and  there 

1  Cbampollion,  ^Egypte  sous  les  Pharaons,  2,  p.  214,  thinks  its  site  was  at 
Sakha,  which  is  the  Arabic  equivalent  of  the  Coptic  Xeos  and  the  old  Egyp- 
tian Skhoon.  The  road  from  Rosetta  to  Cairo  across  the  Delta  passes 
through  it  (Steph.  Byz.  s.  v.    Strabo,  17,  p.  802.) 

1  "Apion  Grammaticus,  quern  Tiberius  Casar  cymbalum  mundi  vocabat, 
quum  public®  famae  tympanum  potius  videri  posset,  immortalitate  donari  a 
t>e  scripsit,  ad  quos  aliqua  componebat."    (Plin.  Prref.  H.  N.) 


THIRTEENTH  TO  SEVENTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


153 


came  unexpectedly  from  the  eastern  parts  a  race  of  men  of  obscure 
extraction,  who  confidently  invaded  the  country  and  easily  got 
possession  of  it  by  force,  without  a  battle.  Having  subdued  those 
who  commanded  in  it,  they  proceeded  savagely  to  burn  the  cities, 
and  razed  the  temples  of  the  gods,  inhumanly  treating  all  the 
natives,  murdering  some  of  them  and  carrying  the  wives  and 
children  of  others  into  slavery.  In  the  end  they  also  established 
one  of  themselves  as  a  king  whose  name  was  Scdatis;  and  he 
took  up  his  abode  in  Memphis,  exacting  tribute  from  both  the 
Upper  and  the  Lower  Country,  and  leaving  garrisons  in  the 
most  suitable  places.  He  especially  strengthened  the  parts 
towards  the  East,  foreseeing  that  on  the  part  of  the  Assyrians, 
who  were  then  powerful,  there  would  be  a  desire  to  invade  their 
kingdom.  Finding,  therefore,  in  the  Sethroite  1  nome  a  city  very 
conveniently  placed,  lying  eastward  of  the  Bubastic  river,  and 
called  from  some  old  religious  doctrine 2  Auaris  [or  Abaris],  he 
built  it  up  and  made  it  veiy  strong  with  walls,  settling  there  also 
a  great  number  of  heavy-armed  soldiers,  to  the  amount  of  240, 000 
men  for  a  guard.  Hither  he  used  to  come  in  the  summer  season, 
partly  to  distribute  the  rations  of  corn  and  pay  the  troops :i,  partly 
to  exercise  them  carefully  by  musterings  and  reviews,  in  order  to 
inspire  fear  into  foreign  nations.  He  died  after  a  reign  of  19 
years.  After  him  another  king  called  Dnon  reigned  44  years ; 
after  him  another,  Apachnas,  36  years  and  7  months ;  then 
Apophis  61  years,  and  Jannas  50  years  and  1  month.  Last  of  all 
Asses  49  years  and  2  months.  And  these  six  were  their  first 
rulers,  always  carrying  on  war  and  desiring  rather  to  extirpate  the 
Egyptians.  Their  whole  nation  was  called  Hyksos,  that  is  Shep- 
herd Kings ;  for  Hyk  in  the  sacred  language  denotes  King,  and 

1  SynceHns  has  preserved  the  true  reading  ;  the  MSS.  and  Schol.  Pint. 
Timaeus  read  Saitc, 

8  'Atto  tivos  dp%aini  Beo\oyia^, 

3  Etro^rfJuSj/  Kai  [iiaOoipopiav  iiipc^dftevof. 

7* 


151 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


Sos  is  a  Shepherd  in  the  common  dialect,  and  hence  by  composi- 
tion Hyksos.  But  in  another  copy  it  is  said,  that  not  Shepherd 
Kings  but  Captive  Shepherds  are  designated  by  the  word  Hyk  ; 
for  that  on  the  contrary,  Hyk  or  Hak  with  the  aspirate  distinctly 
means  Captives  ;  and  this  appears  to  me  more  credible,  and 
accordant  with  ancient  history.  The  before-named  kings,  he  says, 
and  their  descendants,  were  masters  of  Egypt  for  511  years. 

"  After  this  he  says  that  a  revolt  of  the  kings  of  the  Thebaid  and 
the  rest  of  Egypt  took  place  against  the  Shepherds,  and  a  great 
and  prolonged  war  was  carried  on  with  them.  Under  a  king  whose 
name  was  Misphragmuthosis,  he  says  that  the  Shepherds  were 
expelled  by  him  from  the  rest  of  Egypt  after  a  defeat,  and  shut  up 
in  a  place  having  a  circuit  of  10,000  arurae.  This  place  was  called 
Auaris.  Manetho  says  that  the  Shepherds  surrounded  it  entirely 
with  a  large  and  strong  wall,  in  order  that  they  might  have  a 
secure  deposit  for  all  their  possessions  and  all  their  plunder. 
Thuthmosis,  the  son  of  Misphragmuthosis,  endeavored  to  take 
the  place  by  siege,  attacking  the  walls  with  480,000  men. 
Despairing  of  taking  it  by  siege,  he  made  a  treaty  with  them  that 
they  should  leave  Egypt  and  withdraw,  without  injury,  whitherso- 
ever they  pleased  ;  and  in  virtue  of  this  agreement  they  withdrew 
from  Egypt  with  all  their  families  and  possessions  to  the  number 
of  not  fewer  than  240,000,  and  traversed  the  desert  into  Syria. 
Fearing  the  power  of  the  Assyrians,  who  were  at  that  time  masters 
of  Asia,  they  built  a  city  in  that  which  is  now  called  Judaea,  which 
should  suffice  for  so  many  myriads  of  men,  and  called  it  Jeru- 
salem. 

"  And  in  a  certain  other  book  of  his  Egyptiaca,  Manetho  says 
that  this  nation  who  are  called  Shepherds  are  described  as  Captives 
in  their  sacred  books.  And  he  says  rightly ;  for  the  keeping  of 
sheep  was  the  ancient  habit  of  our  forefathers,  and  they  were  not 
unnaturally  described  as  Captives  by  the  Egyptians,  since  our  fore' 
fathei  Joseph  declares  himself  to  the  king  of  the  Egyptians  to  be 


THIRTEENTH  TO  SEVENTEENTH   DYNASTY.  155 

a  captive,  and  afterwards  at  the  command  of  the  king  sent  for  his 
brethren  into  Egypt.  Into  these  things,  however,  I  will  inquire 
hereafter  more  accurately." 

This  is  the  account  which  Josephus  gives  from  Manetho  of  the 
invasion,  reign  and  expulsion  of  the  Shepherd  kings.  If  we  except 
some  evident  exaggerations  of  numbers,  such  as  the  host  of  480,000 
men  besieging  a  city  or  fortified  camp  containing  240,000,  there 
is  nothing  in  it  which  is  not  quite  credible  and  natural.  The 
nomadic  nations  have  always  envied  the  wealth  and  luxury  which 
agriculture,  commerce  and  art  have  procured  for  their  more  civi- 
lized neighbors  ;  and  when  these  have  been  weakened  by  the 
neglect  of  military  accomplishments,  have  found  it  easy  to  over- 
turn their  power  and  lay  waste  their  country.  Such  has  in  fact 
been  the  history  of  Asia  ;  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  valor  of 
^Etius  in  the  plains  of  Chalons,  and  Charles  Martel  at  Tours, 
Europe  might  have  been  subject  for  centuries  to  the  sway  of  "  men 
of  unknown  extraction  from  the  East,  who  razed  her  cities  and 
destroyed  the  temples  of  the  gods,  and  carried  her  children  into 
captivity."  If  the  Hyksos  are,  as  some  accounts  represented, 
Arabs,  they  belonged  to  the  same  race  as  that  to  which  the  Hindu, 
the  Parsee  and  the  Christian  have  been  obliged  to  yield  up  their 
lands  and  their  sanctuaries. 

How  long  the  war  and  consequent  devastation  of  Egypt  lasted, 
before  Salatis1  established  himself  as  king  in  Memphis,  we  are  not 
told.  Africanus  must  have  included  in  the  nineteen  years  allotted 
to  Salatis  the  whole  period  both  of  his  reign  and  the  conquest,  as 
he  reckons  nothing  for  an  interregnum,  or  for  that  of  the  lest 
king  of  the  preceding  dynasty.  It  seems  to  have  been  the  maxim 
of  the  Egyptian  monarchy,  that  the  sovereign  never  dies.  From 

1  The  name  Salatis,  preserved  by  Josephus  for  Saites,  is  supposed  to  bear 
an  analogy  to  the  Hebrew  fcX)ttJ»  "to  rule."  It  occurs  Gen.  xlii.  6  but 
the  endeavor  on  the  strength  of  this  coincidence  to  identify  Salatis  with 
Joseph  ib  aii  exanple  of  o  restraining  evidence. 


156  HTSTORY  OF  ECJVPT. 

Menes  to  Nectanebus  the  throne  appears  in  the  chronological  lists 
always  full.  The  struggle  lasted  during  the  reigns  of  the  six  first 
Shepherd  kings,  after  which  the  Egyptians  appear  to  have  made 
no  further  attempts  at  resistance. 

If  we  are  to  consider  all  the  dynasties  of  Manetho  as  strictly 
successive,  and  adopt  the  largest  numbers,  937  years  (453  +  484) 
must  have  intervened  between  the  12th  dynasty  and  the  invasion 
of  the  Shepherds;  and  again,  953  years  (284 -f  518  + >51)  from 
that  invasion  to  their  expulsion.  There  are,  however,  specia' 
reasons  in  this  case  for  admitting  them  to  have  been  contempora  • 
neous.  Manetho  does  not  speak  of  one  king  as  being  at  the  head 
of  the  Egyptians  when  the  Shepherds  invaded  them,  but  of  "  those 
who  commanded  in  the  country1,"  from  which  we  may  infer  that 
the  unity  of  the  monarchy  was  already  dissolved.  Again,  when 
the  Shepherds  are  expelled,  it  is  said  that  "the  kings  from  the 
Thebaid  and  the  rest  of  Egypt  rose  up  against  them2."  It  seems 
probable,  therefore,  that  before  or  in  consequence  of  the  invasion 
of  the  Shepherds  two  separate  kingdoms  were  formed,  one  at 
Thebes,  the  other  at  Xois,  which  lasted  through  the  whole  of  the 
time  that  the  Shepherds  maintained  themselves  in  Egypt.  Each 
of  them  had  peculiar  local  advantages  for  the  establishment  of  a 
kingdom,  which  the  invaders  might  prefer  to  leave  dependent  and 
tributary,  rather  than  attempt  to  subdue.  The  Thebaid  was 
remote  from  Memphis  where  they  fixed  their  capital,  and  by  retir- 
ing into  Ethiopia,  as  Amenophis  is  said  to  have  done  on  occasion 
of  a  second  inroad,  the  Egyptian  kings  could  easily  place  them- 
selves beyond  the  reach  of  invaders.    Xois,  on  the  other  hand, 

1  YLariQapcrritravr a  in\  rriv  X™Pav  ^Tparevaav  xai  pa6icjs  dpa%riTt  tuvttjv  Kara 
<oarof  £?W,  k  at  ro  is  fiytfiopcvtravras  iv  airij  ^iipuiaajievoi  k.  t.  A.  (Jos. 
?*.  i.  c.  14). 

'  Mff  ra  ravra  rCjv  Ik  r~is  Q^auJof  kol'i  rrjs  a  A  A  >j  $  Aiyvwr  ov  (3  a  a  iXiojf  yevtaOt 
frialv  evi  rovs  roiptvas  inavaaraoiv  Kal  it6\tjiov  uvtoTs  avppayrjvai  ptyav  k*1  xo\v^p<5viov 

(Joe.  u.  «.) 


THIRTEENTH  TO   SEVENTEENTH  DYNASTT. 


was  protected  by  its  position  amidst  the  intersecting  branches  of 
the  Nile,  which  probably  rendered  it  inapproachable  by  land  forces. 
When  Sabaco  and  the  Ethiopians  invaded  Egypt,  Anysis  tool; 
refuge  in  the  marshes,  and  maintained  himself  for  fifty  years  in  an 
island  which  he  made  habitable  by  laying  down  ashes  in  the 
muddy  soil.  When  Inarus  revolted  from  the  Persians  (460  b.c.) 
they  reduced  without  difficulty  the  rest  of  the  country,  but  Amyr- 
tseus  kept  possession  of  the  marshes  for  several  years,  perhaps  as 
many  as  forty1. 

The  Theban  dynasty  lasted  453  years,  the  Xoite  484,  and  these 
numbers  are  not  very  different  from  the  518  or  511  assigned  to 
the  dominion  of  the  Shepherds.  Africanus  indeed  appears  to 
make  the  16th  dynasty  last  518  years,  besides  the  284  of  the 
loth;  but  according  to  Josephus  the  six  kings  of  the  15th  and 
their  descendants1  reigned  511  years.  The  lVth  dynasty  of  Shep- 
herds and  Theban  kings  represents  the  period  of  the  struggle, 
described  by  Josephus  as  great  and  protracted.  It  lasted  for  150 
years. 

The  motive  of  the  Shepherd  kings  for  establishing  their  place  of 
arms  at  Abaris,  in  the  Sethroitic  nome,  is  stated,  conjectu rally,  by 
Manetho  to  have  been  the  apprehension  of  invasion  from  the  Assy- 
rians, then  predominant  in  Asia.  Another  obvious  reason  was  to 
maintain  a  connexion  with  the  countries  from  which  they  came, 
and  secure  a  retreat  in  the  event  of  the  Egyptians  recovering  their 
independence.  The  Sethroitic  nome  was  a  Typhonian  region,  and 
probably  the  name  itself  was  allusive  to  this  divinity'.  Manetho 

1  Herod.  2,  140.  3,  15.    Thucyd.  1,  110. 

*  Tovtovs  61  rovs  ^poKaTCJvo/jtaffftevovi  &a(ri\tus,  roij  rwv  iroifiivoiv  KaXovn'tvwv^ 
Kal  TJVi  1$  avr&v  yevo  pevovs  Kparrftrai  rifs  Aiyv-rrrov  (prjalv  errj  rrp»$ 
rots  lrcvraicotTiois  IvSckcl.     (Jos.  u.  8.) 

1  "Non  spcrnendam  censeo  observation  em  viri  doctissimi  (Marshcmi) 
•uspieantis  tractum  ilium  qui  campos  Pelusiacos  comprehend^  et  ad  lacum 
usque  Serbonidcm  extenditur,  olim  Sethroiten  dictum,  nornen  hoc  acccpisse 


153 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


implies  that  the  name  Abaris  or  Auaris  had  a  similar  reference1, 
but  the  Egyptian  language  affords  no  clue  to  such  an  ety- 
mology. 

Josephus  says  that  in  another  book  of  the  Egyptiaca,  or  in 
another  copy  of  the  passage  which  we  have  already  transcribed, 
Manetho  explains  the  name  Hyksos  as  "  captive  shepherds,"  not 
"  shtpherd  kings."  To  this  etymology  also  the  Egyptian  lan- 
guage, as  we  are  acquainted  with  it,  gives  no  support.  Indeed  the 
Jewish  historian  must  have  calculated  upon  very  uncritical  reader?, 
if  he  supposed  that  they  would  believe  the  Shepherds  and  his  tore- 
fathers  to  be  the  same.  Except  their  Palestinian  origin,  and  their 
retreat  into  Palestine,  everything  in  their  history  is  different.  The 
children  of  Israel  came  on  the  invitation  of  Pharaoh,  a  handful  of 
men,  into  Egypt,  and  were  placed  in  the  land  of  Goshen,  by  his 
appointment,  to  tend  his  cattle.  When  they  subsequently  multi- 
plied so  as  to  become  an  object  of  alarm  to  the  Egyptians,  they 
were  subject  to  cruel  persecution  and  oppression,  to  which  they 
made  no  resistance,  and  even  when  they  were  encouraged  by  Moses 
to  quit  the  land  of  their  bondage,  they  never  ventured  to  fight  for 
their  liberties.  National  vanity  has  often  strangely  perverted  his- 
tory, claiming  conquests  which  have  never  been  made ;  but  if  the 
Israelites  were  really  the  Hyksos  of  Manetho,  they  must  have  fore- 
gone the  glory  of  being  the  conquerors  of  Egypt,  in  order  to  repre- 
sent themselves  as  its  bondsmen. 

Manetho  never  represents  the  Hyksos  as  the  same  with  the 
Jews,  although  Josephus  artfully  slides  in  the  words  "  our  fore- 
fathers" into  the  account  which  he  gives,  apparently  on  Manetho's 

aTyphone,  quera  Egyptios  lingua  sua  cognominasse  Seth  infra  monebimus. 
Addere  possum  rubicundum  Egyptiis  dici  ros,  ex  quo  confieitur  Sethros 
commodissime  significare  Typhonem  rufum"  (Jablonsky,  P.  IIL  p.  6fi. 
Comp.  voL  i.  p.  369.) 

1  This  word  has  been  derived  from  and  connected  with  thd 

•ojourning  of  the  Hebrews. 


THIRTEENTH  TO  SEVENTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


159 


authority'.  It  is  true,  Manetho  says  that  the  Hyksos,  when  they 
retired  by  treaty  from  Egypt,  established  themselves  in  Judea  and 
built  Jerusalem.  But  this  rather  proves  them  not  to  have  been 
the  Jews  ;  who,  instead  of  building  Jerusalem,  did  not  even  pos- 
Less  it  till  the  time  of  David.  At  their  entrance,  under  Joshua, 
into  Palestine,  it  was  held  by  the  Jebusites,  a  Canaanitic  tribe3. 
Their  king  was  killed  in  battle  ;  but  his  people  still  held  the  upper 
city,  the  place  of  strength,  while  the  tribe  of  Judah  and  Benjamin 
dwelt  around  the  base.  Manetho,  therefore,  identifies  the  Shep- 
herds, not  with  the  Jews,  but  the  Jebusites  ;  and  Joseph  us,  who 
had  related  the  facts  which  I  have  just  mentioned  in  his  1  Antiqui- 
ties3,' cannot  have  been  ignorant  of  the  fallacy  of  his  own  argu- 
ment. Theophilus  Antiochenus  and  Tatian,  in  the  second  century', 
when  they  speak  of  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  Egypt,  follow, 
not  Manetho,  but  Josephus  interpreting  Manetho.  It  appears 
therefore  that  the  ancient  and  authentic  records  of  Egypt  made  no 
mention  of  the  Jews,  their  coming  into  Egypt,  their  settlement 
in  Goshen,  their  bondage,  or  their  Exodus.  But  the»e  was  a 
popular  and  traditionary  account  of  them5  which  Josephus  has 
quoted  from  Manetho,  evidently  formed  under  the  influence  of 
those  feelings  of  hatred  and  contempt  of  which  the  Jews  were  the 
object  on  the  part  of  their  neighbors.  It  belongs,  however,  to 
the  history  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  where  it  will  be  particularly 
considered. 

If  we  could  find  in  the  lists  or  the  monumeuts.  the  Timaeus 
under  whom,  according  to  Manetho,  the  invasion  of  the  Shepherds 

1  He  repeats  the  same  unfair  substitution  in  cap.  26,  with  the  additional 
circumstance  that  they  built  the  Temple. 

*  Josh.  x.  1,  23  ;  xv.  63.    Judges,  i.  21  ;  2  Sara.  v.  6. 
8  Ant.  5,  2 ;  7,  3. 

*  See  the  passages  quoted  in  Bunsen's  Urkendcnbuch,  v.  vi. 

*  Ovk  ck  tQv  nap  A<yi'Trt9i{  ypapfiarwv  tiXX'  wf  avrds  it3yio\6yi)Kev  it  rmt 
ii  t  <r  *  6  r  us  nvQnXoyuvjitvw  (cap.  1 6). 


160 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


lock  place,  we  might  connect  this  event  with  the  previous  history 
af  Egypt.  No  such  name  however  is  found.  He  is  called  Con* 
charis  in  the  Laterculus  of  Syncellus,  a  name  equally  unknown  to 
the  monuments.  The  last  king  in  the  list  of  Eratosthenes  is  Amu- 
thartaios,  and  it  is  probable  that  this  list,  as  it  begins  with  Menes, 
the  founder  of  the  old  monarchy,  ends  with  the  king  who  was 
reigning  when  Salatis  established  himself  at  Memphis ;  but  be- 
tween this  name  and  Timaios  there  is  no  resemblance1.  None  of 
the  six  names  of  the  Shepherd  kings  preserved  by  Manetho  has 
been  found  on  the  monuments2,  nor  is  there  any  monumental  or 
architectural,  or  even  sepulchral  trace  of  the  long  period  of  their 
occupation  of  Egypt.  The  39th  shield  on  the  tablet  of  Abydos  is 
that  of  Ammenemes  IV.;  the  40th,  Aahmes  or  Amosis,  whom 
Manetho  places  at  the  head  of  the  18th  dynasty.  So  that  the 
whole  interval  of  the  Shepherd  dominion  appears  to  be  passed  over, 
as  one  of  usurpation. 

Of  the  seventy-six  tributary  kings  of  Xois,  no  monuments  remain 
that  can  be  referred  to  them  on  satisfactory  evidence ;  though  it  is 
bv  no  means  improbable  that  among  the  many  which  have  not 
vet  had  a  place  assigned  them  in  the  series8,  some  may  belong  to 
this  dynasty.  The  tributary  kings  of  Thebes,  however,  during  the 
same  interval,  have  been  supposed  to  have  a  record  in  the  tablet  of 
Karnak  and  in  the  papyrus  of. Turin4.    Five,  as  already  mentioned, 

1  Bunsen  would  correct  A/< cvdupTaTos  in  Eratosthenes  into  'AtivvTifxatos, 
which  he  substitutes  conjecturally  for  ij*  /3aai\cii  HMIN  TIMAIOE  in  the 
extract  from  Josephus. 

a  A  shield  which  reads  Ases  is  the  4th  in  the  tablet  of  Karnak,  but  from 
its  place  cannot  be  Asses,  the  Hykwos  king  of  Josephus.  See  p.  121,  122, 
153  of  this  volume. 

3  A  long  list  of  these  may  be  seen  in  Leemans'  Monumens  Egyptiens  por- 
tans  des  Legendes  royales,  and  subsequent. discoveries  have  much  increased 
their  number.    See  Barucchi  Cronologia  Egizia,    Turin,  1844. 

;  Lepsius,  Denkm.  tal  i 


THIRTEENTH   TO   SEVENTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


161 


bore  the  name  of  Sebekatep,  and  two  of  Nefruatep.  Such  repeti- 
tions, resembling  the  Louises,  Henries  and  Georges  of  modern 
royal  families,  appear  to  have  been  very  common  among  the  Egyp- 
tian dynasties.  It  seems  upon  the  whole  probable  that  the  Sebe- 
kateps  lived  in  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  dynasty,  since  a 
monument  dated  in  the  reign  of  one  of  them  speaks  of  Ammene- 
mes  III.  as  deceased1.  The  whole  number  of  shields  is, thirty  in 
the  second  half  of  the  chamber  of  Karnak,  but  several  are  illegible. 
As  the  kings  of  Thebes  in  the  Hyksos  period  were  more  than 
thirty,  some  cause,  to  us  unknown,  must  have  led  to  the  selection 
of  these.  The  fragments  of  the  Turin  papyrus  show  some  of  the 
same  names  as  the  chamber  of  Karnak2,  and  when  entire,  this 
portion  of  the  mauuscript  appears  to  have  contained  sixty-five 
shields. 

The  seventeenth  dynasty,  as  it  now  stands,  is  apparently  cor- 
rupt ;  at  least  it  is  improbable  that  there  should  be  exactly  forty- 
three  kings  both  of  the  Shepherds  and  the  Thebans,  and  that  in 
both  lines  kings  should  reign  on  the  average  only  three  and  a  half 
years.  The  error,  however,  appears  to  be  in  these  numbers,  not 
in  the  duration  of  the  dynasty.  The  kings  of  Thebes  declared 
themselves  independent,  and  cast  off  their  allegiance  as  tributaries 
to  the  Shepherd  kings  of  Memphis.  A  long  and  bloody  war,  or 
succession  of  wars,  ensued,  for  a  century  and  a  half,  which  ended 
in  the  Hyksos  being  driven  by  Misphragmuthosis  into  Abatis. 

Without  the  testimony  of  Manetho,  we  should  have  been  whollv 
ignorant  of  this  most  important  event  in  the  history  of  Egypt. 
For  neither  Herodotus  nor  Diodorus,  nor  any  of  the  Greek  and 
Latin  historians,  give  any  account  of  it.  This  is  the  more  remark- 
able, as  the  Egyptians  had  informed  them  of  their  subjugation  by 

1  Birch  in  Gliddon's  Otia  Egyptiaca,  p.  82. 

*  Lepsius,  Denkm.  taf.  iv.  v.  vi.  Bunsen's  plate  v.  The  names  in  the 
shields,  which  in  the  papyrus  are  written  in  the  hieratic  character,  are  hero 
transcribed  in  the  hieroglyphic. 


niSl  CRT  OF  EGYPT. 


the  Ethiopians,  so  that  national  vanity  did  not  carry  them  so  far 
as  to  suppress  all  facts  inconsistent  with  the  immemorial  indepen- 
dence of  their  nation.  There  is  indeed  a  passage  before  referred 
to  in  Herodotus,  in  which  a  trace  of  the  invasion  of  the  Hyksos 
may  be  visible,  but  which  could  never  have  been  so  understood 
without  the  explanation  which  Manetho  affords.  Speaking  of  the 
odium  in  which  the  memory  of  the  builders  of  the  pyramids  was 
held,  he  says1,  "  that  the  people  did  not  much  like  to  name  them ; 
but  even  called  them  the  pyramids  of  the  shepherd  Philition  or 
Philitis,  who  fed  his  flocks  in  this  region  at  that  time."  Since  the 
pyramids  have  been  explored,  no  doubt  can  remain  that  they  are 
the  work  of  native  kings,  and  of  a  much  earlier  time ;  yet  it  is 
possible  that  among  the  various  traditions  to  which  their  high 
antiquity  had  given  birth,  one  may  have  connected  them  with  the 
obscurely  remembered  invasion  of  the  Hyksos,  and  that  the  name 
Philitis  may  represent  Philistim.  The  scriptural  writers  cer- 
tainly attribute  a  connection  with  Egypt  to  the  Philistines3,  who 
in  Amos  ix.  7  are  spoken  of  as  an  immigrant  people,  like  the 
Israelites  themselves ;  and  the  name,  though  confined  in  the  Bible 
to  a  small  district,  was  used  for  the  whole  country,  which  thence 
derived  the  name  of  Palestine.  The  account  given  by  Apollodo- 
rus  (2,  1,  3),  that  ^Egyptus  the  son  of  Belus  brother  of  Agenor, 
king  of  Phoenicia,  came  from  Arabia  and  conquered  Egypt,  unhis- 
torical  as  it  is,  may  have  had  its  origin  in  the  invasion  of  the  Hyk- 
sos, who  are  called  both  Phoenicians  and  Arabians,  and  who  settled 
in  Palestine  on  their  expulsion  from  Egypt'.    The  connexion  of 

1  2,  128. 

-  Gen.  x.  14.  The  Casluhim  there  mentioned  are  probably  the 
dwellers  about  the  Mons  Casius,  a  part  of  that  Typhonian  region  which 

the  Hyksos  occupied.  Alauy  Tiipliuvis  ko.1  x^9a  n£9l  'Paai  r°"  Tu^wm 
K£\(jv<p3.;i ,  -\i}il)v  oiiav  T'lii  r/idj  rw  TTjjAovffiw  Kaaiou  opovg.     (Eust.  ad  Dion. 

Perieg  248.    Herod.  3.  5  ) 

3"lu  Agenoris  ex  -Hgvpto  in  Phoenician!  migratione  videtur  latere  opinio 


THIRTEENTH   TO   SEVENTEENTH   DYNASTY.  163 

the  mytbe  of  Isis,  Osiris  and  Typhon  with  Phoenicia,  of  the  Tyrian 
with  the  Egyptian  Hercules1,  and  generally  of  Phoenician  with 
Egyptian  civilization,  will  be  best  explained  by  the  supposition 
that  the  nomad  tribes  of  Palestine  were  masters  of  Egypt  for  seve- 
ral generations,  and  subsequently  returned  to  the  same  country, 
carrying  with  them  the  knowledge  of  letters  and  the  arts,  which  they 
were  the  instruments  of  diffusing  over  Asia  Minor  and  Greece. 
Phoenicia  has  evidently  been  the  connecting  link  between  these 
countries  and  Egypt,  which  directly  can  have  exercised  only  a  very 
slight  and  transient  influence  upon  them. 

The  narrative  of  the  invasion,  the  dominion  and  the  expulsion 
of  the  Hyksos  contains  nothing  that  is  incredible;  but  the  dura- 
tion which  is  assigned  to  their  sway  is  certainly  startling,  not  so 
much  because  it  requires  a  great  extension  of  Egyptian  chronology, 
as  because  we  do  not  find  in  Egypt  the  traces  which  we  might 
naturally  expect  of  a  dominion  said  to  have  lasted  six  centuries  and 
a  half*  There  are  no  marks,  at  least  none  that  have  been  ascer- 
tained, of  the  city  of  Abaris,  whose  walls  included  a  space  more 
than  double  that  of  Rome  under  Diocletian,  and  not  much  inferior 
to  that  of  London  at  the  present  day'.  Although  they  occupied  a 
country  in  which  pyramids,  obelisks,  temples,  and  palaces  pre- 
sented themselves  on  every  side,  they  seem  never  to  have  employed 
the  art  of  their  subjects  in  raising  any  corresponding  memorial  of 
themselves.  An  equal  degree  of  inertness  must  have  seized  on  the 
Egyptians  themselves.  Under  the  12th  dynasty,  to  judge  from  the 
descriptions  and  remains  of  the  Labyrinth,  art  and  skill  must  have 
been  at  a  high  point  of  elevation;  under  the  18th  dynasty  they 
showed  themselves  in  unimpaired  perfection  ;  but  not  a  single  con- 
temporaneous work  of  art  has  been  found,  from  the  13th  to  the 

de  commuui  nescioqua  Phcenicum  et  JSgyptiorum  credita  origine,"  (Heyne 
ad  ApoDod  2,  1,  4,    Kenrick,  Egypt  of  Herod.  2,  182.) 
1  Herod.  2,  44. 

*  Joseph,  c.  Ap.  1,  14,  with  Bunsen's  note,  Urkundenb.  p.  44* 


1G4  HISTORY    OF  EGYPT. 

18th  dynasty.  These  tilings  are  not  sufficient  to  make  us  doubt 
the  fact  of  the  invasion  and  expulsion  of  the  Ilyksos;  but  they 
may  excite  a  suspicion  that  the  chronology  of  this  period  of  oppres- 
sion and  confusion  i*  not  to  be  relied  on,  and  that  as  usual  it  lias 
been  unduly  extended1. 

The  occupation  of  Egypt  by  the  Ilyksos  appears  to  have  been 
from  first  to  last  military.  The  fortified  camp  of  Abaris,  the  pos- 
session of  Memphis  and  of  various  other  places  throughout  Egypt 
which  were  garrisoned  by  them,  placed  the  whole  country  entirely 
in  their  power;  but  the  difference  of  religion,  language  and  insti- 
tutions would  prevent  any  amalgamation  between  them  and  a 
people  so  peculiarly  inflexible  in  all  these  relations  as  the  Egyp- 
tians were.  Their  monarchs  took  care  to  preserve  the  military  dis- 
cipline, on  which  the  maintenance  of  their  superiority  depended : 
from  Memphis,  where  the  seat  of  their  government  was  established, 
they  visited  Abaris  every  summer,  and  by  military  exercises  and 
'eviews  at  once  kept  up  the  spirit  of  the  soldiers  and  made  pn 
imposing  display  of  force  in  the  eyes  of  the  natives  and  foreigners. 
During  the  first  six  reigns  a  policy  of  destruction  and  extermina- 
tion was  pursued ;  afterwards  it  should  seem  that  on  payment  of 
tribute,  the  sovereigns  of  Thebes  and  Xois  were  allowed  to  exercise 
the  powers  of  royalty,  and  the  people  to  pursue  their  labors  in 
peace. 

Probably  the  condition  of  Greece  under  the  Turks  affords  the 
nearest  historical  parallel  to  that  of  the  Egyptians  under  the 

1  Bunsen  extends  the  dominion  of  the  Shepherds  to  929  years  (B.  3,  p.  48, 
Germ.),  and  supposes  the  fifty-three  kings  mentioned  by  Apollodorus 
(Sync.  p.  147.  279,  ed.  Dind.)  to  be  the  Theban  kings  contemporary  with 
the  Shepherds.  Lepsius  (Einl.  p.  520)  supposes  that  Apollodorus  began  his 
second  list  with  Amosis,  the  head  of  the  18th  dynasty  and  of  the  New 
Monarchy,  and  ended  it  with  Araasis  the  contemporary  of  Cambyses.  Here 
the  Laterculus  of  Syncellus  ends,  and  it  comprehends  in  this  interval  just 
fifty- three  kings. 


THIRTEENTH  TO   SEVENTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


16o 


Hyksos.  In  both  cases  a  nomadic  and  military  tribe  have  esta- 
blished themselves  among  a  sedentary  and  civilized  people,  whose 
energies  had  been  impaired ;  in  both,  the  repugnance  occasioned* 
by  difference  of  blood,  language  and  religion  has  not  only  pre- 
vented any  fusion  of  the  two  races,  but  lias  preserved  the  hostile 
feeling  between  them  in  undiminished  strength,  after  the  cessation 
of  a  state  of  warfare.  The  Turks  have  been  said  to  be  only 
encamped  in  Europe,  and  this  was  literally  true  of  the  Hyksos  in 
Egypt.  The  number  of  240,000,  said  to  have  been  collected  within 
the  walls  of  Abai  is,  probably  represents  the  average  amount  of  the 
Hyksos  population,  who  living  on  the  tribute  paid  by  the  Egyp- 
tians, followed  no  other  occupation  than  that  of  arms,  and  came  in 
succession  to  their  fortified  camp  to  undergo  their  military  training. 
The  recovery  of  their  country  and  their  capital  by  the  Greeks 
seemed  at  one  time  imminent ;  had  it  taken  place,  their  language 
and  religion  would  have  been  reinstated  with  no  change  from  the 
long  predominance  of  the  Turks;  the  Mosch  of. the  Sultan  would 
have  become  again  the  Church  of  St.  Sophia,  and  the  people  have 
re-appeared,  after  the  oppression  of  four  centuries,  identical  with 
the  subjects  of  the  Palreologi,  but  regenerated  in  spirit  by  the 
struggle  by  which  their  independence  was  purchased.  In  such  a 
case  it  is  conceivable  that  their  tables  of  royal  succession  might 
omit  all  mention  of  the  Mahmouds,  Selims  and  Mustaphas,  and  pass 
from  the  last  Constantine  to  the  first  Otho.  It  is  true,  the  period 
of  Turkish  sway  is  not  equal  to  the  shortest  time  at  which  the 
dominion  of  the  Hyksos  in  Egypt  has  been  reckoned.  But  no 
nation  has  ever  equalled  the  Egyptian  in  the  fixedness  of  its  cha- 
racter and  institutions.  The  relations  of  the  Greeks  to  their  Turk- 
ish masters  might  have  continued  much  longer  unchanged,  had 
they  both  been  as  completely  insulated  from  all  foreign  influence? 
and  political  combinations  as  the  Egyptians  were. 

On  the  whole,  though  it  is  difficult  to  realize  to  ourselves  a 
dominion  continuing  for  six  centuries  and  a  half,  and  then  terrai- 


166 


HISTORY   OF  EGYl'T. 


nating  with  so  few  traces  as  the  Hyksos  left  in  Egypt,  this  diffi- 
culty is  not  sufficient  to  justify  us  in  rejecting  the  positive  testi- 
mony of  Manetbo  to  events  which  he  could  have  no  motive  to 
feign.  We  have  indeed  his  testimony  only  at  the  second  hand, 
and  that  not  of  a  wholly  trustworthy  witness.  But  though  Jose- 
phus  has  certainly  perverted,  we  cannot  believe  that  he  invented, 
his  alleged  quotation  from  Manetho.  His  learned  adversary  would 
have  easily  detected  such  a  fraud. 

The  confusion  and  destruction  which  attended  the  conquest  of 
the  Hyksos,  have  rendered  the  chronology  of  this  period  of  Egyp- 
tian history  quite  uncertain,  beyond  the  reigns  of  the  six  kings  of 
the  loth  dynasty.  We  can  place  no  reliance  on  the  assigned 
length  of  periods,  which  furnish  us  with  neither  names,  nor  facts, 
nor  monuments,  because  we  have  no  control  over  the  fictions  or 
the  errors  of  historians.  Until  this  deficiency  is  supplied,  it  must 
remain  a  fruitless  attempt  to  carry  up  a  connected  chain  of  authen- 
tic chronology,  through  the  Middle  Monarchy  to  the  termination, 
and  thence  to  the  commencement  of  the  Old,  even  if  Jie  chrono- 
logy of  the  latter  were  better  ascertained  than  it  is. 


BOOK  IIL 


THE  NEW  MONARCHY. 


ISightcenth  Dynasty,  according  to  Africanus. 
(Sync.  p.  62-72  ;  115-136,  Dind.) 

Yeart. 

1  Sixteen  Diospolite  kings,  of  whom  the  first  was  Amos1, 
under  whom  Moses  went  out  of  Egypt,  as  we  shall 
show. 

2.  Cieebros,  reigned   18 

8.  Amkxophthis    .    .   24 

4.  Amersls   ...22 

5.  MlSAPHRIS   IS 

6.  MlSPHRAGM  UTHOSIB*   26 

7.  Touthmosis   9 

8.  Amenophis   81 

This  is  he  who  is  thought  to  be  Memnon  and  the  Speak- 
ing Statue, 

9.  Horus   87 

10.  acherres   82 

11.  Rathos   6 

12.  Chebees   12 

13.  ACHERRES  '   12 

14.  Armesses   5 

15.  Ramesses                                                               .  1 

16.  Amenophath   19 


1  Amos  should  have  headed  the  list  of  Africanus  with  the  years  of  his 
leign,  but  in  consequence  of  the  incidental  mention  of  his  name  this  seem; 
to  have  been  omitted.   Syncellus  calls  his  father  Asseth. 

*  By  the  general  consent  of  critics.  MIE^PArMOYGQSIS  has  been 
substituted  for  AAIE^PArMOYG^SIS  in  the  text  of  Joeephus  from 
Eosebius  and  Syncellus. 


168  DISTORT   OF  K05TPT. 

According  to  Eusebius  : — 

Eighteenth  Dynasty, 

Teats. 


1.  Fourteen  Diospolite  kings,  of  whom  the  firsts  Amosis, 

reigned   25 

2.  Chebron   13 

3.  Amexophis   21 

4.  Miphbes   12 

5.  MlSPHRAQMUTHOSIS   ...  26 

6.  Touthmosis  9 

7.  Amenophis  31 

He  is  thought  to  be  Memnon  and  the  Speaking  Statue. 

8.  Horus  86  [881 

9.  Achexciierses  16  [12] 

Under  him  Moses  led  the  Jews  in  their  Exodus  from 

Egypt. 

10.  Aciierees  8 

11.  CUERRES  15 

1 2.  Armais,  who  is  also  Danaus  5 

Afterwards  being  exiled  from  Egypt,  and  flying  from 
his  brother  ^Egyptus,  he  comes  into  Greece,  and 
having  made  himself  master  of  Argos,  rules  the 
Argives. 

18.  Ramesses,  who  is  also  ^Egyptus   68 

14.  Amenopuls  ....    40 

From  the  Tablet  of  Abydos. 


It  lias  been  already  observed  that  this  monument  contains  no 
names  of  kings,  except  Ramses  the  Great,  only  the  prenominal  or 
titular  shields.  The  researches  of  Champollion,  however,  aided 
and  corrected  by  those  of  our  countrymen  and  of  Lepsius,  have 
ascertained  the  corresponding  phonetic  names,  and  thus  we  are 
enabled  to  present  the  following  series  for  comparison  with  the 
lipt9  of  Manetho  and  Eusebius  : — 


1.  Aahmes. 

2.  Amevoph  (L). 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


109 


8.  Thothmes  (JA 

4.  Thothmes  (IL). 

5.  Thothmes  (ILL). 

6.  Amenoph  (II.). 

7.  Thothmes  (IV. ). 

8.  Amenoph  (HI.). 

9.  Horus. 

10.  Ramses  (L). 

11.  Mexephthah  (I.). 

12.  Ramses  (II). 

18.  Ramses  (IIL),  in  whose  reigu  the  tablet  of 
Abydos  was  erected. 

The  discrepancies  are  obvious.  The  Amoses  oi  the  lists  is  evident- 
ly the  Aahmes  of  the  tablet  and  monuments,  but  Chebros  appears 
neither  on  the  tablet  nor  elsewhere.  Amenoph,  the  second  on  the 
tablet,  is  the  third  in  the  lists  ;  Miphres  and  Misphragmuthosis  are 
again  not  found  on  the  tablet.  Touthmosis  of  the  lists  answers  to 
Thothmes  of  the  tablet;  but  whereas  the  tablet  gives  three  in  succes- 
sion of  this  name,  the  lists  present  only  one.  Amenophis  II.  is  found 
in  both,  followed,  however,  on  the  tablet  by  a  fourth  Thothmes  and 
a  third  Amenoph.  In  Horus  again  they  agree  ;  but  his  successor 
on  the  tablet  is  Ramses,  in  the  lists  Achencherses  or  Acherres. 

There  can  hardly  be  a  question  which  authority  is  to  be  prefer- 
red.  No  better  evidence  than  that  of  a  monument,  erected  by 
public  authority,  can  be  produced  in  an  historical  inquiry.  Its 
testimony  is  liable  to  no  corruption,  such  as  written  documents 
may  undergo,  from  accident  or  fraud,  nor  to  the  variations  which 
are  inevitable  in  oral  tradition.  It  represents  the  most  authentic 
knowledge  of  the  age  in  which  ifwras  erected,  and  must  therefore 
take  precedence  of  every  other  kind  of  document.  It  is  true  that 
this  age  may  have  falsely  believed  itself  possessed  of  certain  know- 
ledge, and  such  a  belief  could  acquire  no  additional  authority  by 
being  recorded  on  stone.  There  is  no  room  here,  however,  for  this 
distinction.    The  time  of  the  erection  of  the  mooume* 1  vat  r  *' 

vcl.  II.  8 


170 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


much  further  removed  from  the  reign  of  Amosis  than  the  present 

year  from  the  Restoration,  and  it  is  incredible  that  the  Egyptians, 
so  learned  in  their  own  history  and  antiquities,  should  have  been 
in  error  in  regard  to  the  succession  of  their  sovereigns  during  this 
period.  That  Manetho  in  the  age  of  the  Ptolemies,  when  the 
tablet  of  Abydos  was  extant  in  its  integrity,  with  the  command  of 
numerous  other  documents,  should  commit  an  error  on  such  a 
point,  is  indeed  strange,  but  less  incredible  than  an  error  in  the 
tablet  itself.  There  is  in  the  Rameseion  at  Thebes  a  representation 
of  a  procession  in  which  the  ancestors  of  Rameses  the  Great  appear, 
and  their  succession  from  Amenoph  I.  corresponds  with  that  of 
the  tablet  of  Abydos1.  Again,  we  find  in  a  tomb  of  Qoorneh  a 
succession  of  four,  from  Thothmes  III.  to  Amenophis  III.,  in  which 
there  is  the  same  correspondence.  A  procession  at  Medinet  Aboo, 
similar  to  the  first-mentioned,  begins  with  Amenophis  III.  and 
goes  on  to  Ramses  IV.  This  is  beyond  the  limit  of  the  tablet  of 
Abydos,  but  as  far  as  they  are  co-extensive  they  agree*. 

There  are  some  indications  of  confusion  of  names  in  Manetho's 
Hst.  If  we  omit  Chebros,  a  name  without  analogy  among  those 
of  this  dynasty,  Amosis  is  succeeded  by  Amenoph.  according  to 
the  tablet;  Misaphris,  Mephres  (Joseph.)  or  Miphres  (Euseb.)  and 
Misphragmuthosis  have  the  appearance  of  both  originating  from  a 
title  and  a  phonetic  name,  Miphra-Touthmosis,  or  "  Thothmes 
beloved  of  Phrea."  These  will  be  the  Thothmes  L  and  II.  of  the 
tablet:  and  the  Touthmosis  of  the  lists  will  correspond  with  the 
Thothmes  III.  of  the  tablet.  Amenophis  will  then  occupy  the 
same  position  in  both.    But  here  again  occurs  a  discrepancy. 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  1,  p.  204.  *  Rosellini,  ibid. 

8  Thothmes  IT  I.  actually  bears  in  the  monuments  the  title  of  Mei  re,  or 
with  the  article  Mei  phre,  "beloved  of  Phre."  (See  Birch,  Brit.  Mus.  P  2, 
p.  80.)  Although  no  incomputable  example  has  been  found  of  a  title  substi- 
tuted for  a  name.  Rametes- Mei amoun  affords  one  of  the  title  being  ino*rpo 
rnte^l  with  the  name. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


171 


Amenoph  IL,  the  vocal  Memnon  of  the  lists,  is  followed  on  the 
tablet  by  Thothmes  JV. ;  but  in  the  lists  by  Ilorus,  who  in  the 
tablet  succeeds  Amenophis  III.  After  Horus  the  diversity  becomes 
still  greater.  He  is  followed  on  the  tablet  by  Ramses  L,  in  the 
lists  by  Achencherses  or  Acherres,  and  the  name  of  Rameses  in 
the  shape  of  Armesses  or  Armais  only  appears  after  Rathos,  Che- 
bres,  and  Acherres. 

There  is  a  remarkable  variation  in  the  lists  themselves.  Accord- 
ing to  Africanus,  Amenophis  L  is  succeeded  by  Araersis,  or,  accord- 
ing to  one  MS.  Amensis,  who  does  not  appear  in  Eusebius  nor 
on  the  tablet.  Africanus  seemed  to  have  gained  confirmation  from 
the  discovery  of  a  personage  named  Amense  among  the  royal 
monuments  of  the  18th  dynasty,  with  this  peculiarity,  that  the 
inscriptions  in  which  this  figure  appears  have  the  feminine  termi 
nation,  article,  and  pronoun,  and  the  title  "Beneficent  Goddess. 
Lady  of  the  World,"  while  the  dress,  attributes,  and  insignia  are 
those  of  a  male1.  Hence  Charapollion  devised  the  hypothesis  that 
Thothmes  L  immediately  succeeded  to  Amenophis  I. ;  that  his  son 
Thothmes  II.  followed  him  and  died  without  issue.  His  sister 
Amense  succeeded  him  and  reigned  twenty-one  years;  her  hus- 
band, who  was  named  Thothmes,  exercised  the  rights  of  sove- 
reignty in  her  name,  and  was  the  father  of  Thothmes  III.  Amense 
survived  her  husband  and  married  for  a  second,  Amenenthes,  who 
also  governed  in  her  name,  and  was  not  only  regent  during  the 
minority  of  Thothmes  III.,  but  exercised  sovereignty  conjointly 
with  him  for  several  years.  The  shields  which  contain  the  title  of 
this  supposed  Amenenthes  have  very  generally  been  defaced,  and 
"lie  legend  of  the  second  or  third  Thothmes  substituted  for  them, 
on  a  variety  of  monuments  still  existing  at  Thebes.  This  Cham- 
pc.lion  believed  to  have  been  the  effect  of  the  hatred  which  Thoth- 
mes III.  cherished  towards  his  step-father,  by  whom  he  had  been 

Roaellini.  Mon.  Stor.  1.  p.  221  228*    Champollion,  Lett  res  d'Egypte,  xy 


172 


II  [STORY   OF  EGYPT. 


oppressed  during  the  years  of  his  minority.  The  name  which  he 
lead  Ainenenhe  or  Amenenthes,  is  found,  as  well  as  that  of 
Ameiise,  on  the  obelisk  of  Karnak,  along  with  his  image;  and  if 
Kosellini  may  be  believed,  it  exhibits  traits  unlike  those  of  the 
sovereigns  of  this  dynasty,  and  thus  favors  the  supposition  that  he 
-was  a  stranger  in  blood'. 

This  ingenious  hypothesis  has  not  stood  the  test  of  subsequent 
research.  The  name  Amenset  (for  such  it  is,  not  Amense)  is  read 
by  Lepsius  Set  amen;  and  Amenenthe,  Nernt  Amen  (Hatusu). 
This  name  has  feminine  affixes,  and  therefore  appears  to  represent 
a  female  sovereign,  or  at  least  regent,  having  the  titles  "  Daughter 
of  the  Sun,  Beneficent  Goddess,  Lady  of  the  Worlds."  He  thus 
disposes  of  the  relations  of  the  first  sovereigns  of  the  18th  dynasty. 
Amosis,  the  founder,  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Amenophis,  who 
had  a  sister,  Set  Amen,  aud  a  brother,  Thothmes  I.  Thothme*  I. 
had  a  queen  Aahmes,  whose  relation  to  the  founder  of  the  dynasty 
is  uncertain,  and  who  exercised  during  his  reign  the  functions  of  a 
female  regent.  This  Aahmes  is  the  Amersis  or  Amensis  of  the 
lists,  the  Amessis  described  by  Josephus  as  the  sister  of  Ameno- 
phis, which  would  make  her  to  be  the  daughter  of  Amosis. 
Thothmes  I.  had  two  sons,  who  reigned  successively  under  the 
titles  of  Thothmes  II.  and  Thothmes  III.  Durinff  the  reigns  of 
both  Thothmes  II.  and  III.,  the  regency  was  exercised  by  their 
sister  Nemt  Amen.  The  succession  then  proceeds,  without  any 
further  interruption,  from  father  to  son,  through  Amenophis  II., 
Thothmes  IV.,  Amenophis  III.,  and  Ilorus,  who  appears  to  have 
left  no  male  child,  as  Acherres  or  Acencheres,  the  next  in  the  lists, 
is  said  by  Josephus  to  have  been  his  daughter*.  Such  is  the  com- 
bination by  which  Lepsius  and  Bunsen  have  endeavored  to  recon- 
cile the  monuments  with  the  lists.    We  may  adopt  it  provisional!/, 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  1,  228. 

*  Bunsen,  Dynasty  xviii.  pL  vii.    ^Egypten's  Stelle,  B.  8,  p.  78. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


173 


with  a  caution  to  the  reader  how  uncertain  are  all  such  systems  in 
the  present  state  of  Egyptian  history,  and  especially  without  a  full 
knowledge  of  the  evidence  on  which  it  is  founded.  Any  other 
arrangement  must  be  equally  hypothetical. 

Manetho,  in  the  extracts  of  Joseph  us,  makes  no  mention  of 
Amosis  as  hearing  part  in  the  long  war  which  preceded  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Hyksos  and  their  blockade  in  Abaris,  under  Misphrag- 
muthosis.  His  monuments,  however,  bear  traces  of  his  being 
engaged  in  war.  A  funeral  inscription  of  one  of  his  naval  officers, 
quoted  by  Champollion-Figeac1,  relates  that  he  entered  into  his 
service  while  the  king  was  residing  at  Tanis;  that  battles  were 
fought  upon  the  water;  that  a  part  of  the  troops  were  detached  to 
the  South ;  that  these  operations  took  place  in  the  sixth  year  of 
Amosis,  and  that  in  the  following  year  he  went  to  Ethiopia  to 
collect  tribute.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  author  has  not  told 
us  where  this  monument  exists,  nor  by  whom  it  has  been  read,  and 
therefore  we  cannot  cite  it  with  perfect  confidence.  There  are, 
however,  unquestionable  records  of  his  reign.  At  Semneh  in  Nubia 
there  is  a  tablet  on  the  south  front  of  the  western  temple,  in  hiero- 
glyphics of  an  archaic  character,  over  which  a  subsequent  inscrip- 
tion has  been  cut.  The  title  of  Amosis  occurs  in  it,  along  with 
that  of  Thothmes  II.,  and  it  appears  to  commemorate  the  services 
of  one  who  had  been  an  officer  of  Amosis2.  Two  tablets  in  the 
Louvre  contain  similar  records,  extending  through  the  reigns  of 
Amosis  and  his  successors  to  Thothmes  III.  Though  their  import 
is  obscure,  and  it  is  scarcely  possible  that  one  individual  can  be 
relating  his  own  services  and  their  rewards,  through  so  long  a 
period,  there  appears  to  be  mention  made  of  prisoners  taken  in  wai 
in  the  reign  of  Amosis3.    The  quarry  of  Masarah,  in  the  Gebel-e  - 

1  L'Univers.  yEgypte,  p.  300. 

'Young,  Hieroglyphic*  of  Egyptian  Society,  pi.  91.  Birch,  Trans.  ;f 
Roy.  Soc,  of  Lit.  2nd  series,  2,  325. 

8  Mr.  Birch,  to  avoid  the  difficulty  of  supposing  the  same  individual  U 


HISTORY  OF  EG Tl'T. 


Mokattam,  contains  a  stele,  on  which  is  a  representation  of  a  block 
of  stone,  drawn  on  a  sledge  by  three  pair  of  oxen1.  Above  is  an 
inscription  bearing  the  title  of  Amosis,  along  with  his  queen  Nofre- 
at-are  or  Nofre-are,  and  declaring  that  in  the  twenty-second  year 
of  his  reign,  the  quarries  of  hard  white  stone  were  worked  for  the 
repair  of  the  abode  of  Ptah,  and  the  abode  of  Amun  in  Thebes. 
Such  repairs  might  be  undertaken  at  any  time ;  but  if  we  suppose 
that  the  Ilyksos  had  been  recently  driven  into  Lower  Egypt,  the 
restoration  of  the  temples  of  Memphis  and  Thebes,  which  had  suf- 
fered from  their  ravages,  would  be  one  of  the  first  acts  which  a-* 
pious  sovereign  would  undertake.  There  is  another  inscription  of 
the  same  import,  and  of  the  same  year  of  the  reign  of  Amosis,  but 
less  perfect,  in  the  quarries  of  the  Gebel-el-Mokattam2. 

To  Amosis  succeeded,  according  to  the  tablet  of  Abydos  and 
the  other  lists  which  I  have  quoted,  A  menophis  I.  He  was  unques- 
tionably a  warlike  and  victorious  sovereign.  The  monument 
already  quoted  speaks  of  captives  made  in  the  land  of  Kesh  and  * 
also  in  the  North,  among  an  unknown  people  called  Kehak.  If 
these  are  an  Asiatic  nation,  we  may  presume  that  the  frontier  land 
of  lower  Egypt  towards  Palestine  had  been  cleared  of  the  Shep- 
herds, as  Amenophis  could  not  otherwise  have  ventured  to  march 
into  Asia.  His  presence  also  in  Ethiopia  is  recorded  in  a  grotto 
at  Ibrim,  near  Aboosimbel,  where  he  is  represented  sitting*  in  the 

have  been  sixty  four  years  in  service,  would  reduce  the  lengths  of  these 
kings'  reigns;  but  neither  the  lists  nor  the  monuments  allow  this  short- 
ening. 

1  Vyse  on  the  Pyramids,  3,  99.    Masarah  Quarries,  Tablet  No.  6. 

*  Howard  Vyse,  Pyramids,  vol.  3,  p.  94.  Masarah  Quarries,  Tablet  No.  8. 

9  Rosellini,  M.  R.  tav.  xxviil  1.  He  calls  the  officers  athlophori,  as  if  the 
fans  were  ensigns  of  victory ;  but  from  the  mode  of  carrying  them,  they 
appear  evidently  to  be  what  Champollion  called  them,  fly-flaps.  Were 
they  ensigns  of  victory,  it  would  be  somewhat  hasty  to  infer  with  Rosellini 
that  "  they  signify  the  victory  which  Amenophis  had  ^ined  over  the  Hyk- 
ejs."    (Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1.  74.) 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


middle  of  a  small  temple,  attended  by  an  officer  of  state,  who 
holds  over  him  the  feather-fan,  and  two  others,  fly-flaps.  In  the 
collection  of  Egyptian  antiquities  made  by  Mr.  Salt,  and  since 
transferred  to  the  Louvre,  are  found  several  small  tablets,  resembling 
in  shape  the  stele  of  an  inscription,  on  which  Amenophis  L  is  repre- 
sented, grasping  captives  by  the  hair,  carrying  them  with  their  heads 
downwards,  and  preparing  to  destroy  them  with  the  curved  battle- 
axe1.  Some  of  these  are  clad  in  leopards'  skins,  and  are  natives 
of  the  South  ;  others,  from  their  ample  drapery,  plainly  belong  to 
colder  climates.  Conventionally  they  represent  the  Ethiopian  and 
the  Asiatic  people,  and  we  may  conclude  that  Amenophis  carried 
on  wars  successfully  against  both.  These  tablets  appear  to  have 
been  designed  to  be  worn  as  ornaments  on  the  breast ;  and  it  is  a 
reasonable  inference  that  a  sovereign  who  was  thus  honored  must 
have  acquired  the  affection  of  his  people  by  some  distinguished 
service ;  such  as  the  recovery  of  the  ancient  dominion  of  the 
Sesortasens  and  Amenemes  over  Ethiopia.  On  another  of  these 
tablets  the  king  appears  grasping  a  lion  by  the  tail,  either  sym- 
bolically, or  as  a  record  of  his  prowess  in  hunting.  One  of  the 
wives  of  Amenophis  (Aahmes)  is  always  represented  black8.  She 
appears  beside  her  husband,  along  with  another  who  is  of  a  fair 
complexion,  on  a  tablet  in  the  British  Museum3.  It  is  not  indeed 
absolutely  certain  that  the  dark,  lady  was  the  wife  of  Amenophis  ; 
her  name  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  wife  of  Amosis,  and  the  title 
of  "royal  dame,"  which  she  bears,  is  consistent  with  her  having 
been  the  widow  of  the  predecessor  of  Amenophis.    In  either  case, 

1  Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  iii.  1.  107.  A  similar  tablet  is  in  the  British  Museum, 
and  represents  Amenophis  in  a  war-chariot  (Birch,  Gall,  of  B.  M.  P.  2,  pi. 
30). 

1  Rosellini,  M.  R.  tav.  xlv. 

3  Birch,  Gall,  of  Ant  2,  pi.  30.  The  fair-complexioned  wife  whose  name 
wua  Aahotph,  is  also  found  with  Amenophis  in  a  tomb  at  Qoorneh  (Ro;<el- 
lini,  Mori.  Stor.  1,  212). 


1*2 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


the  renewal  of  relations  between  Egypt  and  Ethiopia  is  equally 
evident. 

Amenophis  I.  appears  from  various  monuments  to  have  been 
the  object  of  a  kind  of  posthumous  religious  worship,  different  in 
its  kind  from  the  honors  which  were  sometimes  paid  to  deceased 
monarchs  in  Egypt.  In  one  of  the  little  chapels,  excavated  among 
the  quarries  of  Silsilis,  in  the  reign  of  Menephthah,  Amenoph  I.,  along 
with  Atmoo  and  another  Egyptian  deity,  receives  an  offering  of 
incense  from  the  king,  and  in  the  tombs  of  private  individuals  at 
Thebes,  similar  honors  are  paid  to  him  on  the  part  of  the  deceased1. 
One  of  these  tombs  is  of  the  age  of  Men  eph  thai)  I.,  and  it  appears 
from  the  inscriptions  that  a  special  priesthood  was  instituted  to 
pay  these  honors  to  Amenophis.  In  another  inscription  he  is 
joined  with  Amonre,  Phre  and  Osiris,  and  receives  a  libation  from 
the  priest  Ameneinoph.  In  a  singular  painting  in  a  Theban  tomb2 
he  is  represented  with  the  attributes  of  Sokari,  a  character  nearly 
identical  with  the  infernal  Osiris,  and  therefore  is  painted  black, 
and  in  this  character  he  is  found  depicted  in  the  interior  of  coffins8. 
In  these  posthumous  honors  his  wife  Aahmes-Nofreare  is  fre- 
quently joined  with  him.  All  these  circumstances  combined  lead 
us  to  suppose,  that  the  popular  tradition  in  Egypt  connected  Ame- 
nophis with  some  great  service  rendered  to  his  country  and  its 
religion.  He  may  be  regarded  as  a  second  founder  of  the  monarchy, 
having  replaced  it  in  the  pre-eminence  which  it  had  lost  by  the 
invasion  of  the  Hyksos. 

We  have  seen  that  in  the  lists  Chebros  is  made  the  successor  of 
Amosis.  It  has  been  supposed  that  this  name  is  the  translation  of 
a  titular  shield,  converted  into  a  substantive  person.  Rosellini* 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iil  1,  82. 
*  Ibid.  iii.  1,  98. 

8  Birch,  Gallery  of  Brit  Mas.  2,  p.  75. 

J  Men.  Stor.  1,  p.  213,  note  (2;.  Sharpe  refers  to  Chebros  the  last  shield 
in  the  lowest  line  of  the  central  divisitu  of  the  chamber  of  Karnak,  which 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY". 


177 


conjectures  that  it  has  originated  from  Shefre,  the  title  of  Thoth- 
mes  I. ;  Bunsen1  from  Neb-rus-ra,  the  title  of  Amosis  ;  but  neither 
conjecture  is  satisfactory. 

The  next  in  succession  on  the  monuments  is  Thothmes  I.  With 
him  appears  to  have  begun  the  construction  of  those  splendid 
edifices  at  Thebes,  which  still,  attest  the  power  and  civilization  of 
Egypt  under  the  New  Monarchy.  We  have  s^en  that  some  trifling 
remains  are  found  there  of  the  works  of  Sesortasen,  who  lived 
near  the  end  of  the  Old  Monarchy ;  but  the  great  monuments  of 
Luxor,  Karnak  and  Medinet  Aboo  date  from  the  18th  dynasty. 
It  was  natural  that  Thebes,  which  had  been  the  refuge  of  the  Pha 
raohs,  while  the  Hyksos  held  their  court  at  Memphis,  or  some 
other  town  of  Lower  Egypt,  should  become  the  chief  capital  of 
the  restored  race  of  native  kings,  the  site  of  their  temples,  palaces 
and  tombs.  Thothmes  I.  began  the  construction  of  the  immense 
pile  of  the  palace  of  Karnak.  About  the  centre  of  the  great 
inclosure  which  comprehended  the  buildings  in  their  final  extension, 
stood  two  obelisks,  inscribed  with  the  name  of  this  king2.  We 
know  from  other  instances  that  it  was  not  the  custom  of  the  Egyp- 
tians to  place  these  monuments  in  open  spaces,  without  connexion 
with  other  objects  ;  they  stood  before  the  entrance  of  temples  or 
palaces,  and  therefore  we  may  conclude  that  Thothmes,  if  he  did 
not  erect,  at  least  planned  -some  edifice  to  which  these  obelisks 
were  an  appendage.  As  far  indeed  as  a  plan  can  be  made  out, 
amidst  the  ruins  by  which  this  whole  space  is  encumbered,  he 
actually  began  a  vast  square  of  buildings  which  Thothmes  III. 
completed8.    One  of  the  obelisks  is  still  standing,  the  other  has 

is  commonly  read  Nebtura.    See  Hierog.  of  Eg.  Soc.  pk  96.    Sharpe,  His- 
tory of  Egypt,  plates.  No.  43,  4,  5. 
1  .Egyptens  Stelle,  B.  3,  p.  82.' 

*  See  Wilkinson's  great  Plan  of  Tliobes,  Karnak,  D.,  voL  L  p.  145  of  this 
work. 

s  Roeellini,  M.  Stor.  iiL  1,  113, 123.    The  obelisk  is  figured,  M.  R.  tav.  xxx 

8* 


178 


niSTORV   OF  EGYPT. 


fallen,  and  is  broken  to  pieces.  They  were  in  size  rather  inferioi 
to  the  obelisks  of  Luxor,  but  in  workmanship  nearly  equal.  Only 
the  central  line  of  the  inscription  belongs  to  Thothmes  I. ;  the 
lateral  lines  were  added  by  Ramses  V.,  according  to  a  practice 
very  common  with  the  Egyptian  monarchs.  The  inscription  itseli 
contains  no  historical  information,  beyond  the  fact  of  a  victory 
over  the  nations  of  the  Nine  Bows,  who  are  commonly  understood  to 
be  the  Libyans,  and  the  erection  of  the  two  obelisks.  The  rest  is 
occupied  by  those  pompous  titles  of  divine  affinity  and  dominion, 
which  disappoint  the  decipherer  of  hieroglyphics,  when  he  hopes 
to  find  on  these  immortal  monuments  some  information  worthy 
of  the  pains  bestowed  in  preserving  their  legends  to  posterity. 

A  memorial  of  Thothmes  L  is  also  found  on  the  western  side 
of  the  Nile  at  El-Assaseef,  a  valley  lying  to  the  north  of  the  Rame- 
seion1.  A  gate  of  red  granite,  of  very  fine  execution,  which  is 
still  standing  amidst  the  ruins,  exhibits  his  name  and  title  along 
with  those  of  his  successors.  Here  he  appears  in  conjunction  witk 
an  Aahmes,  the  name  the  same  as  that  of  the  queen  of  Ameno- 
phis,  but  apparently  a  different  person.  She  is  described  as  wife 
and  sister  of  a  king,  and  as  ruler  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt.  It 
has  been  conjectured  that  she  was  the  sifter  of  Amenophis,  and 
the  Amessis  of  the  lists,  in  which  she  imiuediately  follows  Ameno- 
phis, and  regent  in  the  reign  of  Thothmes  P. 

The  monument  already  referred  to  as  recording  the  services  of 
a  military  officer,  who  had  served  in  several  successive  reigns,  men- 
tions wars  of  Thothmes  I.  in  Ethiopia,  and  also  in  the  land  of 
Naharaina*.  This  name  occurs  in  other  historical  monuments  of 
the  18th  dynasty.  As  Mesopotamia  is  called  in  Scripture4  Aram 
JVaharaim,  "  Syria  of  the  two  rivers,"  it  is  generally  supposed, 
that  the  Naharaina  of  the  hieroglyphic  inscriptions  is  Mesopotamia ; 

1  Vol.  i.  p.  132.  3  Bunsen,  ^Egyptens  Stelle,  B.  3,  p.  79. 

*  Transactions  of  Roy.  Soc.  of  Lit  2nd  Series,  2,  326. 

*  Genes,  xxiv.  10. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DV NASTY.  1  TO 

and  it  is  not  incredible,  that  even  in  this  early  part  of  the  ?8th 
dynastr,  Egyptian  sovereigns  should  have  encountered  the  power 
of  the  Assyrians  on  this  field.  It  was  through  fear  of  the  power 
of  the  Assyrians,  "who  were  then  predominant  in  Asia,"  that  the 
Hyksos,  when  driven  out  of  Egypt,  established  themselves  in 
Palestine.1  The  motive  of  their  first  king  Salatis,  for  fortifying 
the  eastern  frontier  of  Egypt  was,  that  he  foresaw  the  probability 
of  attacks  on  the  part  of  the  Assyrians.  That  the  dominion  of 
Thothmes  L  extended  as  high  up  the  Nile  as  the  island  of  Argo 
in  Upper  Nubia,  appears  from  his  name  having  been  found 
there'. 

It  has  been  already  mentioned  that,  according  to  Lepsius,  the 
Araense  of  Rosellini  and  Champollion  is  to  be  read  Set  Amen, 
and  that  she  was  a  daughter  of  Amosis  and  sister  of  Amenophis 
and  Thothmes  I.  According  to  the  same  author,  after  the  death 
of  Thothmes  L,  the  functions  of  royalty  were  exercised  by 
Nemt  Amen,  the  sister  of  Thothmes  II.,  Nemt  Amen  being 
the  reading  which  he  has  adopted  for  the  Amenenthe  or  Ame- 
nenhe  of  Champollion  and  Rosellini.  The  singular  circumstance 
that  at  El-Assaseef9  and  elsewhere  this  personage  is  represented 
with  the  dress  and  attributes  of  a  male,  yet  that  feminine  prefixes 
are  used  throughout  the  inscriptions,  has  been  explained  by  the 
supposition  that  she  exercised  sovereignty  in  her  brother's  name. 
That  she  was  the  daughter  of  Thothmes  L  appears  from  the  obe- 
lisk before  the  granite  sanctuary  at  Karnak4  ;  that  she  was  the 
sister  of  Thothmes  III.,  among  other  evidence  from  a  statue  in 
the  British  Museum,  in  which  her  name,  or  rather  title,  appears 
to  have  existed,  although  subsequently  chiselled  out,  and  she  is 
designated  as  such*.    The  cause  of  this  mutilation  can  onlv  be 

1  See  before,  p.  154.  1  Yol.  i.  p.  16.  3  Vol.  i.  p.  132. 

*  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  1,  227     Birch,  Gall.  Brit.  Mus.  P.  2,  p.  78. 
5  The  title  exists,  apparently  without  mutilation,  on  the  pyramidion  of 
the  fallen  obelisk  of  Karnak,  where  Amunra  appears,  crowning  Nemt 


180 


0 

HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


conjectured  ;  the  most  plausible  supposition  is,  that  her  regency 
was  either  usurped  or  exercised  with  harshness,  and  her  memory 
obnoxious  to  her  brother  or  to  the  Egyptian  people.  Sometimes  the 
name  of  Thofcjimes  II.,  sometimes  of  Thothmes  III.,  has  been  sub- 
stituted for  hers. 

The  dominion  of  Thothmes  II.  appears  to  have  been  not  less 
extensive  than  that  of  his  predecessor.  His  name  has  been  found 
at  Gebel-el-P>irkel,  the  Napata  of  the  Romans1.  In  his  reign  we 
first  find  mention  of  the  Royal  Son  or  Prince  of  Ethiopia, 
which  continues  to  appear  on  monuments  till  the  reign  of  Setei- 
Menephthah2,  arid  from  which  we  may  infer  that  during  this 
period  Ethiopia  formed  a  viceregal  government  dependent  upon 
Egypt.  The  viceroy  appears  to  have  been  of  the  blood  royal  of 
Egypt.  We  have  scarcely" any  record  of  the  facts  of  Thothmes  the 
Second's  reign.  Of  the  state  of  the  arts  at  this  period,  however, 
there  is  extant  a  most  remarkable  specimen  in  the  great  obelisks 
of  Karnak.  They  were  erected  by  Nemt  Amen  in  the  same  cen- 
tral court  of  that  pile  of  buildings,  in  which  the  smaller  obelisks  of 
Thothmes  I.  stood,  but  far  surpass  them  in  magnitude  and  beautv 
One  of  them  is  still  standing ;  it  is  of  rose  granite  and  ninety  feet 
in  length.  Of  its  execution  Rosellini  thus  speaks3 : — "  All  the 
figures  and  the  hieroglyphics  are  delineated  with  such  purity  and 
freedom,  cut  with  such  art,  and  relieved  within  the  excavated  part 
with  such  perfection  and  precision  of  outline,  that  we  are  lost  in 
astonishment  in  contemplating  them,  and  wonder  how  it  has  been 
possible  to  work  this  hardest  of  materials,  so  that  every  figure 
seems  rather  to  have  been  impressed  with  a  seal  than  engraven 
with  a  chisel.  The  fragments  of  the  companion  obelisk  which  are 
lying  on  the  ground  may  be  handled  ;  those  parts  which  represent. 

Amen,  designated  as  a  "daughter  of  the  king."  It  probably  escaped  muti- 
lation from  its  elevated  position.    Birch,  Gall,  of  Brit.  Mus.  pi.  32. 

1  Wilkinson,  M.  &  C.  1,  52,  note,  8  Lepsius,  EinL  I,  p.  320,  uote  , 

8  Rosellini,  M.  K.  tav.  xxxl-iv. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


181 


animals  in  particular  are  treated  with  such  accuracy  of  design  and 
finish  of  execution,  as  not  to  be  surpassed  by  the  finest  cameos  of 
the  Greeks."  The  pyramidion  represents  Am  wire  seated,  and 
placing  his  hand  on  the  head  of  the  king,  whom  he  thus  inaugu- 
rates. There  is  a  peculiarity  in  the  arrangement  of  the  hiero- 
glyphical  inscriptions.  The  central  column  is  occupied  by  the 
customary  form  of  the  dedication  ;  but  the  two  lateral  columns, 
which  in  some  obelisks,  as  that  of  Heliopolis,  are  left  vacant,  in 
others  are  filled  by  inscriptions  of  subsequent  sovereigns,  are  here 
occupied  more  than  half  way  down,  with  repetitions  of  the  figure 
of  Amunre  on  one  side,  on  the  other  of  the  dedicating  sovereign, 
who  offers  to  the  god  wine,  ointment,  milk,  perfumes  and  sacred 
insignia.  The  dedication  and  offering  are  usually  in  the  name  of 
Nemt  Amen,  but  in  some  of  the  compartments  the  youthful 
Thothmes  III.  appears,  bringing  an  offering  to  the  god.  The 
name  of  Thothmes  I.  is  also  found,  but  he  is  only  referred  to  as 
having  begun  the  buildings  near  which  the  obelisks  were  erected. 
Thothmes  II.  nowhere  appears1,  whence  it  seems  provable  that 
Nemt  Amen  set  them  up  during  the  time  in  which  she  exercised 
the  regency  on  behalf  of  her  younger  brother  Thothmes  III.  The 
uame  of  a  much  later  sovereign,  Setei  Menephthah,  is  twice  found, 
but  the  state  of  the  stone  plainly  shows  that  it  has  been  subsequently 
introduced.  The  name  of  Nemt  Amen  has  escaped  the  mutilation 
which  it  has  generally  undergone,  perhaps  owing  to  the  beauty  of 
the  monument.  The  fallen  obelisk  closely  resembles  its  com- 
panion, in  the  subject  of  the  inscription  and  the  figures  of  the 
lateral  compartments. 

The  reign  of  Thothmes  III.  is  one  of  the  most  glorious  in  the 
annals  of  the  18th  dynasty.  The  earliest  part  of  it  appears  to 
have  been  passed  under  the  tutelage  of  Nemt  Amen,  whose  name 
is  found  on  an  inscription  at  VVadi  Magara  of  the  sixteenth  year  of 


1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  164. 


182 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


his  reign1,  The  limits  of  the  dominion  of  Egypt  on  the  side  of 
Arabia  were  therefore  not  reduced ;  Surabit-el-Kadim,  between 
Ain  Moosa  and  Mount  Sinai,  contains  his  name,  along  with  those 
of  Cheops  and  others  of  the  age  of  the  Pyramids9.  To  the  south 
we  find  memorials  of  this  monarch  at  Semneh,  a  little  beyond  the 
Second  Cataract.  Semneh  appears  to  have  been  in  this  age  the 
frontier  town  of  the  Egyptian  dominions  towards  Ethiopia,  and  as 
such  to  have  been  fortified  with  great  care  and  skill3.  In  later 
times,  after  the  occupation  of  Egypt  by  the  Ethiopians,  Elephan- 
tine became  the  frontier.  The  traces  of  the  presence  of  sovereigns 
of  the  18th  dynasty  further  to  the  south,  as  in  the  island  of  Argo 
and  at  Napata,  are  only  occasional,  and  do  not  prove  a  permanent 
occupation ;  but  between  the  First  and  Second  Cataracts  the  fre- 
quent recurrence  of  temples  and  the  remains  of  towns  indicate  that 
this  region  formed  virtually  a  part  of  the  kingdom  of  Egypt 
Here  too,  as  appears  from  inscriptions  on  the  rocks,  the  earliest 
rise  of  the  Nile  was  watched  and  recorded4 ;  in  later  times  this  was 
registered  by  the  Nilometer  of  Elephantine,  when  that  was  the 
beginning  of  Egypt.  The  remains  at  Semneh  are  partly  of  the 
reign  of  Thothmes  III.  and  partly  of  Amunoph  II.  and  III.,  but 
they  exhibit  only  acts  of  adoration,  and  throw  no  light  on  political 
events,  except  that  the  absence  of  the  name  of  Nemt  Amen  leads 
to  the  conclusion  that  these  inscriptions  belong  to  the  later  part 
of  his  reign. 

Following  the  course  of  the  Nile  downward  from  the  Second 
Cataract,  we  find  frequent  memorials  of  Thothmes  III.  The 
temple  of  Amada  was  begun  by  him  and  completed  by  Amunoph 
IT.  and  Thothmes  IV.    lie  is  represented  in  the  act  of  dedicating 

1  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit.  2,  320.  The  earliest  date  of  his  reign,  the  fifth 
year  is  found  in  a  papyrus  of  the  Museum  of  Ttirin,  the  oldest  known  with  a 
precise  date.    (Champollion-Figeac,  L'Univers,  Egypte,  p.  811.) 

9  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg,  &  Thebes,  2,  407. 

•  Vol  i.  p.  194,  note  ■  4  Vol.  L  p.  18,  note 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


183 


a  temple  and  the  lands  annexed  to  it  to  the  god  Phre'.  At  Ombi 
he  appears  on  the  lintels  of  a  gateway,  preserved  when  the  temple 
was  rebuilt  by  the  Ptolemies.  He  is  dedicating  the  building  tc 
the  god  Sebek  or  the  crocodile,  and  Nemt  Amen  is  joined  with 
him  in  this  act2.  A  fragment  bearing  his  title  was  found  by  the 
Tuscan  Expedition  at  Edfoo,  which  is  also  of  the  Ptolemaic  times. 
At  Eilithyia  his  name  is  also  traced,  and  joined  as  at  Ombi  with 
that  of  Nemt  Amen. 

His  most  magnificent  works,  however,  were  those  which  adorned 
Thebes,  many  of  which  are  still  extant.  There  is  a  mutilated 
obelisk  in  the  Atmeidan  or  Hippodrome  of  Constantinople  brought 
from  Egypt  by  one  of  the  Byzantine  emperors,  and  which  is  of  the 
reign  of  Thothmes  IH9.  Probably  it  stood  in  the  central  court 
of  Karnak.  At  first  sight  the  shields  which  enclose  the  royal  titles 
might  seem  to  belong  to  some  other  sovereign  or  even  sovereigns, 
for  the  signs  in  all  are  different.  But  they  all  contain  the  three 
elements4  which  form  the  title  of  Thothmes  III.  on  the  tablet  of 
Abydos  and  elsewhere — the  disk,  the  crenellated  parallelogram  and 
the  scarabseus,  and  therefore  it  is  probable  that  the  additional 
signs  do  not  indicate  a  different  sovereign,  but  only  those  variations 
which  we  know  to  exist  in  the  titles  of  kings  whose  identity  is 
unquestionable.  There  is  only  one  circumstance  which  gives  this 
monument  an  historical  significance ;  among  the  usual  lofty  titles 
of  royalty,  mention  is  twice  made  of  the  "  Land  of  Naharaims," 
and  in  the  second  instance  the  figure  of  a  boat  and  the  character 

1  Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  iiL  1,  p.  177.  He  calls  this  monarch  throughout 
Thothmes  IV. 

3  Rosellini,  Mon.  di  Culto,  tav.  xxviii 

s  It  is  figured  from  a  drawing  of  Mr.  Cory  in  the  Transactions  of  the 
Royal  Society  of  Literature,  2,  228. 

4  A  fourth,  the  waving  line  or  n,  is  often  found,  always  according  to 
Champollion-Figeac  (Univers,  p.  309)  in  the  hieratic  writing. 

6  Col.  1,  bottom.  Col.  S. 


184 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


for  waters  lead  to  the  supposition  that  a  naval  expedition  or  a 
naval  combat  is  intended.  The  analysis  of  the  hieroglyphics,  how- 
ever, is  too  imperfect  to  afford  us  exact  information,  and  there  is 
little  probability  in  the  supposition  that  Thothmes  III.  built  a  fleet 
on  the  coast  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  so  ascended  the  Euphrates 
to  attack  the  Babylonians'.  The  obelisk  which  Sixtus  V.  raised 
up  and  placed  before  St.  John  Lateran  at  Home,  the  loftiest  and 
most  perfect  in  its  execution  of  all  that  are  extant,  was  set  up  in 
the  reign  of  Thothmes  III.,  and  in  its  central  column  of  hiero-, 
glyphics  bears  only  his  titles ;  Thothmes  IV.  added  the  lateral 
columns.  This  act  of  the  dedication  of  obelisks  is  represented  on 
one  of  the  walls  of  the  palace  of  Karnak,  on  such  a  scale  that  the 
inscriptions  on  them  can  be  read3.  They  are  not  identical  with 
those  on  any  obelisk  now  known,  but  have  a  general  analogy  to 
that  of  St.  John  Lateran.  One  records  the  erection  of  two,  the 
other  of  three,  or  it  may  be  an  indefinite  number  of  obelisks, 
which  are  said  to  be  of  granite  and  resplendent  with  gold  ;  from 
which  it  has  been  concluded  that  the  pyramidion  may  have  been 
surmounted  with  a  golden  ornament,  or  gildod  as  many  portions 
of  Egyptian  architecture  are  known  to  have  been8. 

One  of  the  most  instructive  memorials  of  the  reign  of  Thothmes 
IIL  is  a  painting  in  a  tomb  at  Qoorneh,  copied  by  Mr.  Hoskins  in 
his  Travels  in  Ethiopia4.  It  represents  four  principal  nations  of  the 
earth,  bringing  their  tribute  to  the  king,  who  is  seated  on  his 
throne6.    Two  obelisks  of  red  granite,  beside  which  the  various 

1  Trans.  Roy.  Soc  Lit  2,  223. 

2  They  were  first  published  by  Mr.  Burton  and  repeated  from  him  by 
Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  iii.  1,  185,  187  ;  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  251. 

"  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  3,  237. 

4  P.  327,  foil.    See  also  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  p  234.  Man- 
ners and  Customs,  vol.  1,  pi.  iv.  at  the  end  of  the  volume. 
6  Ipse,  sedens  niveo  candentis  limine  Phoebi, 

Dona  recognosc.it  populorum,  aptatque  superbig 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


186 


otji  &  are  deposited  by  the*bearers,  and  registered  by  the  royal 
scri'vs,  probably  ma<£  \he  great  court  of  tLe  palace  of*  Karnak  as 
the  3cene  of  the  ceremony.  The  tribute-bearers  are  arranged  in 
five  lines,  the  first  and  the  third  appearing  to  form  part  of  one  pro- 
•  cession.  A  few  negroes,  having  all  the  characteristic  physiognomy 
of  the  race,  as  well  as  a  black  color,  are  intermingled  with  men 
of  the  same  red-brown  hue  as  the  Egyptians.  They  bring  only 
natural  productions^,  blocks  of  ebony,  tusks  of  ivory,  strings  of 
colored  stones,  ostrich-eggs  and  feathers,  a  tree,  gold  and  silver  in 
ringb,  bags  and  ingots,  and  a  variety  of  animals — apes,  leopards, 
an  o  [x  and  a  giraffe,  with  cattle  and  dogs2.  The  name  of  their 
land  :as  been  read  Fount  or  Phunt,  but  this  affords  us  no  infor- 
mati      as  it  corresponds  with  no  known  name  in  geography. 

Postibus ;  incedunt  victte  longo  ordine  gentcs, 
Quam  variae  linguis  habltu  tare  vest  is  et  armis. 
Hie  Xomadum  genus  et  diseinctos  Muleiber  Afros 
Finxerat.    Euphrates  ibat  jam  mollior  undis, 
,  Extremique  hominum  Morini,  Rhenusque  bicornis, 
Indomitique  Dahse,  et  pontem  ndignatus  Araxes. 

Virg.  yEn.  viii.  720. 

What  had  become  in  Virgil's  time  merely  poetical  ornament  had  been  & 
fact  in  the  history  of  the  Asiatic  and  Egyptian  monarchies.  The  pomps  of 
the  Ptolemies  (Athen.  lib.  5,  32)  were  an  imitation  of  the  real  tribute-bear- 
ing processions  under  the  Pharaohs. 

1  Her.  3,  97.  Atffmcf  ol  tzooctovph  Atyvrn^  ol  mtfi  re  Noo-r^  Karjittnv- n, 
ayiviovai  Svo  ^oturaj  drrvpov  xpvciov  *at  Stn<ocias  <p*\ayyaf  tftivov  /cat  Tttvrt  waTJa* 

Ai'floruj  na\  tkiQavTos  666vras  pcyaXovs  ttKoau  The  representation  of  the  tri- 
bute brought  to  the  Great  King  at  Persepolis,  exhibits,  besides  vases,  articles 
of  dress  and  ornaments,  also  horses,  camels,  oxen,  mules  and  sheep.  (Ni©. 
buhr,  Voyage  ii.  plates  22,  23.) 

*  Among  the  objects  brought  in  the  procession  described  by  Athensens, 
were  "  26  Indian  cattle,  S  Ethiopian,  a  large  white  bear,  14  leopards, 
16  panthers,  4  lynxes,  1  camelopand  and  1  rhinoceros."    There  were  also 
2400  dogs,  some  Indian,  some  Hyrcanian,  some  Molossian,  and  of  other 
breeds 


186 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


Those  of  the  third  line  are  specifn&lly  called  u  Nations  of  tii€ 
South."  From  the  products  v«  hich  they  bring  they  are  evidently 
inhabitants  of  the  African  continent,  and  of  a  wide  range  of  coun- 
try, including  the  Libyans  on  the  west,  the  Nubians  on  the  south, 
and  the  Ethiopians  of  the  deeper  interior.  The  color  of  the  men 
of  the  second  line  is  not  different  from  that  of  the  Egyptians  and 
Libyans,  but  their  hair  is  gathered  in  curls  on  the  front,  and  divided 
into  two  long  loc^s  behind,  one  of  which  falls  on  the  shoulder. 
They  wear,  like  the  Libyans, only  a  short  kilt  round  the  middle; 
but  while  the  Libyan  is  white  with  a  colored  border,  that  of  the 
third  line  is  of  various  checks  and  patterns,  closely  resembling  the 
drapery  of  the  foreigners  who  are  seen  in  the  tomb  of  Nevothph1. 
Their  offerings  are  vases  of  silver  and  gold  of  graceful  form  and 
elaborate  workmanship,  and  others  which  resemble,  if  the  repre- 
sentations can  be  relied  upon,  the  fictile  vases  of  the  Greeks  ana 
Etruscans.  Their  name,  which  is  written  Kufa  or  Kafa,  affords 
little  clue  to  their  locality,  but  their  resemblance  to  the  Egyptians 
in  color  and  the  advanced  state  of  the  arts  among  them,  indicated 
by  the  vases  which  they  bring,  lead  us  to  conclude  that  they  must 
belong  to  the  coast  <  i  Palestine,  which  received  colonies  at  an 
early  age  from  Egypt*.  The  gold  and  silver  vases  would  suit  well 
with  the  skill  in  the  toreutic  arts  attributed  by  Homer  to  the  Sido 
nians3.  The  Libyans,  Egyptians  and  Ethiopians  have  naked  feet, 
but  these  have  buskins,  reaching  half-way  up  the  leg,  of  the  same 
pattern  with  their  kilts.  The  third  company  of  tribute-bearers, 
forming  the  fourth  line  of  the  picture,  are  men  of  white  complexion, 
with  reddish  hair  and  beards.  They  wear  long  garments  of  white 
cloth  sleeved  to  the  wrists,  with  the  addition  of  gloves  reaching  to 
the  elbow ;  their  heads  are  covered  with  a  close-fitting  cap,  ana 

1  P.  142  of  this  vol. 

1  Gen.  x.  14.    But  the  resemblance  of  *£ufa  and  Caphthor  is  too  slight  to 
found  an  argument  of  identity. 
*  a     741  Od.  o.  424. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


187 


everything  indicates  that  they  belong  to  a  colder  climate  than  an^ 
of  the  others.  Some  of  them  are  armed  with  bows  and  arrows, 
and  others  lead  a  chariot  and  horses.  Their  tribute  consists  of 
ring  money  of  gold  and  silver,  colored  woods,  precious  stones  and 
vases,  some  of  which  resemble  those  brought  by  the  Kufa,  but 
which  are  in  general  of  less  beautiful  form  and  less  elaborate  work- 
manship. Their  name  is  Rot-n-no  or  Liid-n  nu,  but  this  gives  us 
no  precise  information  of  their  locality,  all  comparison  with  known 
geographical  names  being  merely  conjectural,  and  it  is  difficult  to 
fix  on  any  country  whose  products  shall  correspond  with  all  the 
articles  of  the  tribute.  The  long  garments  and  gloves,  with  tho 
chariot  and  horses1,  would  suit  Northern  Media,  or  the  regions 
near  the  southern  shore  of  the  Caspian  ;  but  one  of  the  men  car- 
ries a  tusk  of  ivory,  and  leads  an  elephant  and  a  bear.  The  range 
of  latitude  in  which  the  elephant  can  live  has  certainly  ascended 
higher  to  the  north  in  ancient  times  than  at  present,  but  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  conceive  that  so  great  a  change  has  taken  place  between 
the  times  of  Thothmes  III.  and  that  of  the  commencement  of  our 
knowledge  of  the  zoology  of  the  ancient  world,  as  that  elephants 
should  be  found  in  Asia  Minor.  In  the  fifth  line  women,  both  of 
this  nation  and  of  the  people  of  the  South,  are  introduced,  leading 
their  infant  children,  or  carrying  them  in  their  arms,  or  on  their 
shoulders,  or  in  a  basket,  fastened  by  a  strap  to  the  forehead,  a 
custom  which  still  prevails  among  the  tribes  which  border  the  Nile2. 

If  there  could  be  any  doubt  that  we  have  here  the  representation 
of  a  real  scene  and  the  evidence  of  a  dominion  extending  from 
Nubia  to  Northern  Asia,  no  such  doubt  can  attach  to  the  monu- 
ment which  is  known  as  the  Statistical  Table  of  Kama-It3. 

1  Birch,  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit  2,  335,  thinks  they  are  the  Cappadociuns" 
called  also  Leueo-Syrians  or  fair  Syrians.  This  is  not  improbable.  They 
were  Unloves  Inoow&u*  (Dionys.  Terieg.  974). 

9  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Egypt  and  Thebes,  2,  236,  note. 

•  Hieroglyphics  of  the  Eg.  Soc.  41.    Lepsius,  Auswah\  pi.  xiii.    1  quot6 


188 


fllBTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


This  document  is  of  the  reign  of  Thothmes  III.,  and  the  inscrip 
tion  placed  above  it  declares  its  object  to  be  to  record  the  victories 
of  this  sovereign.  It  divides  itself  into  three  distinct  portions  by 
the  dates  29th',  30th,  and  31st  years.  As  it  is  mutilated  near  the 
beginning,  it  is  not  clear  in  what  land  the  monarch  was  when 
the  record  of  his  exploits  begins,  but  from  the  subsequent  occur- 
rence of  the  name  of  the  Tahai"  and  the  traces  of  the  obliterate'! 
name,  it  seems  probable  that  they  are  the  people  first  referred  to. 
It  is  conjectured  that  they  are*  the  Dahae,  a. nomad  nation  on  the 
northern  frontier  of  Persia3,  or  theTaochi  mentioned  by  Xenophon4 
as  living  between  Armenia  and  Pontus,  and  maintaining  them- 
selves in  independence  of  the  Great  King.  In  this  case,  however, 
they  cannot  have  brought  tribute  of  frankincense ;  and  the  sign 
which  has  been  so  explained  must  represent  some  other  object. 
Honey  and  wine  are  also  mentioned  among  their  tributes,  and  we 
know  from  Strabo5  that  the  vine  flourished  even  as  far  north  as 
Hyrcania,  and  that  these  countries  were  very  productive  of  honey. 
Their  name  occurs  frequently  in  monuments  recording  the  victories 
and  expeditions  of  the  Egyptian  kings.  Two  other  nations,  one 
called  Vava,  the  other  Arutu, are  mentioned  in  the  same  inscription, 
and  men,  ingots  of  the  precious  metals,  copper,  iron  and  lead  with 
other  metals  which  cannot  be  precisely  ascertained,  618  bulls,  3636 
goats,  corn,  are  all  enumerated  among  the  spoils  or  tribute  of  the 
land8.     This  expedition  of  the  29th  year  is  called  the  5th,  in 

the  former  for  the  facility  of  reference,  as  the  columns  are  numbered  across 
as  well  as  vertically.    The  copy  of  Lepsius,  however,  is  more  exact. 
1  Col.  Z  b.  3  Col.  V  x. 

5  Herod.  1,  125.  From  their  name  Aioi,  that  of  Davas,  borne  by  slaves, 
s  supposed  to  be  derived,  as  Geta  from  another  nomad  tribe. 

*  Xen.  Anab.  4,  7,  1.  5,  5,  17.  From  Steph.  Byz.  s.  v.  Tao  Yo/,  it  seems 
probable  they  were  the  same  people  as  the  Dai  or  TaL  (Birch,  Tr.  Roy. 
-Soc.  Lit.  2,  330.)  6  Geogr.  B.  2,  p.  73. 

8  The  cattle  enumerated  may  be  regarded  as  contributions  for  the  use  of 
the  army,  while  serving  iu  the  country. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   DYNASTY.  189 

reference  to  some  enumeration  of  which  the  earlier  part  is  want 
ing. 

In  the  30th  year  of  his  reign1,  and  his  sixth  expedition,  the  king 
is  said  to  have  been  in  the  land  of  the  Rotnno  or  Ludennu.  the 
same  people  who  appear  in  the  last  line  of  the  painting  at  Thebes 
already  described,  and  to  have  taken  hostages  of  them  and  their 
children.  Now  in  the  painting  of  the  Theban  tomb,  we  have  seen 
men  and  women  of  the  Rotnno  nation,  led  with  their  children  into 
the  presence  of  the  Egyptian  scribes.  The  men  are  not  armed,  yet 
they  are  not  bound,  and  therefore  it  is  probable  that  they  came  as 
hostages,  though  it  would  be  too  much  to  infer  that  these  are  the 
very  hostages  spoken  of  in  the  tablet.  Forty-two  chariots  also, 
"  decorated  with  gold,  silver,  and  painting3,"  are  among  the  spoii 
of  the  Rotnno  ;  and  in  the  procession  in  the  tomb,  we  have  already 
described  a  richly  adorned  chariot,  followed  by  a  yoke  of  horses, 
which  may  be  considered  as  the  representative  of  a  larger  number. 

In  the  31st  year  and  on  the  3rd  day  of  the  month  Pachon3 
another  expedition  is  recorded,  in  which  mention  is  made  of  490 
captives,  who  were  employed,  as  far  as  the  imperfect  interpretation 
of  the  inscription  enables  us  to  judge,  in  felling  and  carrying  tim- 
ber, and  seemed  to  have  belonged  to  the  same  nation  of  the  Rotnno- 
The  results  of  the  expedition  were  also  the  capture,  or  payment  in 
tribute,  of  104  cows.  172  bulls,  4622  goats,  and  masses  of  iron  and 
lead4.  These  contributions  suit  well  the  countries  between  the 
Caspian  and  the  Euxine,  which  abound  in  metallic  products.  The 
wood  might  be  carried  to  some  branch  of  the  Euphrates,  and  thence 
floated  to  Mesopotamia  or  Babylonia.  The  north-eastern  part  of 
Asia  Minor  is  also  rich  in  minerals,  especially  iron ;  but  wood 
would  be  conveyed  thence  with  difficulty  to  anv  point  at  which  it 
could  be  serviceable  to  the  Egyptians,  who,  as  far  as  we  know, 
never  launched  a  fleet  upon  the  Euxine. 

1  CoL  S  e.  a  Col.  Qb,ad 

•  See  voL  L  p.  277.  4  Col.  O. 


190  HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 

The  following  lines  on  the  tablet,  owing  to  the  mutilation  of  th* 
lower  part,  are  very  obscure.  The  21st  (Lepsius)  begins  with 
"  land  of  Nenii\n  followed  by  the  mention  of  setting  up  a  stele  in 
^aharaina2.  The  form  of  this  tablet,  as  represented  in  the  inscrip- 
tion, exactly  corresponds  with  those  cut  on  the  rock  at  Nahr-ei- 
Kelb,  bearing  the  image  of  Rameses  III.  The  Assyrians  continued 
the  same  custom,  and  two  of  their  kings  placed  a  stele  beside  those 
of  Rameses  at  Nahr-el-Kelb.  Darius  left  a  similar  record  of  his 
expedition  against  the  Scythians,  on  the  shores  of  the  Bosporus3. 
Nenii  is  generally  understood  to  be  Nineveh,  the  capital  of  Assyria, 
and  the  mention  of  Naharaina,  which  immediately  follows,  favors 
this  supposition.  The  further  prosecution  of  the  researches  into 
the  remains  discovered  at  Khorsabad  and  Nemroud  may  throw 
light  on  the  relations  between  Egypt  and  Mesopotamia.  Tablets 
of  ivory  in  Egyptian  style  have  been  found  here4,  one  of  them 
inscribed  with  the  name  of  an  Egyptian  king  or  god  not  known 
from  other  sources.  Such  small  and  portable  antiquities  cannot  be 
received  as  proofs  of  the  occupation  of  a  country,  and  as  far  as  we 
can  judge,  they  belong  to  a  much  later  period  of  history  than  the 
18th  dynasty. 

The  next  column"  relates  to  the  land  of  the  Takze,  and  makes 

1  Hieroglyphics  of  Egyptian  Society,  42,  CoL  X  b.  There  is  no  letter 
answering  to  u. 

3  The  character  for  stele  is  hardly  recognizable  in  "Wilkinson's  copy,  but  is 
more  distinct  in  Lepsius,  taf.  xii.  1.  21. 

*  Her.  4,  87.  Qrirt(jdiitvos  61  Kal  tui>  Boaxopov  <r  r  jj  A  u  s  £  a  r  rj  a  t  6v  o  sV  avrio 
\(6>v  \cvKuvt  ivratiuv  yptii/iitira,  is  (llv  r»>  ' Aacvma,  is  <$£  rfjy  'RWqviKa,  tQvca  iravra 
ScuTrep  ijye.  These  steles  were  not  columns,  as  the  commentators  usually 
render  them,  but  tablets.  Hence  the  use  which  the  Byzantines  made  of 
them  to  build  an  altar.  I  see  no  reason  to  suppose  that  such  inscriptions 
marked  the  frontiers  of  an  empire  exclusively.  They  were  naturally  placed 
beside  high  roads  that  they  might  be  conspicuous. 

4  Layard?s  Nineveh,  Plates,  89.  Birch,  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit  2nd  series^ 
vol.  3.    The  name  is  read  Aubnu-ra.  *  V.  PL  42, 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


191 


mention  of  260  mares1,  which  had  been  brought  thence  with  gold 
and  silver,  both  un wrought  and  in  the  shape  of  vases.  That  which 
follows  enumerates  cattle,  among  the  rest  5323  goats,  and  there- 
fore, though  the  name  of  the  people  is  not  mentioned,  they  are 
probably  the  same  who  in  a  preceding  column  are  said  to  have 
furnished  a  very  large  number  of  goats,  namely  the  Rotnno.  The 
next  column3  introduces  a  people  not  hitherto  mentioned,  but 
whose  name  frequently  occurs  in  inscriptions.  From  the  ambi- 
guity of  the  first  letter,  which  stands  equally  for  L  or  R  in  the 
phonetic  alphabet,  it  is  doubtful  whether  it  should  be  read  Lema- 
nen  or  Remanen.  Those  who  adopt  the  former  suppose  the  inha- 
bitants of  Lebanon  to  be  meant,  and  derive  an  argument  in  favor 
of  their  opinion  from  the  circumstance  that  they  are  elsewhere 
represented  as  felling  trees3,  supposed  to  be  the  cedars  for  which 
this  mountain  was  celebrated.  There  is  nothing  in  the  form  of  the 
trees,  however,  which  particularly  refers  them  to  the  cedars  of 
Lebanon,  and  in  the  inscription  given  by  Rosellini,  mention  seems 
to  be  made  of  building  boats  on  a  river,  which  does  not  accord 
with  the  geography  of  Lebanon.  Nor  do  we  know  that  Lebanon 
was  ever  used  as  the  name  of  a  nation.  Armenia,  which  has  be-in 
suggested,  would  suit  the  name  if  read  Remanen,  and  also  the 
operation  of  felling  the  trees.  The  ample  clothing  of  the  Remanen 
also  indicates  a  metre  northern  climate  than  that  of  Syria.  The 
following  column*  makes  mention  of  the  land  of  Sankar  or  Sankal, 
and  Babel  or  Baber5 ;  the  former  of  which  is  supposed  to  mean 
Singara,  and  Bebel,  Babylon.  Singara,  Sinjar,  is  a  town  near 
Edessa,  inhabited  by  a  tribe  of  Arabs,  whom  Pliny  calls  Raetavi  or 
Prsetavi8.    In  connexion  with  both  these  countries  a  tribute  is 

1  Fhonetically  written  sesem,  with  the  determinative  of  the  species.  See 
ToL  i  p.  167. 

•  CoL  TL  «  Rosellini,  M.  R.  tav.  xlvi.  •  Col.  Sfc 

*  Mvtilated  in  Lepsius*  copy,  but  preserved  in  Wilkinson's. 
H.  N.  5,  21.  Steph.  Ryz.  Liyynca, 


HISTORY   OF  EPYPT. 


spoken  of,  called  Chesebt ;  from  the  determinative  character  sub- 
joined to  it,  it  appears  to  be  a  metal,  but  Babylonia  was  not  a 
metalliferous  region,  and  it  cannot  be  one  of  the  precious  metals, 
the  hieroglyphics  for  which  are  well  known1.  The  next  column8 
contains  the  enumeration  of  contributions  of  gold  and  silver,  in 
vessels  and  in  bulk,  and  near  the  bottom,  of  stone  and  wood.  The 
lower  part  of  the  column  is  mutilated,  but  as  the  next  begins  with 
the  word  Naharaina,  followed  by  the  same  group  of  characters  as 
in  Col.  X.,  it  is  thought  that  the  stone  and  wood  were  designed 
for  the  erection  of  a  stele  in  Mesopotamia.  The  land  of  the  Tahae 
is  again  mentioned  in  Col.  O ;  in  connexion  with  the  34th  year  of 
the  king  and  military  operations  in  the  land  of  Jukasa,  conjectured 
to  be  Oxiana3,  a  doubtful  appropriation,  since  it  does  not  appear 
that  Oxus  is  an  Oriental  name. 

The  remaining  columns  contain  in  the  main  only  a  repetition  of 
tribute  similar  to  the  preceding,  with  a  mention  of  some  articles 
which  it  is  difficult  to  identify.  We  find  also  a  people  called  Asi, 
conjectured  to  be  those  of  Is,  since  they  appear  to  bring  bitumen, 
which  the  springs  of  that  place  produce4.  In  others  suits  of  armor 
are  mentioned,  brought  by  the  Kharu,  who  appear  from  other 
inscriptions  to  have  inhabited  Syria.  When  complete,  the  whole 
tias  comprehended  at  least  fifty-five  columns. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  this  is  the  identical  tablet  which 
the  priests  showed  and  expounded  to  Germanicus,  when  he  visited 
1'hebes5.    Having  mentioned  the  record  of  the  victorious  expedi 

1  The  character  which  Mr.  Birch  reads  uten  and  Dr.  Hincks  mn  (mna) 
appears  to  me  to  represent  a  coil  of  metallic  rod  or  wire.  The  word  chesebt 
occurs  thrice  in  this  line,  twice  accompanied  by  this  character,  once,  before 
Beber  or  Bebel,  without  it  This  seems  to  indicate  two  different  forma 
under  which  it  was  contributed. 

3  Hierogl.  of  Egypt.  Soc.  pL  42,  Col.  R.  Lepsius,  1.  26.  In  Ri  Wilkinson's 
copy  Las  400  Lepsius  301. 

•  Birch,  u.  s.  p.  359.  4  Herod.  1,  179, 

The  expression  "structis  molibus"  shows  that  obelisks  were  not  meant 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY 


193 


tions  of  Rameses,  Tacitus  proceeds :  "  There  were  also  read  the 
tributes  levied  on  the  nations,  the  weight  of  gold  and  silver,  the 
number  of  arms  and  horses,  ivory  and  perfumes  as  gifts  to  the 
temples,  and  the  stores  of  corn  and  other  useful  products  which 
each  nation  paid  ;  not  less  magnificent  than  are  now  enjoined  by 
Parthian  violence  or  Roman  power1."  The  name  of  Thothmes  is 
not  mentioned  by  Tacitus,  and  Rameses  has  been  spoken  of  imme- 
diately before  ;  but  his  words  do  not  necessarily  imply  that  the 
tablet  of  tribute  and  the  record  of  victories  related  to  the  same 
sovereign. 

The  Tablet  of  Karnak  is  strictly  an  historical  and  statistical 
document.  It  does  not  deal  in  vague  ascriptions  of  a  world-wide 
dominion  ;  its  dates  are  precise,  including  the  month  and  the  day 
as  well  as  the  year  of  the  king  ;  and  though  we  may  be  unable  to 
identify  the  countries  named,  the  exactness  with  which  they  are 
enumerated,  with  the  weights  and  numbers  of  the  objects  which 
they  bring,  proves  that  we  have  before  us  an  authentic  record,  at 
least  of  the  tribute  enjoined  upon  the  nations. 

Another  remarkable  monument  of  the  age  of  Thothmes  III.  is 
the  chamber,  on  the  walls  of  which  he  is  represented  making  offer- 
ings to  sixty  of  his  predecessors.  It  has  been  already  described 
among  the  documents  of  Egyptian  history,  and  it  is  certainly  one 
of  the  most  important  of  them,  though  it  has  by  no  means  received 
a  satisfactory  explanation  in  all  its  parts.  His  name  appears  to 
have  been  held  in  high  veneration  by  posterity,  and  is  found  on  a 
great  number  of  scarabaei  and  amulets,  many  of  which  were  pro- 
bably engraved  in  subsequent  times2.  Rosellini  and  others  call 
him  Mceris,  and  suppose  him  to  have  been  the  author  of  the  Lake 
of  Fyoum  and  the  other  works  connected  with  it    The  epithet 

Strabo  (p.  816)  says  these  records  were  inscribed  on  obelisks,  and  more*  vei 
places  these  obelisks  among  the  royal  sepulchres. 
1  AnnaL  2,  60. 

*  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  1,  56,  note. 
VOL.   II.  9 


194 


HISTORY    OF  EGYPT. 


Maire,  beloved  of  Re,  is  found  connected  with  his  name ;  out  we 
have  seen  reason  to  doubt  whether  the  name  of  Moeris  belongs 
historically  to  any  king  of  Egypt,  and  the  works  in  the  Fyoum 
must  be  placed  in  the  Old  Monarchy. 

Besides  erecting  monuments  of  stone,  Thothmes  III.  appears  to 
have  been  the  author  of  extensive  constructions  of  bricks.  -Egypt 
affords  abundant  material  for  this  manufacture,  and  a  few  days' 
exposure  to  the  sun  hardens  them  sufficiently,  unless  they  are  to 
be  subject  to  the  actiou  of  water.  Bricks  bearing  his  titular  shield, 
the  scarabaeus,  the  crenellated  parallelogram  and  the  disk  of  the 
sun  are  more  common  than  those  of  any  other  sovereign1.  There 
is  a  tomb  at  Thebes,  the  inscriptions  of  which  show,  that  its  occu- 
pant, Roschere,  was  "  superintendent  of  the  great  buildings"  in 
the  reign  of  Thothmes  III. :  on  its  walls  the  operation  of  brick- 
making  is  represented2.  Men  are  employed,  some  in  working  up 
the  clay  with  an  instrument  resembling  the  Egyptian  hoe,  others 
in  carrying  loads  of  it  on  their  shoulders,  moulding  it  into  brick? 
and  transporting  them,  by  means  of  a  yoke  laid  across  the 
shoulders,  to  the  place  where  they  are  to  be  laid  out  for  drying  in 
the  sun.  The  physiognomy  and  color  of  most  of  those  who  are 
thus  engaged  show  them  to  be  foreigners,  and  their  aquiline  nose 
and  yellow  complexion  suggest  the  idea  that  they  are  Jews.  Their 
labor  is  evidently  compulsory  ;  Egyptian  taskmasters  stand  by 
with  sticks  in  their  hands  ;  and  though  one  or  two  native  Egyp- 
*  tians  appear  among  them,  we  may  easily  suppose  that  they  have 
been  condemned  to  hard  labor  for  their  crimes.  As  the  foreigners 
do  not  resemble  any  of  the  nations  with  whom  Thothmes  carried 
on  war,  and  who  are  well  known  from  the  paintings  and  reliefs  of 
subsequent  monarchs,  it  is  not  probable  that  they  are  captivei 
taken  in  war.    They  can  therefore  hardly  .  be  any  other  than 

1  "Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  2,  98. 
*  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  tav.  xlix. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   DYNASTY.  195 

the  Israelites,  whom  we  know  from  their  own  history  to  have  been 
employed  in  this  drudgery.  Their  oppression  began  with  the 
accession  of  the  18th  dynasty,  and  the  expulsion  of  their  kindred 
Hyksos.  It  was  a  natural  fear,  that  when  any  war  fell  out  they 
should  join  themselves  to  the  enemies  of  Egypt  and  fight  against 
her.  The  kings  of  Egypt,  therefore,  while  they  endeavored  by  a 
cruel  expedient  to  prevent  their  increase,  and  by  hard  labor  to 
break  their  spirit,  employed  that  labor  to  strengthen  the  frontier 
on  the  side  of  Arabia  and  Palestine,  whence  their  danger  came. 
The  valley  of  Goshen,  which  was  their  place  of  settlement,  was  the 
direct  road  from  Palestine  to  Memphis1.  By  employing  them  to 
build  the  two  fortresses2,  Raairjieses  at  the  eastern3,  and  Pithom  at 
the  western  extremity  of  this  valley4,  the  Pharaohs  provided  at 
once  a  barrier  against  future  invasions  and  the  means  of  keeping 
the  children  of  Israel  in  subjection.  Both  these  objects  were 
important  to  a  sovereign  like  Thothmes,  who,  during  his  Mesopo- 
tamian  expeditions,  must  have  left  his  country  exposed  to  his 
neighbors,  and  whose  long  absences  might  tempt  revolt.  If  Ros- 
chere  were  the  general  superintendent  of  the  great  architectural 

1  Gen.  xlvi.  28.  During  the  French  occupation  of  Egypt  this  same  valley, 
Saba-byar,  was  assigned  to  three  Arab  tribes,  driven  from  Syria.  (Bois- 
Ayme,  Memoires,  8,  111.) 

*  TLoXeis  d^vpdi,  Sept.  Exod.  i.  11.  The  Egyptian  king  would  hardly  have 
placed  "treasure  cities"  in  such  a  locality,  whether  we  understand  money 
or  corn  to  hare  been  treasured  up  ;  but  they  were  excellently  adapted  for 
military  magazines  and  garrisons  (I  Kings,  ix.  19  ;  2  Chron.  viii.  4,  Sept). 

3  See  Lepsius,  Einleitung,  1,  p.  349,  on  the  site  of  Raameses  (Aboo- 
Kescheib),  He  attaches,  I  think,  too  much  importance  to  the  name,  as  a 
proof  that  it  was  built  by  Raameses  II.  A  stone  with  his  name  has  been 
found  there,  but  the  district  had  the  name  before  the  city  was  built.  See 
Gen.  xlvii.  11. 

4  Without  the  article  this  would  be  Thorn,  which  in  Coptic  signifies  to 
close  up.  (Peyron,  Lex.  p.  51.)  It  was  not  far  from  Bubastis,  and  is  the 
Thoum  of  the  Itinerary  of  Antoninus. 


196  HISTORY    OF  EGYPT. 

undertakings  of  Thothmes,  and  the  first  who  employed  the  Israel 
ites  upon  them,  it  is  very  natural  that  we  should  find  a  record  of 
it  in  his  tomb,  although  they  may  not  have  labored  in  the  brick- 
fields of  Thebes. 

Thirteen  expeditions  of  Thothmes  are  referred  to  in  the  monu- 
ment before  described,  and  the  thirty-fourth  year  of  his  reign  ; 
the  thirty-fifth  has  been  found  by  Lepsius.  He  was  succeeded  by 
his  son  Amenophis  II.  The  memorials  of  his  reign  are  few,  and 
afford  little  materials  for  history.  The  obelisk  at  Alnwick  Castle, 
brought  by  Lord  Prudhoe  from  the  Thebaid,  is  inscribed  with  his 
name,  but  it  simply  records  the  fact  of  his  having  erected  two 
obelisks  in  honor  of  the  god  Kneph1.  He  continued  the  buildings 
at  Amada,  which  Thothmes  III.  had  begun,  and  appears  to  have 
bestowed  his  labors  chiefly  on  these  and  other  works  in  Nubia.  In 
a  speos  or  excavated  chapel  at  Ibrim,  he  appears  seated  with  two 
princes  or  great  officers.  One  of  them,  named  Osorsate,  presents 
to  him  the  animal  productions  of  the  southern  regions,  lions, 
jackals  and  hares,  an  inscription  above  specifying  their  numbers2. 
He  also  added  to  the  erections  of  his  predecessors  at  Thebes ;  but 
most  of  his  works  here  have  perished.  There  remains  a  represen- 
tation of  him,  in  the  usual  attitude  of  a  conqueror,  about  to 
immolate  a  band  of  captives  whom  he  holds  by  the  hair ;  their 
name  however  has  not  been  satisfactorily  explained.  We  have  no 
evidence  in  the  monuments  of  the  extent  of  his  Asiatic  dominion, 
but  his  inscriptions  are  found  at  Surabit-el-Kadim,  in  the  Peninsula 
of  Sinai5. 

1  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit  2nd  series,  1,  p.  171.  The  surface  within  the 
sculptures  is  nearly  fiat,  not  in  relief,  which  is  uncommon  in  works  of  this 
age. 

*  Champollion,  Lettres  d'Egypte,  p.  140. 

*  Champollion-Figeac,  L'Univers,  p.  312.  I  find  those  of  Amenophis  IIL, 
i>ut  not  the  second  mentioned  at  this  place  by  Sir  G.  Wilkinson  (Mod  Eg 
and  Thebes,  2,  406). 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


197 


His  son  Thothmes  IV.  continued  the  works  of  his  family  at 
Ainada,  and  added  a  hypostyle  hall,  which  stands  in  front  of  them1. 
The  hieroglyphical  inscriptions,  which  are  very  beautifully  executed, 
record  his  victories  over  the  people  of  Cush  (Ethiopia),  but  give 
no  other  information  respecting  the  events  of  his  reign.  This 
appears,  however,  not  to  have  been  his  only  war.  A  stele  engra- 
veu  on  a  rock  of  granite,  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Nile,  opposite 
to  Phil*,  records  a  victory  gained  by  him  over  the  Libyans  in  the 
7th  year  of  his  reign,  and  on  the  8th  day  of  the  month  Phamenoth3. 
At  Qoorneh,  in  a  tomb  of  an  officer  of  his  court,  the  king  himself 
appears  seated  on  a  throne,  on  the  base  of  which  are  nine  foreigners, 
bound  by  their  necks  and  arms,  in  the  manner  in  which  captive 
nations  are  usually  represented  on  Egyptian  monuments.  Four 
only  of  the  nine  names  are  legible  ;  they  have  not  occurred  before 
in  the  records  of  Egyptian  victories,  but  some  of  them  are  found 
on  later  monuments ;  and  they  appear  all  to  belong  to  Asia. 
From  another  of  these  tombs  it  has  been  inferred  that  he  built 
a  palace  at  Thebes,  and  that  it  contained  an  edifice  dedicated 
to  Amun-re ;  but  no  traces  of  such  a  building  are  now  to  be 
found3. 

Amunoph,  or  Amenophis  III.,  the  son  of  Thothmes  IV.  and 
his  queen  Mauthemva,  is  one  of  the  most  celebrated  monarchs  of 
the  18th  dynasty.  We  have  hitherto  found  no  traces  of  the  per- 
manent occupation  of  Nubia  by  the  Egyptian  kings,  higher  up 
the  Nile  than  Semneh,  but  the  temple  of  Soleb,  which  stands  a 
degree  further  south,  contains  evidence  that  under  Amunoph 
III.  the  boundary  of  the  empire  extended  at  least  thus  far.  The 
remains  of  this  edifice  have  been  already  described4;  thirty-eight, 

1  Rosellini,  Mom  Stor.  iii.  1,  205. 
*  Champollion-Figeac,  p.  S13. 

8  Rosellini,  p.  212.    The  person  who  was  buried  here  had  the  charg*  of 
the  sacred  bari  of  Amun.    See  vol.  L  p.  385. 
4  VoL  L  p.  16. 


HISTORY.  OF  EGYPT.  ^ 


or  according  to  other  accounts  forty-three,  conquered  nations  are 
represented  there  ;  they  have  not  been  exactly  copied,  but  Mr.  Hos- 
kins  informs  us  that  on  one  of  them  he  found  the  name  of  Meso- 
potamia1. Probably  they  are  chiefly  the  names  of  Ethiopian 
tribes  whom  he  had  vanquished  in  the  extension  of  his  frontiers 
to  the  South.  His  name  is  found  on  a  tablet  at  Toumbos  near 
the  Third  Cataract.  The  lion  which  now  couches  at  the  entrance 
of  the  Egyptian  Gallery  in  the  British  Museum  is  inscribed  with 
the  name  of  Amunoph  III.,2  but  it  does  not  appear  on  any  of  the 
buildings  there,  and  the  lion  may  have  been  brought  from  Egypt 
by  Tirhakah,  by  whom  the  temple  seems  to  have  been  erected.  A 
scarabasus  inscribed  with  the  name  of  Amenophis  III.  and  his  wife 
Taia  speaks  of  the  land  of  Karon  or  Kaloei  as  the  southern  boun- 
dary of  his  dominion3.  If  this  be  Coloe,  as  has  been  supposed4, 
his  conquests  must  have  been  carried  far  to  the  East  as  well  as  the 
South  ;  for  Coloe  was  within  five  days'  journey  of  Axum  on  the  Red 
Sea6.  The  way  would  thus  be  prepared  for  the  expedition  of 
Rameses-Sesostris,  who  is  said  to  have  subdued  the  nations  along 
the  Erythraean  Sea  and  crossed  the  Straits  into  Arabia8.  A  more 
full  record  of  the  conquests  of  Amenophis  in  Ethiopia  is  found 
in  a  fragment  of  a  monolithal  granite  statue  which  is  now  in  the 
Louvre7.  The  prisoners  are  negroes,  and  the  lotus,  which  termi- 
nates the  cord  by  which  they  are  bound,  being  the  emblem  of 
Upper  Egypt,  characterizes  on  monuments  all  Southern  races,  as 
the  head  of  the  papyrus,  the  growth  of  Lower  Egypt,  does  all 
nations  living  to  the  North  of  Egypt.    There  have  been  originally 

1  Travels,  p.  250.  Birch  (GalL  B.  M.  p.  84)  gives  also  Sinjar  in  Mesopo 
taenia. 

1  Vol.  i.  p.  14.  »  Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  iii.  1,  261 

*  Birch,  GalL  B.  M.  p.  83. 

*  Cellarius,  Geogr.  Antiq.  iv.  8,  27. 

*  Herod.  2,  102.  Strabo,  11,  p.  769. 
7  Birch  in  Archseologia,  SI  489-491. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY". 


twenty-six  names,  of  which  six  are  no  longer  legible  and  no 
resemblance  has  been  found  between  those  which  have  been  pre- 
served and  any.  modern  or  ancient  names  of  this  region,  excep1 
Kesh,  the  scriptural  Cush.  Amenophis  may  have  inherited,  as 
well  as  conquered  dominion  over  Ethiopia.  Those  who  have  com- 
pared many  of  the  representations  of  him  affirm,  that  his  own 
features  have  something  of  an  Ethiopian  cast1.  On  the  granite 
rock  of  the  little  island  of  Beghe,  near  the  Cataract,  a  figure  car- 
rying in  his  hand  what  Rosellini  calls  the  ensign  of  victory,  and 
Champollion  a  fly-fan,  appears  doing  homage  to  the  titular  or  pre- 
nominal  shield  of  Amenophis  III.  :  over  his  head  is  the  inscription 
"Royal  Son  of  the  land  of  Kush,  MeinesV  It  seems  to  have 
been  the  custom  to  grant  a  virtual  or  titular  governorship  of  towns 
and  districts  to  members  of  the  royal  family  ;  for  we  find  in  the 
tombs  at  Suan  (Eilithya),  mention  is  made  of  u  royal  sons  "  of  this 
place,  during  the  reigns  of  the  five  first  kings  of  the  18th  dynasty3. 
The  same  scarabaeus  which  has  been  already  quoted  gives  Naha- 
raina  as  the  other  limit  of  the  dominions  of  Amenophis  III.,- 
agreeing  in  this  respect  with  the  inscription  at  Semneh. 

The  quarries  of  Silsilis,  which  have  supplied  the  principal  mate- 
rials for  the  edifices  of  Egypt,  were  extensively  wrought  in  the 
reign  of  Amenophis  III.  Two  monuments  still  remain  there,  which 
from  some  cause  had  not  been  removed  to  their  destination  ;  they 
are  monolithal  shrines,  dedicated  to  Sebek,  the  crocodile- deity  of 
Ombi :  one  of  them  bears  the  date  of  the  27th  year  of  the  king's 
reign.  He  did  not  continue  the  works  of  architecture  at  Thebes 
begun  by  his  predecessors  of  the  18th  dynasty,  but  erected  two 
vast  palaces,  one  on  the  eastern,  the  other  on  the  western  bank  of 
the  Nije.    By  referring  to  the  description  of  the  remains  of  Thebes 

1  Champollion-Figeac,  L'Univers,  31*7.    He  says  that  from  the  monument* 
Mauthemva,  his  mother,  appears  to  have  been  an  Ethiopian. 
"  See  p.  180  of  this  vol. 
Champollion,  Lcttres,  p.  198. 


200 


HISTORY   OF  EGYl'T. 


given  in  the  former  volume1,  it  will  be  teen  that  he  began  the 
buildings  at  Luxor  and  erected  the'greater  part  of  them.  The 
chambers  which  yet  remain  bear  his  legends,  with  the  title  "  Paci- 
ficator of  Egypt "  and  "  Vanquisher  of  the  Mennahom,"  an  unknown 
people.  In  the  same  place  is  found  a  singular  representation  of 
his  birth,  and  subsequent  education2.  In  the  first  picture  of  the 
series  his  mother  represented  with  the  attributes  of  the  god- 
dess Athor,  but  identified  by  her  name  Mauthemva,  stands  in  the 
presence  of  the  god  Thoth,  who  holds  a  roll  of  papyrus  in  his 
hand,  and  raises  the  other  towards  the  queen  with  the  action  of 
one  who  is  addressing  her.  The  purport  of  his  address  cannot  be 
ascertained,  but  from  the  connexion  of  this  with  the  following 
scenes,  it  is  probable,  that  as  the  Egyptian  Hermes  lie  brings  a 
message  to  the  queen  from  the  god  of  Thebes,  announcing  her 
own  future  maternity.  In  the  second  scene  this  event  is  near  at 
hand8,  and  the  queen  is  led  by  the  god  Kneph  and  the  goddess 
Athcr,  who  stretches  the  key  of  life  towards  her,  to  the  puerperal 
bed.  The  chamber  in  which  this  is  prepared  is  called  Ma-n-mi$i, 
a  name  given  to  the  apartment  of  a  temple,  in  which  the  mystical 
birth  of  the  young  god,  the  offspring  of  the  principal  deities,  is 
represented4.  The  queen,  in  the  manner  of  Egyptian  women,  is 
resting  on  the  knees  and  toes,  and  the  goddess  Isis  behind  her 
holds  up  her  hands,  in  the  attitude  of  one  who  is  comforting  and 
supporting  her.  Two  goddesses,  seated  opposite  to  the  queen,  are 
suckling  two  male  children  ;  their  finger  pointed  towards  their 
mouth  indicates  their  childish  age5 ;  the  lock  of  hair  falling  on  the 

1  ToL  i.  p.  132,  145. 

2  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  p.  223,  tav.  xxxviii.-xl. 

1  "II  profilo  del  ventre  fu  evidentamente  incurvato  oltre  il  consueto,  per 
dimostrare  la  gravidanza.  II  disegnatore  non  indico  forse  tanto  bene  questa 
cireostanza  nella  minor  proporzione,  come  si  vede  chiara  nell'  originale." 
(Rosellini,  p.  225.) 

*  Vol.  i.  p.  214. 

3  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  4,  405.    Compare  vol.  1,  p.  £54  >f  Zarpocratea 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


201 


right  side  of  the  heaifrtheir  assimilation  to  Horns  and  other  youth- 
ful deities  who  are  thus  characterized1.  The  two-fold  number  does 
not  indicate  that  Amenophis  had  a  twin  brother,  but  is  common 
where  the  birth  of  deities  is  represented2.  Beneath  the  couch  are 
two  spotted  cows,  sacred  to  Athor3,  who  turn  complacently  round 
towards  the  children  who  are  sucking  at  their  udders.  In  the 
next  scene,  Amunre  is  seen  standing  and  holding  in  his  hand  the 
youthful  Amenophis,  whom  a  hawk-headed  god  has  presented  to 
him ;  he  is  addressing  the  child,  and  declares  that  he  bestows  upon 
him  life,  stability,  purity  and  happiness,  magnanimity  and  domi- 
nion on  the  throne  of  Horus4.  Two  figures  appear  behind  carrying 
the  children ;  they  represent  the  Nile,  in  the  dry  season  and  at  the 
commencement  of  the  inundation,  the  former  being  distinguished 
by  the  blue  color,  the  latter  by  the  red-brown5.  Their  introduction 
here  may  be  only  symbolical  of  the  important  relation  in  which 
the  Nile  stood  to  the  prosperity  of  Egypt,  or  it  may  be  considered 
as  preparing  the  way  for  a  subsequent  representation,  in  which  two 
deities,  Mandoo  and  Atmoo,  appear  pouring  the  water  of  the  Nile 
over  the  king.  In  the  intervening  scene  we  see  the  goddess  Sqf] 
the  wife  of  Thoth,  and  like  him  presiding  over  writing,  painting 
and  language,  to  whom  the  children  are  presented.  Before  her 
kneels  a  figure  with  a  pot  of  paint,  while  the  goddess  holds  a 
brush  oi-  pen  ;  what  she  is  preparing  to  write  does  not  appear,  per- 

1  We  see  from  the  Rosetta  Stone  that  the  assimilation  of  a  youthful  sove- 
reign to  llorus  was  a  common  flattery.  Ptolemy  is  there  called  "a  god, 
the  son  of  a  god  and  of  a  goddecs,  as  Horus  the  son  of  Isis  and  Osiris."  (Ro& 
Inscr.  line  lu.) 

2  Thfl  reader  who  consults  Rosellini's  Plates  must  remember  what  has 
been  said  (vol.  i.  p.  226)  of  Egyptian  drawing.  The  four  legs  of  the  couch 
are  all  seen,  and  its  horizontal  seat  is  represented  perpendicularly,  so  that 
the  queen  and  goddesses  appear  to  be  seated  on  its  turned-up  edge, 

Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  4,  489,  Plates,  36. 
4  Rosellini,  u.  s.  p.  -228. 
Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  figures  of  the  Nile  are  androgt/nout, 
9* 


'202 


HISTORY    OF  EGYPT. 


haps  the  name  and  royal  title  of  the  child1,  owns  Rosellini  supposes 

the  number  of  years  and  panegyries  that  he  was  to  live. 

The  ceremony  of  the  purification  of  the  young  king  is  prelimi- 
nary to  that  of  his  inauguration ;  hitherto  he  has  appeared  with 
no  emblem  of  royalty,  but  now  he  wears  the  uncus  round  his  head  ; 
hitherto  he  has  been  naked,  but  now  he  has  a  short  garment  fast- 
ened round  this  waist.*  With  this  head-dress  and  the  crook  and 
scourge  in  his  hands,  lie  is  next  seen  borne  on  a  seat  into  the  pre- 
sence of  Amunre.  Having  descended  from  his  seat  and  exchanged 
the  cap  bound  with  the  urseus  for  the  royal  helmet,  he  stands 
nolding  a  bird2  in  his  hand  before  the  god,  who  has  placed  a  collar 
round  his  neck.  In  front  of  the  god  are  two  figures,  one  of  whom 
bears  the  red  diadem  which  forms  the  outer  part  of  the  pschent, 
and  represents  Lower  Egypt ;  the  other  the  white  conical  cap  which 
represents  Upper  Egypt.  Invested  with  these  he  enters  into  the 
full  prerogatives  of  sovereignty.  They  are,  however,  laid  aside, 
and  the  king  appears  with  his  helmet  only,  when  he  comes  in  a 
subsequent  scene,  conducted  by  Phre,  to  kneel  before  Amunre  and 
receive  his  benediction3.  His  inauguration  endowed  him  with  a 
sacred  character,  and  he  engages  immediately  after  in  the  perform- 
ance of  solemn  religious  acts.  Crowned  with  the  lower  part  of  the 
pschent  he  appears  running  into  the  presence  of  Amunkhem*  w.th 
a  vessel  of  libation  in  either  hand,  and  leads  before  the  same  divi- 

1  In  a  subsequent  scene  Saf  says,  according  to  the  interpretation  of  Rosel- 
lini, "  I  establish  thy  twofold  sculpture,"  i.  e.  thy  twofold  title,  symbolical 
and  phonetic    (P.  238.) 

2  A  phoenix,  according  to  Rosellini  (p.  238),  the  emblem  of  a  pure  life.  If 
it  be  a  phoenix,  length  of  days,  or  immortality,  would  seem  a  more  natural 
signification. 

1  Tav.  xli.  1. 

*  See  also  Wilkinson,  pi.  79,  1.  This  action  of  running  into  the  presence 
of  a  god  is  explained  by  Rosellini  as  emblematic  of  the  completion  of  a 
temple  (M.  Stor.  iii.  1,  171,  244),  but  this  is  not  probable,  since  the  object* 
brought  are  very  various  in  different  representations. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


203 


ttity  four  living  steers,  one  black,  one  white,  one  red  and  one  pied, 
his  head  being  ornamented,  not  with  a  helmet  or  the  pschent,  but 
with  the  insignia  of  Osiris-Sokari.  The  adjoining  chambers  of  th<» 
palace  of  Luxor  contain  other  representations  of  Amenophis 
engaged  in  performing  sacred  functions,  but  they  do  not  appear  to 
belong  so  immediately  to  his  inauguration  into  the  royal  and 
sacerdotal  office  as  those  which  have  been  just  described. 

Besides  the  palace  of  Luxor,  the  long  dromos  of  crio-sphinxes 
which  joins  it  to  Karnak1  was  the  work  of  Amenophis  III.,  whose 
name  can  yet  be  traced  upon  their  mouldering  remains.  But  the 
western  bank  of  the  Nile  appears  to  have  been  adorned  with  even 
more  stupendous  erections  than  those  which  we  have  already 
described.  Of  the  Amenophion3,  as  it  has  been  called,  the  greater 
part  is  a  heap  of  ruins,  but  these  are  sufficient  to  prove  its  former 
extent;  and  if  the  two  colossal  statues3,  which  now  appear  in  such 
striking  insulation  in  the  plain  of  Thebes,  once  stood  at  the 
entrance  of  a  dromos  leading  to  the  Amenophion,  it  is  difficult  to 
conceive  a  more  impressive  combination. 

The  northernmost  of  these  statues  has  connected  the  name  of 
Amenophis  with  the  Memnon  slain  by  Achilles  at  the  siege  of 
Troy.  There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  my  the  of  Memnon  is 
of  Egyptian  origin.  In  the  Odyssey,  where  he  is  briefly  men- 
tioned4, for  he  does  not  appear  in  the  "Iliad,  he  is  introduced  only 
as  a  hero  remarkable  for  his  beauty;  his  eastern  origin  may  be 
alluded  to  in  his  being  made  the  son  of  Aurora.  He  must  early 
have  been  considered  as  an  Ethiopian,  though  not  so  called  bv 
Homer ;  the  author  of  the  Theogony  (085)  makes  him  king  of  that 
country  ;  and  Arctinus.  one  of  the  first  of  the  Cyclic  poets5,  in  his 
Aidmirig  related  his  arrival  at  Troy,  his  death  by  the  hand  of  Acini- 

See  vol  i.  p.  145  *  See  vol.  i.  p.  132. 

1  See  voL  L  p.  132.  4  Od.  J',  188.  a',  621 . 

Miiller,  ie  Cyclo  Grajcorum  Epico,  p.  44,  quoting  IVoclus,  C<r«v«i> 


L'04 


history  of  aorpx. 


ies,  and  the  immortality  granted  to  him  on  the  petition  of  Aurora. 
As  yet,  however,  Ethiopia  appears  to  have  been  conceived  of  as  an 
eastern,  not  a  southern  region.  Herodotus  places  the  Memnonium 
at  Susa1 ;  ^Eschylus  made  the  Mother  of  Memnon  a  Cissian  or 
Susian :  even  in  Strabo's  time  the  royal  palace  there  bore  this 
name3.  But  after  the  Greeks  established  themselves  in  Egypt, 
Ethiopia  became  to  them  a  definite  geographical  name,  denoting 
the  valley  of  the  Nile  above  Egypt  to  the  island  of  Meroe,  and 
eastward  to  the  Erythraean  Sea.  It  was  therefore  natural  that  they 
should  seek  among  the  kings  of  that  country,  either  as  ruling  in 
their  proper  territory  or  as  sovereigns  of  Egypt,  for  the  original  of 
their  Memnon.  He  had  not  come  alone  to  Troy ;  he  had  led  a 
powerful  army  (so  at  least  the  Greeks  believed3) ;  no  sovereign  of 
Egypt  therefore  would  have  fulfilled  the  conditions  of  their  h)rpo- 
thesis,  who  had  not  made  conquests  in  Asia.  Now  although  we 
have  not,  probably  from  accidental  causes,  the  same  monumental 
evidence  of  campaigns  carried  on  in  Asia  by  Amenophis  III.  as  the 
tablet  of  Karnak  furnishes  respecting  his  father,  we  know  that  at 
least  as  far  as  Mesopotamia  the  boundaries  of  his  dominion  extended ; 
and  from  the  analogy  of  other  reigns  we  may  conclude  that  this 
dominion  was  not  maintained  without  military  expeditions.  In 
the  passage  in  which  Herodotus  describes  the  tablet  erected  by 
Sesostris  at  Nahr-el-Kelb,  and  those  in  Asia  Minor  on  the  road 
from  Ephesus  to  Phocaea,  and  from  Sardis  to  Smyrna,  he  says  that 
some  persons  supposed  that  these  figures  represented  Memnon,  but 
that  they  were  in  error.  Whatever  Herodotus  himself  might  mean 
by  Memnon,  those  whose  opinion  he  refutes  probably  meant 
Amenophis- Memnon ;  for  the  monument  of  Nahr-el-Kelb  is  so 
completely  Egyptian,  that  there  could  be  no  mistake  on  that  point; 
but  among  those  who  could  not  read  the  Egyptian  character  a 


1  6,  63,  64:  7,  151. 

•  Bee  Quintus  Calaber,  lib.  2 


a  Geogr.  16,  p.  728 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


206 


question  might  easily  arise,  whether  Amenophis  or  Sesostris,  both 
Egyptian  conquerors  of  Asia,  were  the  special  object  of  commemo- 
ration on  this  monument.  As  some  gave  the  monument  of  Nahr- 
el-Kelb  to  Memnon,  others  gave  the  statue  at  Thebes  to  Sesostris. 
a  natural  confusion  between  two  illustrious  names,  in  an  age  which 
had  not  the  means  of  critical  judgement1. 

The  word  Memnon  appears  to  have  been  a  name  or  epithet  of 
the  Ethiopians.  Stephanus  of  Byzantium  says,  "  The  Memnones 
are  an  Ethiopian  nation,  a  word  which,  according  to  Polyhistor,  is 
interpreted  fierce  or  warlike  and  stern8."  Agathemerus3,  enume- 
rating the  nations,  who  live  along  the  Nile  above  Egypt,  says 
"  After  the  Great  Cataract  westward  of  the  Nile  live  the  Euony- 
mitae,  the  Sebridae,  the  Catoipi  (Cadupi  or  Catadupi4,  the  people 
of  the  region  of  the  Cataracts  ?),  and  the  Memnones  who  lived 
close  to  the  island  of  Meroe,  after  whom  come  the  Elephant-eating 
Ethiopians."  We  conclude,  therefore,  that  Memnones  is  a  real  and 
geographical  name;  and  probably  a  name  of  Greek  etymology, 
since  it  enters  into  composition  with  other  pure  Greek  words5, 
denoting  "  the  valiant  or  warlike,"  a  name  equally  appropriate  to 
the  nation  and  to  their  chief.  Memnon  is  therefore  equivalent 
to  an  Ethiopian  ;  and  as  Ethiopian  was  a  name  given  by  the 
Greeks  to  all  whose  complexions  were  darkened,  whether  by  an 
eastern  or  a  southern  sun,  hit  mythic  genealogy,  which  made  - 
Aurora  his  mother,  is  easily  accounted  for.  His  pre-eminent 
beauty,  strange  as  it  may  seem  to  us,  was  also  a  consequence  of 

1  PauaaniaS,  1.  42,  2.    "fLcovaa  Si  ftSrj  *ai  Eeouorpiv  ^a/uj/wv  avat   roiro  rt 
ayiiK^a  S  Ka^/?v<rijf  SuKOipt, 

•  'Aypiuvi  rivas  J}  jiax'i^ovs  Kai  ^aXtTroiij.    Polyhistor  in  Steph.  Byz.  suh 
voce  Mtpvovts. 

•  See  note  to  the  passage  of  Steph.  Byz.  in  Berkelius'  edition. 

*  Pliny,  N.  H.  6,  10.  6,  35. 

*  As  Qptxavpinvuv%  'Aya/^xwv.    Comp.  Eust  (ad  IL     639),  p.  691.  AfjXsi 

Li  ko\  rd  &x\ovv  b  fic^ycjv,  isada  teal  b  ftivw^  avSpclovs  inoS^Xovot. 


206 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


his  Ethiopic  extraction  ;  for  according  to  Herodotus  (3,  114)  the 
Ethiopians  were  not  only  the  tallest  and  most  long-lived,  but  the 
handsomest  of  the  human  race. 

The  fiction  of  a  musical  sound,  issuing  from  the  statue  of  Mem- 
non  at  Thebes  at  sunrise,  appears  to  be  entirely  Greek.  To  the 
Egyptians  it  was  never  anything  more  than  the  statue  of  their  king 
Amenophis1 ;  all  the  inscriptions  which  record  that  the  sound  had 
been  heard  are  of  the  Roman  times2 ;  the  name  Memnonium 
was  given  to  the  quarter  in  which  it  stood,  under  the  Ptolemies, 
but  no  monument  nor  any  passage  in  an  author  of  that  age  alludes 
to  a  vocal  Memnon.  Cambyses  did  not  need  the  pretext  of  its 
magic  music  to  induce  him  to  mutilate  a  statue  reverenced  by  the 
Thebans8.  As  the  statue  has  been  silent  for  centuries,  we  have 
no  means  of  ascertaining  how  the  belief  in  its  musical  quali- 
ties arose  ;  it  probably  originated  in  the  poetical  imagination  of 
the  Greeks,  favored  by  some  slight  or  accidental  cause,  and  the 
eastward  position  of  the  face  of  the  statue,  and  was  humored  by 
the  art  of  the  Egyptian  priests. 

The  identification  of  Memnon  the  Ethiopian  with  the  Theban 
statue  naturally  gave  rise  to  historical  hypotheses  as  well  as  poeti- 
cal fable.  According  to  Agatharchides4,  the  Ethiopians  invaded 
Egypt  and  garrisoned  many  of  their  towns,  and  by  them  the  so- 
*  called  Memnonia  were  completer}.  Here  a  false  hypothesis  is 
grounded  on  an  historical  fact ;  for  though  the  Ethiopians  occupied 

1  In  Syncellus  we  have  after  the  name  of  Amenophis  Ovtos  icnv  h  M.-/ij>w* 
ilvai  vojii^niJtuos}  Kal  </>06yyd/i£n>$  Ai'floj.  "Lemma  divert  esse  scriptoris  a  Ma- 
nethone  probat  silentium  Josephi,  ideoque  ad  Africanum  adscribendum.* 
Routh  ad  Afric.  Rel.  Sac.  2,  396.  The  addition  is  found  in  the  ArmeniaE 
Version  of  Eusebius. 

See  the  full  collection  of  them,  with  the  commentary  of  Letronne,  in 
the  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Literature,  Series  i.  vol.  1,  part  2, 

*  Syncellus.    Pausanias  mentions  the  fact,  but  not  the  motive.    See  tht 
passage  from  Polyaenus,  vol.  i.  p.  135,  note. 
Apud  Photium  Bibl.  p.  1342,  ed.  Hoesch. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


207 


Egypt,  perhaps  more  than  once,  it  does  Dot  appear  that  they  had 
any  share  in  erecting  the  buildings  called  Memnonia.  This  name 
was  given  in  the  age  of  Strabo  to  the  remains  of  a  palace  at  Aby- 
dos,  and  by  some  also  to  the  Labyrinth1.  The  splendor  of  the  real 
palace  of  Amenophis  seems  to  have  rendered  it  a  general  appella- 
tion for  a  royal  building  of  great  extent  and  magnificence.  We 
know  that  the  palace  of  Abydos  was  chiefly  the  work  of  Rameses 
III.,  the  Labyrinth  of  Ammenemes.  The  story  of  an  Ethiopian 
migration  or  invasion  takes  a  still  more  definite  form,  in  the  state- 
ment given  in  the  Chronicon  of  Eusebius,  that  the  Ethiopians, 
removing  from  the  river  Indus,  dwelt  on  the  borders  of  Egypt2. 
This  event  being  placed  under  the  reign  of  Amenophis,  is  evidently 
intended  to  be  considered  as  connecting  the  story  of  Memnon  with 
his  reign,  and  the  date  of  1615  years  before  Christ  is  assigned 
to  it. 

Like  his  ancestor  Amenophis  I.,  Amenophis-Memnon  received 
divine  honors,  and  a  special  priesthood,  called  "  the  pastophori  of 
Amenophis  in  the  Memnoneia,"  still  existed  in  the  Ptolemaic 
times'. 

The  mother  of  Amenophis,  Mautemva*,  is  represented  on  the 
right  side  of  the  throne  of  his  statue ;  his  wife,  who  is  seen  on  the 
left,  was  called  Taia.  Her  name  is  joined  with  his,  on  the  en- 
graved scarabaei  of  a  large  size  which  are  frequent  in  the  collections 
of  Egyptian  antiquities.  One  of  these,  according  to  the  interpre- 
tation of  Rosellini,  commemorates  the  marriage  of  the  king  in  the 

1  Strabo,  17,  p.  813.  All  the  buildings  which  passed  by  this  name  were 
on  the  western  side  of  the  river. 

*  14  ^thiopes,  ab  Indo  fluraine  consurgentes,  juxta  Egyptura  consederunt," 
Chron.  Hieronym.  p.  72,  ed.  Scaliger. 

1  See  Papyr.  v.  vi.  vii.  in  Peyron's  Collection, 

•  A  monument  in  the  British  Museum  (Birch,  pL  34)  represpnts  her 
■eated  on  a  throne  -which  is  placed  in  an  Egyptian  boat  or  barL  Her  uam« 
Mautemva  is  expressed  phonetically  by  a  vulture,  Maul 


208 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


eleventh  year  of  his  reign  ;  it  has  been  already  quoted,  as  denning 
the  limits  of  his  kingdom.  The  other,  whose  signification  is 
obscure,  appears  to  refer  to  the  performance  of  some  public  work1. 
The  conjunction  of  the  name  of  the  queen  with  that  of  the  king  on 
these  memorials,  indicates  a  greater  participation  in  the  royal  power 
on  her  part  than  was  common  in  the  Egyptian  monarchy.  Ame- 
nophis  appears  to  have  had  other  children  besides  Horus  who  suc- 
ceeded him  on  the  throne.  A  stele  in  the  Museum  of  Florence 
which  bears  his  title  mentions  "  a  royal  scribe  of  the  house  of  the 
royal  daughter  Amense?"  the  comptroller,  it  should  seem,  of  the 
princess's  household. 

The  tomb  of  Amenoph  III.  is  the  oldest  royal  sepulchre  pre- 
served in  the  Bab-el-Melook,  but  is  not  that  which  in  the  Roman 
times  was  called  the  tomb  of  Memnon.  It  is  of  great  length, 
extending,  though  not  in  one  line  of  direction,  352  feet,  with  seve- 
ral lateral  chambers3.  Although  now  in  a  state  of  great  decay,  the 
remains  of  painting  on  its  walls  indicate  a  good  style  of  art.  The 
largest  apartment  represents  a  common  funeral  scene,  the  passage 
of  the  Sun  through  the  inferior  hemisphere,  the  legends  being 
traced  in  linear  hieroglyphics,  which  approach  very  nearly  to  the 
hieratic  character.  The  tomb  of  Amenoph  III.  in  its  perfect  state 
has  been  one  of  the  most  complete,  and  Amenophis-Memnon 
reigned  according  to  Manetho  thirty-one  years  ;  the  thirty-sixth4 
has  been  found  on  his  monuments,  illustrating  the  remark  of 
Champollion5,  that  the  most  elaborate  tombs  are  those  of  the 
sovereigns  who  had  the  longest  reigns. 

lie  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  whose  name  in  the  lists  is  Horus, 

1  Rosellini  (Mon.  Stor.  ill.  1,  266)  thinks  the  construction  of  a  cistern,  bu( 
acknowledges  the  uncertainty  of  his  own  interpretation. 

*  Champollion-Figeac,  L'Univers,  p.  319. 

1  "Wilkinson.. Mod.  Egypt  and  Thebes,  2,  215.    Chaiupollion,  Lettrea,  22* 

*  Bun  sen,  ^Egyptens  Stelle,  B.  8,  p.  78,  G«rm. 

*  See  vol.i.  p.  141. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


209 


phonetically  expressed  by  the  hawk,  the  emblem  of  the  god,  with 
the  addition  of  the*  character  which  denotes  the  panegyries  or 
solemn  festivals1.  His  monuments  commemorate  victories  obtained 
over  the  African  tribes.  In  a  grotto  near  the  Second  Cataract*, 
he  is  represented  in  the  form  of  the  youthful  Horus,  suckled  by 
the  goddess  Anouke*.  The  ram-headed  god  of  Thebes,  Kneph  or 
Xoura4,  stands  by  ;  he,  like  Anouke,  was  an  object  of  special  vene- 
ration between  the  First  and  Second  Cataract. 

The  principal  historical  monuments  of  the  reign  of  Horus,  how- 
ever, are  in  the  quarries  of  Silsilis,  which  seem  to  have  been  exten- 
sively wrought  for  the  public  works  then  carried  on.  A  large 
space  on  the  wall  of  one  of  the  galleries  has  been  occupied  by  a 
scene  representing  his  triumph  :  much  of  it  has  perished,  but 
enough  remains  to  show  its  purport6.  He  is  seated  on  a  throne 
carried  on  the  shoulders  of  twelve  military  chiefs,  while  two  others 
shade  him  with  fans  attached  to  long  spears,  and  an  attendant, 
keeping  his  face  towards  the  king  as  he  walks,  scatters  grains  o. 
incense  on  a  censer  which  he  holds  out  towards  him.  It  is 
evidently  the  celebration  of  a  military  triumph  for  a  victory  over 
the  Africans.  Captives,  whose  features  are  strongly  marked  with 
the  negro  peculiarities,  are  led  bound  by  the  wrists  and  neck ;  and 
the  inscriptions  record  that  the  great  ones  of  the  land  of  Cush  had 
been  trampled  under  foot.  Both  Luxor  and  Karnak  received 
additions  from  him.  One  of  the  rows  of  criosphinxes  at  the  last- 
mentioned  place  bears  his  legend,  with  an  inscription  declaring  that 
he  had  made  great  constructions  in  the  residences  of  Thebes6. 
The  propylseum  from  which  this  row  leads  was  also  built  by 
Horus,  and  beside  the  gate  of  entrance  are  seen  traces  of  a  gigantk 

1  The  whole  is  read  Hor-mbhai. 

j 

•  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  272.    M.  R.  tav.  xliv.  6. 

•  See  vol.  i.  p.  823.  •     4  See  voL  L  p.  518, 

•  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  Iii.  1,  p.  278.    M.  R.  tav.  xliv. 

•  Roeellini,  M.  Stor.  iii.  1,  288. 


210 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


figure  of  him,  engaged  in  smiting  his  enemies.  The  name  of  Ber 
her  alone  is  legible,  denoting  probably  some  African  race,  though 
it  would  be  hasty  to  identify  it  with  the  Barbaria  of  Ptolemy,  od 
the  eastern  coast  of  Africa,  or  the  modern  names  of  Barabra  and 
Berber1. 

The  works  of  sculpture  of  this  age  show  the  high  perfection 
which  art  had  already  attained.  The  Egyptian  Museum  of  Turin 
contains  two  admirable  statues  of  Horus,  one  in  a  white  and  crys- 
talline calcareous  stone,  the  other  in  black  granite.  On  the  first 
the  king  appears  standing  beside  the  god  Amonre,  who  is  repre- 
sented as  of  colossal  size ;  the  hieroglyphics  of  the  latter  contain  a 
decree,  very  analogous  in  its  forms  to  that  of  the  Rosetta  stone,  in 
which  the  benefits  rendered  by  him  to  Egypt  are  enumerated,  sta 
tues  ordered  to  be  erected  in  the  principal  temples,  and  panegyries 
to  be  celebrated  in  his  honor,  conjointly  with  the  god  Phre.  His 
daughter,  whose  name  has  been  read  Tmaukmot,  .sits  with  Horus 
on  his  throne,  and  the  decree  ordains  that  her  statue  should  be 
placed  in  the  temple  along  with  his3.  A  sphinx  with  female  attri- 
butes is  carved  on  the  side  of  the  throne,  in  allusion  to  her  sharing 
with  him  the  attributes  of  royalty3. 

The  genealogical  succession  of  the  kings  after  Horus  is  very 
embarrassing,  from  the  want  of  harmony  between  the  monu- 
ments and  the  lists.    On  the  tablet  of  Abydos  and  the  lists  in  the 

1  According  to  Herodotu8,  the  Egyptians  called  all  0ap0apovs  who  did  not 
speak  their  own  language  (2,  158).  This  may  only  mean  that  they  desig- 
nated them  by  a  name  implying  like  0&p0apos  (Strabo,  14,  663)  harshnese 
of  speech ;  or  they  may  have  used  the  same  onomatopoeia  as  the  Greeks. 
Berber  in  Coptic  denotes  the  confused  murmur  of  boiling  water,  no  inapt 
simile  for  a  foreign  speech,  which  always  seems  inarticulate  to  those  to 
whom  it  is  unintelligible.  Bod£w  or  /fydo-o-w,  which  signifies  to  teethe,  also 
denotes  an  inarticulate  sound.    See  Hesych.  0pa$civ,  0a0pa$eiv. 

2  Champollion  Figeac,  821.  Compare  Rosetta  Inscr.  translated  in  Birch 
Gall.  B.  Mus. 

'  See  vol  L  p.  115. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


211 


Raineseion  and  at  Medinet  Aboo1,  the  next  name  to  Horus  is 
Ramessu,  who  is  followed  by  the  king  whom  Champollion  and 
Rosellini  call  Menephthak,  Lepsius  and  Bunsen,  Seti  Merienpthah  ; 
but  in  the  lists  we  find  that  Horus  was  succeeded  by  Acherres  (or 
as  Josephus  has  it,  his  daughter  Acenchres).  These  are  followed 
by  Rathos  (Rathotis),  Chebres,  Acherres  (in  Josephus  two  Acen- 
cheres),  Armesses  (Armais),  Ramesses,  Amenophath,  the  first 
whose  name  bears  any  analogy  to  Menephthah.  It  would  be  to 
little  purpose  to  relate  the  expedients  resorted  to  for  the  removal 
of  these  difficulties.  That  a  period  of  civil  war  or  divided  reign 
occurred  about  this  time  is  evident  from  the  circumstance  that  the 
shields  of  two  kings,  Amuntoonh  or  Amuntuanch  and  a  fourth 
Amenoph,  are  found  mutilated2.  The  explanation  which  Lepsius 
has  devised  of  the  various  facts  observed  on  the  monuments  is, 
that  besides  Horus  who  succeeded  him,  Amenoph  III.  left  two 
sons,  Amenoph  IV.,  Amuntuanch,  and  a  daughter,  Athotis.  The 
two  sons  both  reigned  during  the  life  of  Horus,  in  what  relations 
with  him  we  know  not.  The  shield  of  Amenophis  IV.  has  not 
been  found  further  to  the  north  than  Hermopolis  Magna  in  Middle 
Egypt3,  and  where  found  it  is  always  defaced*.  In  like  manner 
thfe  shields  of  Amuntuanch,  which  are  found  chiefly  in  Ethiopia, 
are  defaced.  We  may  hence  conclude  that  their  relations  to 
Horus  were  hostile.  It  is  evident  that  he  either  put  down  or  sur- 
vived Amenoph  IV.  and  Amuntuanch,  as  stones  marked  with 
their  shield  are  found  in  buildings  at  Karnak  which  Horus  erected, 
and  for  the  name  of  Amuntuanch  has  been  substituted  that  of 
Horus5.  The  buildings  of  Horus  contain  also  stones  marked  with 
a  royal  name,  which  was  read  by  Wilkinson  Atinre  Bakhan,  and 
by  Lepsius  Bech-naten  Ba,  in  inverted  order  ;  and  the  sculpture 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  i.  p.  204.    iiL  1,  305. 

*  Wilkinson,  M.  4  C.  1,  57.  1  See  vdL  L  p  89. 

*  Bunsen,  B.  3,  p.  88,  Germ.    Wilkinson,  M.  <fc  C.  1,  57. 
'Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  &  Thebes,  2,  255. 


212 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


of  these  stones  is  so  fresh,  as  to  show  that  the  buildings  of  which 
they  are  a  part  were  destroyed  soon  after  their  erection1.  This 
Bech-natenra  (sometimes  written  Bakhan  on]y),  hitherto  supposed 
to  be  an  intrusive  king,  a  worshipper  of  the  Sun,  Lepsius  takes  for 
a  queen,  the  wife  and  widow  of  Amunoph  IV.,  and  from  her  name 
he  explains  the  Acencheres  or  Kencheres  of  the  lists.  The 
daughter  of  Amenophis  III.,  whose  name  is  written  on  a  monu- 
ment JTeti  or  Tuti,  and  who  is  called  "  royal  daughter,  sister, 
mother,  wife,"2  is  according  to  him  Athothis,  the  reading  of  one 
MS.  for  Ifathotis  ;  her  husband,  the  personage  whose  tomb  Cham- 
p^ollion  discovered  in  the  western  valley  of  Thebes,  and  whose 
name  he  read  Skhai*.  They  were,  according  to  Lepsius,  the 
parents  of  Ramessu,  the  founder  of  that  long  line  of  princes  who 
fill  the  19th  and  20th  dynasty4.  Here  we  find  the  monuments 
again  coinciding  with  the  lists,  and  as  we  follow  the  former 
authority  only,  we  shall  leave  the  attempts  to  reconcile  them  to  be 
confirmed  or  overthrown  by  subsequent  research. 

Ramessu,  the  immediate  successor  of  Horus  on  the  tablet  of 
Abydos,  appears  to  be  both  the  Arm  esses  and  the  Ramesses,  the 
14th  and  loth  of  Manetho's  18th  dynasty,  the  consonants  in  both 
words  being  the  same.  The  Armais  of  Josephus  appears  also  to 
be  the  same  person  with  a  variation  of  spelling.  Of  Ramessu's 
reign  little  is  known.  The  second  year  of  his  reign  is  found  on  a 
stele*  dug  out  by  the  French  and  Tuscan  expedition6  from  the  ruins 

1  Perring  (Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit  2nd  Ser.  1,  140)  supposes  that  the  figures 
found  at  El-Tel,  representing  the  worship  of  the  Sun,  are  those  of  the 
Hyksos  kings.  All  that  relates  to  these  Sun- worshippers,  to  whom  Bech- 
naten  Ra  belonged,  is  very  obscure.  Layard  (Nineveh,  2,  211)  thinks  they 
may  be  Assyrians,  as  the  Sun's  disk  was  worshipped  at  Nineveh. 

a  Bunsen,  Neues  Reich,  pi.  viii.  3  Lettres,  247. 

4  Ramessu  (born  of  Ra)  is  probably  the  original  participial  form  of  t'.i€ 
name.    (See  Bunsen,  vol.  i.  p.  297,  Eng.  Trana. 

6  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii,  1,  p.  298. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


213 


of  a  temple  near  Wadi  Haifa,  erected  by  Amenophis  II.  Ramessu 
had  bestowed  gifts  upon  the  priests.  The  stele,  which  is  dated  the 
20th  of  Mechir,  in  that  year,  but  erected  and  terminated  by  his 
son,  speaks  of  the  people  of  the  "  Land  of  the  Nine  Bows"  as  being 
subjected  beneath  his  feet,  and  commemorates,  besides  various 
offerings  made  by  him,  "pure  men  and  women  of  the  captives." 
This  description  occurs  elsewhere  on  Egyptian  monuments.  The 
prisoners  are  divided  into  three  classes,  the  first  of  whom  appear 
to  be  the  ordinary  prisoners  of  war,  who  were  reduced  into  slavery 
or  employed  on  public  works.  The  second,  called  pure,  which  is 
expressed  by  the  same  hieroglyphic  character  as  priest,  were  pro- 
bably distributed  to  the  different  temples,  to  perform  as  hieroduli 
the  inferior  offices  of  ministration.  The  third  class  seem  to  have 
been  hostages1. 

That  the  reign  of  Ramessu  was  short  has  been  inferred  not  only 
from  the  paucity  of  his  monuments,  but  from  the  state  of  his  tomb2 
It  was  nearly  buried  under  rubbish,  which  was  cleared  away  by 
Champollion,  and  the  tomb  itself  was  found  to  consist  of  two  cor 
ridors,  without  sculpture,  terminating  in  an  apartment  decorated 
with  paintings.  The  granite  sarcophagus  which  once  contained 
the  body  of  the  king  had  no  sculpture,  but  was  painted.  From 
the  attributes  given  to  Ramessu  in  the  paintings,  it  appears  that 
some  were  executed  during  his  lifetime,  cithers  after  his  death3. 
Another  presumption  that  his  reign  was  short  arises  from  the  cir- 
cumstance that  Armais  or  Armesses  and  Ramesses,  whom  we 
believe  to  be  Ramessu,  are  represented  as  having  reigned  together 
only  six  years,  or  according  to  Josephus,  five  years  and  five 
months. 

The  name  of  the  successor  of  Ramessu  on  the  tablet  of  Abydos 

1  Birch  in  Trans,  of  Royal  Society  ©f  Literature,  2nd  Series,  2,  345. 

*  Xo.  16  in  Wilkinson's  enumeration  of  the  tombs  in  the  Bab-el-Melook, 
Mod  Eg.  <fc  Thebes,  2,  214. 

•  Roeellini,  Mon.  Stor.  in.  1,  309. 


214 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


has  been  variously  read,  and  exhibits  a  diversity  which  is  no1' 
common1.  Champollion  at  first  believed  the  various  forms  in  which 
the  name  is  written  to  represent  different  kings.  One  class,  in 
which  the  figure  of  Osiris  is  found  united  with  the  syllable  EI,  he 
read  Osirei.  Another,  in  which  a  different  deity,  whom  he  sup- 
posed to  be  Mandoo,  takes  the  place  of  Osiris,  he  read  Manduei, 
and  considered  him  as  a  successor  of  Osirei,  and  both  as  represent- 
ing the  two  Acencheres  of  Manetho.  By  local  study  of  the  Egyp- 
tian monuments  he  ascertained  that  the  figure  of  the  god  Mandoo 
is  very  different,  but  it  long  remained  uncertain  how  this  name  was 
to  be  pronounced.  The  divinity  represented,  a  sitting  figure. with 
long  ears  and  a  head  similar  to  that  of  a  tapir,  often  occurs  on 
monuments,  especially  in  Nubia.  The  phonetic  name  was  disco- 
vered to  be  Set  or  Seth.  It  was  observed  that  the  character  by 
which^  this  god  is  denoted  had  been  chiselled  out  wherever  it 
occurred  in  the  name  of  a  king2.  This  appearance  of  hostility, 
which  Champollion  first  remarked  in  the  Museum  at  Turin,  and 
found  universal  in  Egypt,  led  him  to  conclude  that  it  could  be  no 
other  than  Typhon,  the  principle  of  Evil,  one  of  whose  Egyptian 
names  was  Seth,  and  thus  the  name  of  the  king  was  read  Sethei, 
and  the  effaced  figure  was  supposed  to  be  an  ass,  which  was  an 
emblem  of  Typhon.  The  other  part  of  the  group  was  read 
Phthahmen  or  Menephthah.  It  was  observed,  however,  that  in 
the  same  inscription,  and  where  there  could  be  no  doubt  of  iden- 
tity, the  name  of  the  god  Amun  was  sometimes  substituted  for  that 
of  Pthah3,  which  led  to  the  conclusion  that  neither  of  these  names, 
nor  that  of  Osiris  noticed  before,  formed  a  part  of  the  phonetic 
name,  which  was  pronounced  simply  Sethei.  The  name  of 
Menephthah,  however,  has  become  so  current  that  we  shall 
retain  it. 

1  The  varieties  are  given  by  Rosellini,  Mori.  Stor.  i.  1,  tav.  ix.  1 10  a 
b,  e,  d. 

*  See  vol.  L  p.  350.  3  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  829. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


215 


To  account  for  the  introduction  of  such  a  divinity  as  Typhon  into 
a  royal  title,  Rosellini  supposed  that  it  was  adopted  by  the  king  to 
express  that  he  was  the  destroyer  of  his  enemies ;  but  this  leaves 
unexplained  the  subsequent  obliteration  of  his  figure,  which  seems 
to  imply  that  he  had  become  odious  after  the  erection  of  the  monu- 
ments on  which  it  is  found.  Lepsius  on  the  other  hand  maintains 
that  the  figure  is  not  an  ass  but  a  giraffe  (an  animal  which  is  not 
uncommon  in  hieroglyphics),  and  that  Seth  whose  emblem  it  is,  was 
originally  a  beneficent  deity,  held  in  high  honor  by  the  Egyptians, 
but  that  by  some  revolution  in  theological  opinions  he  subsequently 
was  identified  with  the  principle  of  Evil,  and  his  image  defaced 
wherever  it  was  found.  The  evidence  of  this  hypothesis  has  not 
yet  been  produced.  The  name  Seth  does  not  disappear  from  the 
Egyptian  dynasties,  even  after  the  time  when  the  change  supposed 
to  be  indicated  by  the  obliteration  occurred ;  the  priest  of  Vulcan, 
who  led  the  Egyptians  against  Sennacherib,  was  called  Sethos. 

Setei  Menephthah  has  left  a  memorial  of  himself  in  the  temple 
of  Amada  in  Nubia,  built  by  Thothmes  and  repaired  by  him  ;  and 
at  Silsilis,  where  he  excavated  one  of  the  small  grotto  temples  in 
the  western  rock.  But  his  principal  monuments  are  at  Thebes. 
He  began  the  palace  of  Qoorneh  on  the  western  side  of  the  river 
which  has  been  already  described  under  the  name  of  Meneph- 
theion1,  but  as  it  remained  scarcely  finished  at  his  death,  it  was 
completed  and  decorated  by  his  successors,  Rameses  II.  and  III.,  who 
give  the  honor  of  their  own  labors  to  Menephthah.  The  chief 
apartment  of  the  palace,  forty-eight  feet  long  and  thirty-three  wide, 
appears  to  have  been  designed  as  a  place  of  public  assembly  for 
civil  and  judicial  purposes.  The  remains  at  Karnak  are  much 
more  important2.  The  north-western  wall  of  the  hypostyle  hall  is 
divided  into  compartments  which  occupy  the  whole  of  its  vast  sur- 
face, and  covered  with  figures  and  hieroglyphics  in  that  peculiai  N 


1  VoL  L  p.  128. 


•  VoL  L  p.  147,  Ha 


216 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


relief  which  the  Egyptian  artists  practised.  Each  of  them  re- 
presents some  great  military  undertaking,  in  which  Menephthah 
triumphs  over  five  different  nations  of  Asia ;  and  each  concludes 
with  a  procession  in  honor  of  Amun,  to  whom  spoil  and  captives 
are  presented,  in  gratitude  for  his  having  given  the  victory  to  hi* 
worshippers.  The  magnitude  of  the  scale  on  which  these  pictures 
are  projected,  the  spirit  of  the  drawing  and  the  high  fiuish  of  the 
execution,  show  that  painting  and  sculpture,  both  as  mechanical 
and  intellectual  arts,  had  attained  to  great  perfection. 

Menephthah  had  scarcely  ascended  the  throne  when  he  under- 
took a  military  expedition  against  the  same  nations,  over  whom 
the  Thothmes  and  Amenophis  had  established  their  dominion. 
We  have  no  information  from  monuments  of  any  wars  of  Horus 
with  Asiatic  nations,  and  the  state  of  division  into  which  Egypt 
appears  to  have  fallen,  both  in  his  reign  and  that  of  Ramessu, 
must  have  weakened  its  power  over  distant  countries.  One  of  the 
compartments  of  sculpture  at  Karnak1  represents  him,  with  a 
youthful  figure,  in  the  first  year  of  his  reign,  engaged  in  warfare 
with  a  people  who  are  called  Skos  or  Shosu,  and  their  land 
Kanana.  Their  features  are  wholly  different  from  the  Egyptians : 
they  have  caps  on  their  heads  and  cuirasses  round  the  body,  and 
have  been  armed  with  spears  and  battle-axes.  They  are  in  hasty 
and  disorderly  flight  before  the  king,  who  is  pursuing  them  in  his 
biga,  and  has  already  pierced  many  with  his  arrows.  On  a  hill 
near  stands  a  fortress,  surrounded  with  a  fosse,  towards  which 
the  fugitives  are  making  their  way ; — "  fortress  of  the  land  of 
Kanana  "  is  inscribed  on  the  front.  Another  compartment  repre- 
sents the  continuation  of  this  campaign2.  The  king  again  appears 
in  his  chariot,  transfixing  his  enemies  with  his  arrows ;  three  for- 
tresses are  seen  in  the  background,  the  nearest  of  which  is  aireaaj 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  337  ;  Mon.  Reali,  tav.  xlviii.  2. 
•  "  Rosellini,  Mon.  Reali,  tav.  xlix.  2. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


217 


taken,  and  has  the  name  of  the  king  inscribed  over  the  gate  ;  the 
fugitives  are  making  their  way  towards  a  mountain  covered  with 
wood. 

In  the  same  year  he  carried  on  war  with  another  people,  whose 
geographical  position  cannot  have  been  very  remote,  and  whose 
names  may  be  variously  read  Remanen  or  Lemnnen,  Rotno  or 
Ludnu,  owing  to  the  ambiguity  of  the  letters  which  stand  for  L  or 
R,  T  or  D  in  the  phonetic  alphabet.  They  have  gone  forth  in 
chariots  to  meet  the  king,  but  have  been  utterly  routed.  Their 
physiognomy,  dress  and  armor  are  very  different  from  those  of 
the  Shos ;  they  have  less  pointed  features  ;  their  heads  are  covered 
with  a  cap,  which  descends  to  protect  the  back  of  the  neck,  and  is 
fastened  by  a  band  ;  they  wear  long  garments,  with  a  girdle  at 
the  waist  and  a  deep  cape  over  the  shoulders.  A  fortress  is  near, 
on  the  battlements  of  which  the  defenders  are  standing  and  hold- 
ing out  their  hands  apparently  in  supplication  to  Menephthah.  In 
the  next  compartment  the  king  has  descended  from  his  chariot  and 
holds  the  reins  behind  him,  while  he  turns  to  address  the  chiefs  of 
the  defeated  people,  who  supplicate  him  on  their  knees.  Others 
of  the  same  nation  are  felling  the  trees  of  a  wood,  perhaps  those 
which  surrounded  their  fortress  and  added  to  its  strength  ;  for  a 
fortress  is  seen  in  the  distance,  with  its  gate-posts  and  architrave  . 
falling,  as  if  to  indicate  that  it  had  been  captured  and  dismantled. 
The  whole  concludes  with  a  triumphal  procession,  in  honor  of  the 
two  campaigns.  The  king  is  seen  mounting  his  chariot,  lifting 
two  of  the  conquered  nations,  who  are  powerfully  grasped  in  his 
right  arm,  while  two  files,  with  their  hands  tied,  and  bound  round 
the  neck  by  a  rope  which  the  conqueror  holds,  are  following  him. 
In  a  similar  way  the  captive  Shos  are  led  in  triumph,  and  three  of 
their  heads  are  fixed  on  the  back  of  the  royal  chariot.  Egyptians, 
men  and  women,  come  forth  to  meet  him ;  some  kneel,  others  are 
standing  and  lifting  up  their  hands  in  sign  of  reverence  and  wel- 
come; and  a  company  of  priests,  distinguished  by  their  shorn 

VOL.  II.  10 


218 


niSTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


heads,  offer  large  nosegays  of  the  lotus,  the  characteristic  produc- 
tion of  the  land1.  The  whole  scene  is  bordered  by  the  Nile,  suffi- 
ciently marked  by  the  crocodiles  with  which  it  is  filled  ;  and  a 
palace  stands  on  the  bank2.  The  date  of  the  first  year  of  the 
reign  of  Menephthah  is  repeated  in  the  hieroglyphics  at  this  place  ; 
a  presumption  that  the  scene  of  the  events  cannot  have  been  very 
remote  from  the  frontiers  of  Egypt.  The  whole  finishes  with  the 
presentation  of  the  prisoners  of  the  land  of  Luden  to  the  Theban 
triad  of  gods,  Amunre,  Maut  and  Chons,  and  an  offering  of  vases. 
The  inscription  declares  them  to  be  fabricated  out  of  their  spoils  in 
gold,  silver,  copper,  and  the  unknown  substance  chesebt*,  and  pre- 
cious stones.  Their  devices  are  emblematic  of  the  event  which  they 
record  ;  one  of  them  is  supported  by  figures  of  captives ;  on 
another  the  head  of  a  prisoner  appears  as  bent  down  by  grief,  and 
in  the  hieroglyphics  above  them  they  are  called  "  images  of  the 
chiefs  of  the  strange  lands4." 

No  date  is  found  with  the  scene  next  represented,  in  which  the 
king  is  attacking  a  fortress,  the  name  of  which  has  been  read 
Oisch  or  Atet,  situated  in  the  land  of  Arnar  or  Omar5.  The  people 
who  have  been  defending  it,  resemble  in  their  features  the  Shos,  in 
costume  the  Remanen.  They  fight  in  chariots,  and  inhabit  a 
mountainous  and  woody  country,  through  which  herds  of  cattle 

1  Rosellini,  M.  R.  tav.  xlvi-1. 

2  A  bridge  over  the  stream  is  here  represented,  a  thing  which  occurs 
nowhere  else  among  the  Egyptian  monuments.  It  is  probably  laid  over 
one  of  the  smaller  streams  of  Lower  Egypt,  where  the  kings  would  natu- 
rally fix  their  residence  when  they  were  carrying  on  campaigns  in  Asia. 

8  See  p.  192  of  this  volume. 

•  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  p.  333. 

5  Birch  in  Roy.  Soc.  Lit.,  2nd  Series,  vol.  2,  p.  335.  It  is  conjectured  by 
him  to  be  Haditha  on  the  Euphrates,  by  Dr.  E.  Hincks  to  be  Edeesa,  by 
Mr.  Osburn,  Hadashah  (Josh.  xv.  37),  and  Amar  to  be  the  land  of  the  Amo- 
rites.  Rosellini  compares  Omar  with  Omira,  the  name  which  the  Euphrates 
bore  previous  to  its  passage  through  Mount  Taurus  (Pitny,  N  H.  5,  24). 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


219 


are  flying  in  consternation  at  the  fray.  The  king  is  armed  with 
bow  and  arrows,  and  also  with  a  short  spear,  which  serves  either  to 
hurl  from  a  little  distance,  or  to  stab  in  close  fight.  The  rest  of  the 
events  of  this  campaign  are  lost  by  the  destruction  of  the  wall ; 
but  it  appears  to  have  concluded  with  the  usual  offering  of  vases 
and  prisoners  to  Amunre. 

It  is  probable  that  the  war,  which  is  the  subject  of  the  next 
representation,  occurred  at  a  considerably  later  period  of  the  reign 
of  Menephthah,  since  his  son  Rameses  appears  serving  in  the  cam- 
paign1. Taken  or  Token  is  the  name  of  the  people  against  whom 
it  is  waged,  the  Tahai  who  are  mentioned  in  the  account  of  the 
statistical  tablet  of  Karnak2,  and  who  are  declared  to  belong  to 
the  Rotno  or  Ludnu.  They  wear  helmets,  from  which  a  strap  or 
stnp  of  metal  depends,  for  the  protection  of  the  cheek,  and  the 
chiefs  are  distinguished  by  two  feathers  in  the  helmet.  The  general 
of  the  enemy,  who  is  represented  as  of  an  intermediate  size  between 
his  own  troops  and  the  gigantic  figure  of  Menephthah,  has  been 
pierced  in  the  breast  by  one  of  the  king's  short  spears,  and  then 
caught  round  the  neck  by  his  bow  ;  and  with  the  uplifted,  scimitar 
in  his  hand  he  is  preparing  to  put  him  to  death.  In  another  com- 
partment he  appears  dismounted  from  his  chariot  and  about  to 
stab  with  a  short  spear  a  chief  who  has  been  also  pierced  in  the 
breast  with  an  arrow.  The  captives  are  as  usual  led  in  files  to  be 
presented  to  the  god.  Among  the  offerings,  besides  the  customary 
vases,  are  bags  tied  up,  probably  containing  gold  dust  or  precious 
stones. 

The  people  who  are  called  Sketo  or  Shetin  are  the  subject  of 
another  of  the  great  historical  pictures  of  the  wars  of  Menephthah. 
Unlike  all  those  who  have  bsen  described  before,  -they  use  cavalry* 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  373.    M.  R.  tav.  liv.-lvi. 
:See  p.  187,  188  of  this  volume. 

"  It  is  remarkable  that  the  horses  have  neither  saddle  nor  bridle,  in  this 
respect  resembling  the  Xumidian  cavalry.    "Nihil  primo  adspectu  contep" 


220 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


as  well  as  chariots  in  the  field.  They  are  clothed  in  long  tunica, 
girt  loimd  the  middle  \and  with  sleeves,  but  these  do  not  descend 
below  the  elbow.  They  have  no  beard  ;  their  heads  are  covered 
with  a  scull-cap  which  reaches  to  the  shoulders  and  protects  the 
back  of  the  neck ;  the  top  is  ornamented  with  a  tassel,  and  the 
side  of  the  neck  defended  by  a  strip  which  extends  to  the  breast. 
They  have  square  shields  with  bows.  The  arrows  of  the  king  dis- 
perse them,  and  the  war  ends  with  a  procession,  in  which  captives 
and  chariots  are  led  before  Amunre,  who  on  this  occasion  is 
attended  by  Pasht,  Chons  and  Thmei.  With  this  scene  ends  the 
representation  of  the  wars  and  triumphs  of  Setei-Menephthah  on 
the  wall  of  the  palace  of  Karnak.  They  are  summed  up,  as  it 
were,  in  a  vast  emblematic  picture,  in  which  the  king  appears  of 
gigantic  size,  grasping  by  the  hair  captives  of  nine  different  nations, 
who  are  fastened  to  a  stake,  and  preparing  to  strike  them  with  a 
ponderous  rnace,  loaded  with  a  ball  of  metal  at  the  end,  while 
Amunre  stretches  out  towards  him  the  scimitar  or  shopsh,  the 
emblem  of  destruction  and  power1.  Among  these  nine  nations  we 
recognize  distinctly  the  negro  of  the  interior  of  Africa  ;  the  others, 
though  not  so  strongly  characterized,  correspond  generally  in  fea- 
tures and  head-dress  with  the  nations  already  represented  as  con- 
quered by  Menephthah.  Naharaina  or  Mesopotamia  is  mentioned 
in  an  inscription,  partly  mutilated,  above  the  figure  of  the  king. 
Elsewhere  we  have  seen  the  conqueror  leading  the  vanquished 
nations  to  the  god  ;  but  here  Amunre  himself  holds  the  cords  to 
which  their  symbolical  representations  are  attached.  He  is  accom- 
panied by  a  goddess,  supposed  to  be  the  land  of  Egypt*,  who  also 
holds  three  cords.    The  different  tribes  or  towns  (for  probably 

this ;  equi  hominesque  paulluli  et  graciles ;  discinctus  et  inermis  eques  prse- 
terquam  quod  jacula  aecum  portat;  equi  sine  frenia."   (Liv.  35,  11.) 
1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Reali,  tav.  lvil-lxi. 

*  The  same  apparently  who  is  given  with  slight  variation  in  Sir  O.  Wil 
kinson's  Plates,  58,  3,  and  called  Kahi,  i.  e.  "the  land." 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


221 


they  are  no  more)  are  designated  by  an  embattled  oval,  within 
which  the  name  is  written,  and  over  which  is  placed  a  head  and 
shoulders,  the  cord  being  fastened  round  the  neck,  and  the  arms 
bound.  Of  these  ovals  fifty-six  are  still  legible,  and  several  others 
obliterated.-  Among  those  who  belong  to  the  race  of  Cush,  a  few 
names  seem  to  bear  some  analogy  to  those  known  to  geography, 
as  the  Barobro,  the  Takrurir,  the  Eric,  supposed  to  answer  respec- 
tively to  the  Barabra  and  Berber,  the  DaJcruri  of  Upper  Nubia,  and 
Erchoas  on  the  Nile1,  but  in  most  of  them  no  resemblance  can  be 
traced.  Some  of  the  characters  do  not  belong  to  the  general  pho- 
netic alphabet,  and  their  sound  is  unknown.  The  features  of  the 
negro  in  the  group  grasped  by  the  king  indicate  that  he  came  from 
a  country  far  to  the  South,  unless  we  are  to  suppose  that  tribes  of 
this  physiognomy  extended  further  northward  in  ancient  times. 
The  third  file  led  by  the  god,  with  the  exception  of  the  first  oval, 
is  of  northern  nations2.  Of  those  whom  the  goddess  leads,  the 
first  oval  contains  a  group  of  characters  which  Champollion  reads 
Nemone,  and  supposes  lo  signify  shepherds  (from  the  Coptic  Moone, 
to  feed),  and  to  denote  generally  foreigners  of  the  North.  The 
next  are  the  Shetin,  Naharaina,  the  Rotnu  or  Ludnu,  Upper  and 
Lower,  and  Sinjar.  Of  the  rest,  though  many  of  them  are  dis- 
tinctly written,  little  can  be  made.  Names  of  places  in  Palestine 
have  been  found  in  them8,  and  nothing  is  in  itself  more  probable 
than  that  conquests  in  this  country  should  be  recorded  on  the  monu- 

1  Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  iii.  1,  421.    Birch,  Gall.  Br.  Mus.  2,  89. 

'  This  assumes  the  papyrus- pi  ant,  which  the  second  and  third  ovals  con- 
tain, to  denote  the  North,  as  it  often  does.  Rosellini  (p.  425)  thinks,  from 
its  similarity  with  the  character  answering  to  'EWtjvikoTs  on  the  Rosetta 
Stone,  that  it  shoild  be  read  Aoninin,  and  understood  of  the  Ionians  of 
Asia.  I  doubt  if  in  this  age  the  Ionians  were  found  on  the  coast  of  Asia, 
and  were  this  reading  phonetically  correct,  should  rather  connect  it  with 
the  ancient  name  of  Gaza  (Dion.  Ferieget.  1,  92,  with  the  note  of 
Eastathius). 

*  Osburn,  Onoraastioon,  Ancient  Egypt,  p.  156 


222 


HISTORY  OF  EQYrT. 


ments  of  Egyptian  kings ;  but  their  identification  with  biblical 
names  is  not  sufficiently  supported  to  warrant  our  proposing  them 
as  facts. 

There  is  much  probability  in  the  opinion  of  Rosellini,  that  we 
should  read  the  name  of  the  Rotnu,  Ludin,  and  that  the  Lydians 
are  meant ;  not  using  this  word  in  the  limited  sense  to  which  the 
Greek  writers  have  accustomed  us,  but  as  a  general  name  for  Asia 
Minor  and  its  prolongation  to  the  country  at  the  sources  of  the 
Tigris  and  Euphrates.  Two  wholly  different  nations  are  evidently 
described  in  Scripture  under  the  name  of  Lud.  One  of  these 
(Gen.  x.  13)  is  called  a  son  of  Mizraim,  and  is  mentioned  by  Jere- 
miah with  Ethiopia  and  Libya  (xlvi.  9)  as  an  ally  of  Egypt. .  The 
other  (Gen.  x.  22)  is  called  a  son  of  Shem,  and  mentioned  in  con- 
nexion with  Arphaxad  (Arrapachitis  in  Northern  Assyria),  and 
Aram  or  Syria.  This  is  the  position  in  which  a  name  might  be 
expected  to  occur  which  represents  the  Semitic  population  of  Asia 
Minor.  These  Ludim,  not  the  African  nation  of  the  same  name, 
appear  to  be  meant  in  Ezek.  xxvii.  10,  where  they  are  joined  with 
Persia  and  Libya  as  furnishing  mercenaries  to  Tyre.  To  this 
Semitic  population  was  probably  owing  the  manifest  connexion 
between  the  mythology  of  Lydia  and  that  of  Assyria1,  and  the 
early  civilization  of  Lydia,  which  through  the  Greek  colonies  settled 
on  its  shores  became  a  source  of  refinement  and  culture  to  all 
Europe. 

We  have  already  described  among  the  sepulchres  of  Thebes,  the 
tomb  and  sarcophagus  of  Setei-Menephthah,  discovered  by  Belzoni 
in  the  Bab-el-Melook9.  It  is  the  most  splendid  that  has  hitherto 
been  explored,  and  the  plates  to  Belzoni's  work  will  give  a  good 

1  Comp.  Herod.  1,  7,  where  Agron,  the  first  of  the  Heracleid  kings  of 
Lydia,  is  made  the  son  of  Ninus  the  son  of  Belus.  The  predecessors  of  Agron 
were  descended  from  Lydus  the  son  of  Atys,  who  represents  a  Phrygian 
population  e  arlier  tha  n  the  connexion  wi  Assyria. 

•  VoL  L  p.  141. 


TIIE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


223 


idea  of  the  variety  and  richness  of  its  decorations  It  contains  a 
representation  whi(,h  we  find  repeated  with  some  variation  in  the 
tombs  of  other  kings  of  this  and  the  succeeding  dynasty,  and  which 
seems  designed  to  express  the  universality  of  Egyptian  dominion. 
The  god  Horus,  the  symbol  of  royalty,  is  preceded  by  four  com- 
panies of  men,  of  different  color,  physiognomy,  and  costume.  The 
first  are  plainly  Egyptians  ;  the  third  are  blacks  ;  the  second  white 
with  bushy  black  hair,  blue  eyes,  aquiline  noses,  and  reddish  beards  ; 
they  wear  short  parti-colored  tunics,  with  several  tassels  at  the 
lower  extremities.  The  fourth  resemble  the  people  called  Rebo  in 
the  campaigns  of  Rameses  IV.,  wearing  feathers  in  their  heads,  and 
large  cloaks,  and  having  their  bodies  tattooed.  The  Egyptians 
have  the  name  Rot,  supposed  to  signify  race,  as  if  they  identified 
themselves  with  mankind ;  the  blacks  that  of  Nahsu ;  the  third 
group  are  called  Namu,  and  the  fourth  Tamhu.  The  Nahsu  are 
represented  with  variety  of  dress  and  physiognomy  in  the  other 
tombs,  but  always  black ;  the  Namu  are  elsewhere  drawn  with  an 
entirely  different  costume ;  and  the  Tamhu  are  made  yellow  instead 
of  fair,  and  have  ample  garments  worked  in  elaborate  patterns, 
instead  of  the  cloaks  which  half  cover  their  tattooed  bodies1.  The 
two  names  therefore  appear  to  be  generic,  and  to  comprehend  races 
ethnographical ly  distinct.  The  people  called  in  the  sculptures  of 
the  wars  of  Menephthah,  Remenen.  or  Lemenen,  and  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  land  of  Omar,  belonged  to  the  Namu ;  the  Tohen  to 
the  Tamhu.  In  the  same  way  Nahsu  is  the  generic  name  of  the 
black  nations,  and  Cush  the  specific  name  of  the  Ethiopians.  Taken 
together  they  appear  to  have  conventionally  represented  the  prin- 
cipal nations  known  to  the  Egyptians,  and  as  their  wars  did  not 
extend  to  Europe,  we  must  seek  the  originals  in  Asia,  the  Namu 
in  the  Semitic  nations,  the  Tamhu  in  those  who  dwelt  eastward  of 
the  Tigris. 

The  monuments  do  not  afford  us  data  for  fixing  the  length  of 
1  Rosellini,  M.  S.  4,  228,  M.  R.  tav.  civ.  <tc. 


224 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


Setei-Menephthah's  reign.  The  Sethos  of  the  lists  is  said  to  have 
reigned  fifty -one  or  fifty-five  years,  and  the  magnitude  and  elabo- 
rate decoration  of  the  tomb  of  Setei-Menephthah,  as  well  f  as  his 
recorded  conquests,  show  that  his  reign  cannot  have  been  a  short 
one.  The  name  of  one  of  his  queens  appears  to  have  been  Twca, 
the  mother  of  Rameses  II.  and  III. ;  of  another,  Tsire1. 

The  shields  of  all  the  sovereigns  hitherto  mentioned  on  the 
tablet  of  Abydos  contain  titles  only,  and  their  phonetic  names  have 
been  ascertained  from  other  monuments.  That  of  the  successor  of 
Setei-Menephthah,  however,  is  followed  by  a  shield  which  contains 
a  phonetic  name,  and  closes  the  last  line  but  one ;  this  name  is 
Rameses  Mei-Amun,  and  it  is  repeated  along  with  the  titular  shield 
through  the  whole  length  of  the  lowest  line.  But  the  titufar  shield 
of  the  lowest  line  is  not  exactly  the  same  as  the  last  titular  shield 
of  the  upper  line ;  it  differs  from  it  by  the  addition  of  a  group  of 
•  characters  which  is  usually  interpreted,  "  Approved  by  Re2."  The 
lateral  column  of  the  tablet,  again,  exhibits  only  the  shield  without 
the  addition.  Hence  arises  the  question,  do  these  two  titular 
shields  represent  two  sovereigns,  Rameses  Meiamun  II.  and  Rame- 
ses Meiamun  III.,  or  is  the  addition  in  the  second  shield  merely  a 
difference,  assumed  by  the  same  sovereign  at  a  subsequent  period 
of  his  reign  ?  Such  variations,  perplexing  as  they  are,  appear  to 
have  been  practised.  The  obelisk  of  the  Atmeidan,  already  men- 
tioned, exhibits  four  several  additions  to  the  characters  which  form 
the  titular  shield  of  Thothmes  III.3,  and  one  of  them  is  this  same 
group,  "  approved  by  Re."  Again,  the  same  tomb  in  the  Bab-el- 
Melook  was  found  to  contain  two  shields,  one  which  has,  the  other 

1  Rosellini,  Hon.  Stor.  1,  251,  270. 

*  Compare  the  shields,  11,  12,  &  13,  in  the  Hieroglyphic  Plates,  II.  vol.  i. 
No.  12  is  the  phonetic  name  belonging  to  both;  no.  13  has  the  group  of 
characters  at  the  bottom  which  is  read  Sotp-n-ra,  u  approved  by  Ra,H  which 
is  wanting  in  no.  11. 

•  See  Trans.  Roy.  Soc  Lit.  2,  228,  2nd  Seriea. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTV. 


225 


which  has  not  the  addition  "approved  by  Re;"  and  hence  Major 
Felix  and  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson  were  led  to  the  conclusion,  that 
they  indicated  only  one  sovereign,  Rameses  II.  The  colossal  statue 
which  lies  reversed  at  Mitrahenny  has  on  the  girdle  both  shields, 
one  with,  one  without  "  approved  by  Re."  At  Beitoualli  the  shield 
is  four  times  repeated,  once  with  the  addition  "  approved  by  Re." 
The  T^ooes^V  :f  the  kings  at  the  Rameseion  and  Medinet  Aboo 
exhibit  only  the  shield  with  the  addition1.  These  are  strong  rea- 
sons for  believing  that  only  one  king  is  designated  by  both  shields. 
Yet  a  great  difficulty  attends  this  supposition :  the  names  of  their 
wives  and  their  children  are  different,  and  it  would  be  too  arbi- 
trary a  mode  of  proceeding  to  assume  a  second  marriage  and  the 
death  of  the  children  of  the  first.  Rosellini  adds2,  that  the  physi- 
ognomy of  the  two  kings  is  so  different,  that  even  at  a  distance 
they  can  be  distinguished  by  one  who  is  familiar  with  them.  This 
argument  can  be  appreciated  only  by  those  who  have  seen  the  „ 
monuments  of  Egypt  on  the  spot ;  yet  the  evidence  of  one  who 
spent  so  many  months  among  them  must  be  admitted  to  be  of 
great  weight.  It  is  also  alleged3,  that  in  more  than  one  instance 
the  title  "  approved  by  Re"  has  been  inserted  in  a  shield  in  which 
it  had  not  been  originally  found,  by  a  cancelling  of  the  previous 
inscription — an  act  not  likely  to  have  been  performed  by  a  sove- 
reign on  his  own  shield,  though  we  find  a  son  using  this  liberty 
with  the  shield  of  his  father.  Rosellini  assures  us  also  that  he  has 
found  dates  of  the  reign  of  Rameses  from  the  second  year  to  the 
sixty-second,  all  containing  the  addition  "  approved  by  Re,"  and  it 
is  difficult  to  conceive  that  he  should  before  the  first  of  these  dates 
have  performed  those  exploits  and  executed  those  works,  to  which 
the  shield  without  the  addition  is  attached.  Where  obelisks  have 
been  begun  by  one  monarch  and  finished  by  another,  the  central 
line  marks  the  work  of  the  first.    Now  the  central  inscription  012 

1  Rosellini,  M.  Stor  1,  p.  205  2  Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  1,  250,  2<U. 

•  Rosellini  u.  s.  Birch,  Gall.  B.  Mua  P.  2,  \\  91,  note  11. 

10* 


226 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


three  of  the  faces  of  the  obelisk  transported  from  Luxor  to  Paris 
bears  the  shield  without  the  addition  ;  so  does  that  which  remains 
at  Luxor  on  one  of  its  faces ;  the  others  bear  the  shield  with  the 
addition.  Without  concealing  the  difficulties  which  press  on  either 
hypothesis,  I  assume,  as  most  probable  according  to  the  present 
state  of  the  question,  that  the  two  shields  represent  two  kings,  and 
I  shall  proceed  to  give  an  account  of  the  monuments  which  bear 
their  respective  names. 

To  Rameses  II.  belong  the  historical  pictures  and  sculptures  of 
Beitoualli  near  Kalabshe  in  Nubia,  casts  of  which,  colored  accord- 
ing to  the  original,  may  be  seen  in  the  British  Museum1.  The 
sanctuary  represents  the  youthful  monarch  suckled  by*  Isis  and 
Anouke.  The  walls  of  the  vestibule  exhibit  on  the  left  his 
triumphs  over'  the  Ethiopian  nations.  Mounted  in  his  chariot 
armed  with  his  bow,  and  accompanied  by  two  of  his  sons  who  are 
also  in  chariots,  he  slaughters  and  tramples  down  the  negroes  who 
fly  in  confusion  towards  a  village  indicated  by  its  palms.  A 
wounded  man,  supported  by  two  others,  is  feebly  making  his  way 
to  a  cottage  within  which  the  mother  is  cooking.  A  child  and 
another  female  stand  beside  the  door  with  expressions  of  sympathy 
and  terror.  Conquerors  have  been  fond  in  all  ages  of  recording 
the  carnage  of  their  battle-fields,  but  this  is  a  solitary  instance  of 
their  completing  the  picture  by  an  exhibition  of  the  misery  which 
war  brings  to  the  cottage-hearth.  The  fruits  of  the  victory  are 
exhibited  in  a  procession,  in  which  the  same  productions  of  Africa, 
which  have  been  already  described  in  speaking  of  the  reign  of 
Thothmes  III.,  are  brought  before  the  king,  who  is  seated  under  a 
rich  canopy.  Immediately  before  him  stands  his  son,  who  is  intro- 
ducing into  his  presence  "the  royal  son  of  the  land  cf  Cush, 
Anemophth."  Rosellini  thought  that  he  was  brought  as  a  pri- 
soner, but  it  seems  more  probable  that  the  two  attendants  are 


»  RoMliini,  M.  R.  tnv.  Ixii.-lxxv.    Birch,  Gall.  Brit,  Mna  pi.  88,  p.  2. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


227 


arraying  him  in  garments  of  state,  previous  to  bis  appearance 
before  the  king  ;  and  that  the  vase  which  Rosellini  supposed  to 
contain  a  restorative  potion,  holds  water  or  perfume.  In  another 
part  of  the  procession  the  same  Anemophth  brings  on  his  shoul- 
ders skins  of  panthers,  rings  of  gold  and  exotic  plants,  and  the 
connection  of  the  different  parts  of  the  picture  is  probably  to  be 
conceived  of  in  this  way,  that  having  deposited  his  offerings  before 
the  king,  he  is  rewarded  by  receiving  the  investiture  described 
above.  From  his  features  and  dress  he  is  evidently  of  Egyptian 
race,  and  therefore  probably  of  a  family  which  had  enjoyed  the 
viceroyalty  of  Ethiopia  since  the  commencement  of  Egyptian  con- 
quests in  that  country. 

The  left  side  of  the  vestibule  contains  representations  of  the 
Asiatic  victories  of  Rameses  II.  The  people  with  whom  he  is 
engaged  are  those  whom  we  have  already  become  acquainted  with, 
in  the  historical  monuments  of  Setei-Menephthah's  reign.  In  one 
compartment  the  king  appears  mounted  in  his  chariot  and  pur- 
suing a  host  of  men  of  yellow  complexion,  short  and  peaked  beards 
and  a  sharp  physiognomy,  variously  armed  with  scimitars,  javelins 
and  throwsticks1.  In  the  inscriptions  which  are  legible  their  name 
does  not  occur,  but  they  closely  resemble  those  who  on  the  walls 
of  Karnak  are  called  the  Shos,  and  whom  we  have  concluded  to 
be  a  tribe  of  Palestine.  Next  he,  is  seen  attacking  a  fortress,  in 
the  upper  story  of  which  is  a  chief  whom  he  grasps  by  his  helmet 
and  is  preparing  to  behead  with  his  scimitar.  On  the  lower  story 
are  several  figures,  in  attitudes  expressive  of  distress  and  consterna- 
tion. One  man  holds  out  a  censer  towards  the  conqueror,  as  if  in 
propitiation  of  a  god  ;  two  females  are  imploring  his  clemency  ;  a 
third,  with  similar  purpose,  is  holding  her  child  from  the  battle- 
ments, from  which  a  man  is  also  precipitating  himself.  A  prince 
armed  with  an  axe  approaches  the  gate  of  the  fortress  to  break  it  open. 


1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Reali,  pL  lxriL 


228 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


No  name  occurs  in  any  part  of  this  scene  ;  but  the  costume  is  that 
of  the  people  whose  name  is  read  by  Rosellini  Shomui,  by  Champol- 
lion  Shari  or  Kharu\  and  supposed  to  be  Syrians.  Men  of  the 
same  nation  appear  in  the  next  compartment  to  be  brought  before 
the  king  to  receive  their  doom.  He  stands  on  a  board  beneath 
which  two  of  them  are  lying  prostrate,  and  thus  literally  made  his 
footstool •  he  grasps  three  by  the  head,  and  the  prince  leads  a  file 
of  others  to  him  bound.  A  similar  scene  is  represented  in  another 
compartment,  where  the  king  holds  his  scimitar  over  the  head  of 
a  kneeling  prisoner  of  Asiatic  race.  Finally  he  is  seen,  seated  on 
his  throne,  with  a  lion  having  his  fore-paws  bound  couched  at  his 
feet.  Egyptians,  evidently  of  military  rank  bearing  emblems  of 
victory,  stand  in  order  before  him,  and  one  of  the  princes  of 
the  blood  brings  three  Asiatic  prisoners  bound.  The  inscription 
appears  to  be  a  general  summary  of  the  triumphs  recorded  on 
both  walls,  mention  being  made  of  victories  over  the  Cushites  as 
well  as  the  Shari2. 

This  is  the  principal  historical  monument  of  Rameses  II.'s 
reign ;  for  the  obelisks  of  Luxor  contain  nothing  beyond  the  cus- 
tomary pompous  and  mystical  phrases.  It  has  been  already  men- 
tioned, that  the  tomb  in  the  Bab-el-Melook  appears  to  have  been 
begun,  but  not  carried  on  far  by  him.  From  this  and  other  cir- 
cumstances it  has  been  concluded  that  his  reign  was  not  long. 

He  was  succeeded  by  Rameses  III.  That  he  was  the  brother 
of  his  predecessor  appears  from  the  Menephtheion3  already  men- 
tioned, in  which  both  of  them  stand  before  the  figure  of  Meneph- 
thah,  and  the  inscription  declares  that  they  have  come  to  render 
homage  to  their  father4.  We  have  seen  however  that  Rameses 
H.  had  sons,  and  therefore  we  must  suppose  that  they  were  dead, 
or  what  is  more  probable,  that  their  uncle  set  them  aside  and 

1  See  p.  192  of  this  vol.    VoL  i.  pp.  262,  263. 

2  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  p.  18. 

•  Bee  p.  215  of  this  vol.  *  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  1,  p.  26S. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


229 


mounted  the  throne — a  proceeding  not  unsuitable  to  his  energetic 
character.  He  may  even  have  dated  his  accession  from  his 
father's  death.  That  Rameses  III.  is  the  Sesostris  of  Herodotus 
is  no  longer  doubtful.  Herodotus  says  that  he  had  himself  seen 
in  "  Palestine  of  Syria1 "  the  tablet  which  Sesostris  set  up  in  com- 
memoration of  his  conquest.  At  the  mouth  of  the  Nahr-el-Kelb, 
the  ancient  Lycus,  not  far  from  Beiroot,  three  such  tablets  are 
found,  exhibiting  an  Egyptian  king  in  the  customary  posture  of 
smiting  his  enemies.  His  name  is  not  preserved,  but  the  titular 
shield  is  that  of  Rameses  III.  with  the  characters  "  approved  of 
Re."  Further,  Herodotus  relates  that  Sesostris  on  his  return  to 
Egypt  set  up  a  colossal  statue  of  himself,  thirty  cubits  (forty-five 
feet)  in  height,  before  the  temple  of  Ptah  at  Memphis.  At  Mitra- 
henny  we  have  seen  that  a  colossal  statue  still  exists8,  forty-eight 
feet  in  height,  bearing  not  only  the  titular  shield,  but  the  phonetic 
name  of  Rameses  III.  This  proof  is  not  so  cogent  as  the  preced- 
ing, because  we  are  not  sure  that  this  is  the  statue  of  which  Hero- 
dotus speaks, 'but  even  alone  it  would  have  furnished  a  strong 
argument  for  the  identity  of  the  Sesostris  of  Herodotus  with  this 
king.  It  does  not  prove  that  he  was  called  Sesostris  in  the  Egyp- 
tian annals ;  but  it  shows  that  one  remarkable  circumstance  which 
Herodotus  relates  of  Sesostris  is  historically  true  of  Rameses  III., 
and  justifies  our  application  of  the  written  history,  in  which  no 
Rameses  appears,  to  the  monumental,  in  which  the  name  of  Sesos- 
tris is  not  found.  That  we  should  be  able  to  frame  from  their 
union  a  narrative  in  which  every  part  of  both  shall  find  a  place,  is 
not  to  be  expected.    Diodorus  complains  that  the  Greeks  did  not 

1  Trans,  of  Royal  Soc.  Lit  vol.  3,  p.  106,  PL  1,  2,  1st  Series.  Possibly 
this  may  explain  the  tablets  iv  rj)  'Lipia6tK?l  yy  Ktifitvuiv  from  which,  accord- 
ing to  Syncellus  (p.  40,  78,  ed.  Dind.),  the  Pseudo-Manetho  in  the  Sothii 
professed  to  have  derived  his  history.  The  inscriptions  in  the  Wadi 
Mokuttub  are  hardly  of  sufficient  antiquity  to  be  referred  to, 

■  Vol  i  p.  W. 


230 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


agree  with  one  another  in  what  they  related  of  Sesostris  (hia 
Sesoosis.),  njr  the  priests  with  those  who  panegyrized  him  in  song1. 
He  himself  begins  his  narrative  with  a  circumstance  which  betrays 
its  own  origin  in  popular  and  poetical  fiction.  It  is  a  characteristic 
of  such  fictions  to  represent  the  birth  and  earliest  years  of  those 
who  are  afterwards  to  play  a  distinguished  part,  as  corresponding 
with  their  subsequent  celebrity.  The  father  of  Sesostris  collected 
together  all  the  male  children  who  were  born  in  Egypt  on  the 
same  day  with  him,  and  caused  them  all  to  be  educated  together, 
that  early  familiarity  might  prepare  them  for  friendly  co-operation2. 
Their  training  was  such  as  the  future  conquerors  of  the  world  from 
India  to  Thrace  might  well  need  ;  none  was  allowed  to  take  food 
in  the  morning  till  he  had  run  180  stadia,  at  least  eighteen  miles. 
While  yet  a  youth  he  was  sent  with  his  companions  by  his  father 
to  undergo  a  still  further  hardening  in  the  deserts  of  Arabia,  and 
subdued  its  inhabitants,  on  whom  the  yoke  had  never  been 
imposed  before.  Next  he  was  dispatched  to  the  wSst,  where  he 
subdued  also  the  greater  part  of  Libya.  That  some  reason  might 
appear  why  his  father  anticipated  such  celebrity  for  his  son  and 
educated  him  accordingly,  it  was  said  that  Hephaistos  appeared  to 
him  in  his  sleep  and  foretold  that  the  child  who  was  about  to  be 
born  should  be  the  conqueror  of  the  world.  On  his  father's  death, 
either  relying  on  this  oracle,  or  persuaded  by  his  daughter  Athvr- 
tis,  who  was  endowed  with  superior  sagacity  to  all  other  women, 
or  had  acquired  her  knowledge  by  divination,  he  determined  to 
undertake  an  expedition. 

1  Diod.  1,  53. 

a  Jomard,  Description  d'Egypte,  M6moires,  9,  151,  calculates,  that  if, 
when  Sesostris  was  twenty  years  of  age,  more  than  1700  males,  as  Diodorua 
says  (1,  54),  were  living,  born  on  the  same  day  with  him,  6800  children 
must  have  been  born  every  day  of  the  year,  and  the  whole  population  of 
Egypt  must  have  been  72,722,600.  The  scythe  of  statistics  mews  dewn 
unmercifully  the  exuberances  of  mythology  and  rhetoric. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


231 


We  recognize  here  plainly  enough  the  exaggerations  natural  to 
the  story  of  an  heroic  conqueror,  whose  memory  has  been  fondly 
cherished  by  the  people  and  celebrated  in  popular  poetry.  Hero- 
dotus relates  no  prodigies  or  incredible  facts  respecting  the  child- 
hood of  his  Sesostris,  but  he  makes  his  first  expedition  to  be  for 
the  subjugation  of  the  people  who  dwelt  on  the  shores  of  the  Ery- 
thraean Sea,  that  is  the  Indian  Ocean.  If  he  built  his  fleet  of  ships 
of  war  in  some  of  the  harbors  on  the  western  side  of  the  Red  Sea, 
and  with  them  passed  the  Straits  of  Babelmandeb  to  subdue  the 
Ethiopians,  it  is  difficult  to  understand  how  his  further  progress 
could  be  stopped,  as  Herodotus  says,  by  shallows.  If,  however,  as 
Diodorus  represents1,  he  made  a  land  expedition  into  Ethiopia,  and 
as  he  and  Strabo  say,  from  that  coast  entered  the  Arabian  Gulf, 
he  might  naturally  enough  be  stopped  by  shallows,  for  the  sand- 
banks and  coral-reefs  make  navigation  along  its  shores  towards 
the  northern  end  dangerous  in  the  extreme  to  all  who  are  not 
familiar  with  them.  These  difficulties  were  experienced  by  ^Elius 
Gall  us  when  he  undertook  his  expedition  from  the  head  of  the 
Gulf,  against  the  Arabs,  in  the  reign  of  Augustus  ;  and  the  tides 
of  the  Red  Sea,  which  embarrassed  his  navigation,  must  have  been 
still  more  formidable  to  Egyptian  sailors  in  the  reign  of  Sesostris3. 
A  fleet  for  the  navigation  of  this  sea  would  be  more  easily 
constructed  on  the  coast  of  Ethiopia,  which  abounded  with  wood, 
than  at  Suez,  Myos  Hormos  or  Berenice,  where  no  timber  what- 
ever is  to  be  found.  The  subsequent  exaggerations  of  Diodorus, 
who  makes  Sesostris  conquer  the  whole  sea-coast  to  Jndia,  and 
even  pass  the  Ganges  and  reach  the  Eastern  Ocean,  do  not  belong 
to  the  poetical  fictions  of  the  ancient  Egyptians ;  they  indicate  the 
corruption  of  history  from  a  more  recent  source — the  desire  of  the 

1  Diod.  1.  55.    Strabo,  16,  p.  769. 

'  Syllaeus,  who  undertook  to  be  his  pilot,  exposed  his  fleet  to  danger 

iais  d\inevoti  irapaPa\ojvf  ?/  ^otpaScjv  {<<pi\a)v  [xeaTa'is  ?;  Ttvayu>5(.ci'  v\eio-ni'  ii  k! 
TXqp/iVfrt^c;  iXvirovv  toil  al  u^7ro5r£<c.     (Strabo,  16,  p.  780.) 


232 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


priests  to  exalt  the  conquests  of  Sesostris  above  those  of  the  Mace- 
donians, under  whose  dominion  the  land  of  the  Pharaohs  had 
fallen.  Diodorus,  who  assigns  him  600,000  infantry,  24,000 
cavalry  and  27,000  chariots,  includes  the  Cyclades  in  his  conquests  ; 
Dicaearchus1,  "  the  greater  part  of  Europe."  • 

The  Greek  historians  represent  Sesostris  as  of  unusually  lofty 
stature  ;  Herodotus,  according  to  the  probable  meaning  of  his 
words,  six  feet  nine  inches2 ;  and  this  may  perhaps  be  a  cause  why 
he  seems  to  have  drawn  to  himself  the  fame  of  the  Thothmes  and 
Menephthah,  whose  names  are  passed  over  by  them.  In  the  Egyp- 
tian battle-pieces  the  sovereign  is  always  of  gigantic  size,  and  to 
those  who  could  not  read  their  names,  they  might  all  pass  for  one 
'And  the  same  Sesostris9. 

The  historical  and  other  monuments  of  the  reign  of  Rameses  III. 
far  exceed  those  of  any  preceding  or  subsequent  sovereign,  and 
correspond  with  the  long  reign  of  upwards  of  sixty  years  which  the 
lists  and  the  sculptures  agree  in  attributing  to  him.  The  earliest 
of  these  records  is  of  the  fifth  year  of  his  reign.  His  campaign  of 
this  year  is  partially  delineated  on  the  walls  of  the  propylsea  of 
Luxor,  but  much  more  fully  on  those  of  the  temple  of  Aboosimbel. 
So  numerous  are  the  pictures  that  they  alone  occupy  twenty-five 
plates  in  the  great  work  of  Rosellini4.  The  cost  and  labor  involved 
in  first  excavating  this  temple  in  the  rock,  and  then  covering  it 
with  painted  sculptures  of  nearly  the  size  of  life,  are  incalculable ; 
yet  they  could  never  be  seen,  except  when  explored  with  artificial 
light.  At  the  time  when  this  temple  was  excavated,  the  valley  of 
the  Nile  between  the  two  Cataracts  was  no  doubt  much  better 
peopled  than  it  has  ever  since  been.  But  on  this  site  there  is  no 
appearance  that  any  town  has  ever  stood ;  the  Nile  is  close  to  the 

1  SchoL  ApolL  Rhod.  4,  272. 

*  See  note  on  pfyaOos  Ktpimts  <r7(0ap7j,  Kenrick's  Egypt  of  Herodotua, 

2,  ioe. 

*  See  p.  138  of  this  vol  '  Mon.  Reali,  tav.  Ixxix.  clii. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


233 


front  and  the  desert  is  behind,  whence  the  sand  has  poured  down 
in  streams,  choked  up  the  entrance  to  the  temple,  and  buried  the 
colossal  figure  of  the  king.  We  can  only  conjecture  therefore  that 
some  unrecorded  circumstance  in  the  life  of  Rameses  led  him  to  fix 
on  ^his  spot  for  a  record  of  his  gratitude1. 

The  pronaos  of  the  temple,  into  which  the  traveller  first  enters 
when  he  has  worked  his  way  through  the  sand,  is  supported  by  a 
double  row  of  eight  pilasters,  on  the  front  of  which  stands,  like  a 
Caryatid,  the  figure  of  Rameses  with  the  attributes  of  Osiris, 
thirty  feet  in  height.  The  walls  on  the  left  or  south  side  are 
divided  into  several  compartments,  each  of  which  represents  some 
action  of  the  king ;  the  right  is  occupied  with  a  single  subject, 
itself  comprehending  a  great  variety  of  actions2.  The  two  first  on 
the  left  side  exhibit  the  victories  of  the  king,  accompanied  by  his 
three  sons',  one  of  whom  is  named  Rameses,  over  the  Asiatic 
nations  whose  names  are  already  known  to  us  from  the  sculptures 
of#Setei  Menephthah,  African  victories  being  also  incidentally  men- 
tioned in  the  inscriptions.  The  artist  has  apparently  had  this 
monument  of  Menephthah's  reign  in  view,  and  imitated  its  compo- 
sition and  arrangement.  In  the  next  compartment  are  seen  two 
filos  of  African  prisoners  led  by  the  king  to  be  presented  to  three 
divinities4.  These  according  to  the  usual  theology  should  be 
Amunre,  Phre,  and  Maut ;  but  Rosellini  has  observed  a  singular 
piece  of  flattery  in  the  composition  of  the  group*.  The  figure  which 
should  represent  Phre  has  the  disk  of  the  sun  placed  over  it,  but 
the  features  are  those  of  Rameses  III.  himself,  the  head-dress  is 
that  of  a  king,  and  the  legend  above  is,  "  Discourse  of  Amun-mai- 

1  Rosellini  supposes  that  here  he  may  have  met  his  queen,  by  whom  th« 
en i all er  temple  was  dedicated  to  Athor,  on  his  return  from  his  expedition, 
(Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  167.) 

3  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  89-119. 

■  Rosellini,  u.  «.  p.  101.  4  Rosellini,  M.  R.  tav.  lxxxiv.  v.  vi 

Mon.  Stor.  iii,  2,  117. 


234 


HISTORY    OF  EGYPT. 


Ramses,  We  grant  thee  life  and  perfect  purity."  The  African 
prisoners  are  colored  alternately  brown  and  black,  but  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  this  is  meant  to  indicate  the  difference  of  color 
between  Nubians  and  negroes  ;  elsewhere  we  find  the  Egyptian  ar- 
tists using  a  contrast  of  color  for  the  sake  of  relief.  The  feature^  of 
both  the  brown  and  the  black  men  are  equally  negro,  and  their  cos- 
tume is  the  same.  In  their  rude  and  awkward  movements,  and  the 
ludicrous  expression  of  constraint  and  pain  in  their  countenances, 
the  painter  has  exactly  copied  the  workings  of  nature  as  they  may 
be  seen  at  this  day  in  the  same  people  under  similar  circumstances. 

The  wall  on  the  right-hand  side  represents,  without  divisions,  a 
series  of  actions  in  a  campaign  against  the  Sheto  which  may  be 
considered  as  the  first  military  undertaking  of  Rameses  III.,  as  it 
bears  date  the  ninth  of  Epiphi,  in  the  fifth  year  of  his  reign.  The 
whole  composition  contains  more  than  eight  hundred  figures,  and 
the  centre  is  occupied  by  the  camp  of  the  king,  the  various  events 
of  the  campaign  being  exhibited  around  the  four  sides1.  The  series 
begins  with  an  attack  made  by  him  on  a  fortified  city  standing  on 
a  river,  branches  of  which  flow  around  its  walls,  and  serve  the  pur- 
pose of  a  trench.  The  enemy,  who  wear  long-sleeved  tunics,  have 
generally  the  head  shaven,  with  the  exception  of  a  lock  which  falls 
over  the  back  of  the  neck,  and  wear  moustachios.  They  fight  from 
chariots,  but  of  much  ruder  construction  than  those  of  the  Egyp- 
tians, and  each  chariot  carries  three  persons,  a  spearman,  a  chario- 
teer and  a  shield-bearer.  Their  shields  are  of  different  forms,  some 
square,  and  apparently  made  of  basket-work,  others  of  wood  with 
incurved  sides.  The  enemy  are  driven  headlong  to  the  fortress, 
and  some  of  them  have  been  precipitated  with  their  horses  and 
chariots  into  the  river.  Mixed  with  the  chariots  appear  here  and 
there  men  mounted  on  horseback  ;  but  as  they  are  without  armor, 
and  the  horses  without  saddle  or  bridle,  they  seem  as  if  they  were 

1  Rosellini,  Men.  Stor.  iii.  2,  119,  tav.  lxxxviii.-ciiL 


TTIE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


235 


making  their  escape  from  the  field  on  horses  which  in  the  conflict 
had  been  detached  from  their  harness,  or  else  are  acting  as  messen- 
gers1. The  battle-scene  is  followed  by  another,  in  which  the  king, 
seated  in  his  chariot,  and  surrounded  by  his  guards  and  officers, 
sees  the  amputated  hands  of  his  enemies  thrown  down  before  him, 
and  their  number  recorded  by  scribes  Other  scenes  of  war  occupy 
the  borders ;  they  generally  resemble  those  which  we  have  already 
described.  One  of  them,  however,  deserves  a  special  notice;  iwo 
men  of  the  hostile  nation  are  undergoing  the  bastinade,  and  from 
the  inscription  above  them  it  appears  that  they  are  detected  spies. 

The  importance  which  the  Egyptians  attached  to  the  events 
of  this  campaign  is  evident  from  its  repetitions  at  Thebes. 
The  scene  represented  on  the  propylsea  of  the  great  court  of  Luxor 
is  the  same  as  that  which  we  have  just  described2.  We  find  again 
the  city  round  which  the  river  flows  assaulted  by  the  Egyptians, 
and  some  of  the  combatants  with  their  chariots  and  horses  preci- 
pitated into  it  The  bastinading  of  the  spies  is  also  repeated,  and 
the  centre  is  occupied,  as  at  Aboosimbel,  by  a  representation  of  the 
camp.  All  doubt  of  their  identity  is  removed  by  the  date,  which 
is  the  fifth  of  Epiphi  in  the  fifth  year  of  the  king,  Rameses  III.,  the 
date  of  that  of  Aboosimbel  being  four  days  later.  The  Rameseion, 
on  the  western  bank  of  the  Nile3,  which  was  his  work,  repeats,  with 
some  variations,  the  same  subject4.  '  The  city  on  the  river  again 
appears,  but  it  has  a  double  fosse,  and  a  bridge  over  them  connect- 
ing it  with  the  main  land.  The  river  is  full  of  drowning  men  and 
horses ;  a  chieftain  has  been  dragged  out  on  the  bank,  and  his  sol- 
diers are  endeavoring  to  restore  him  to  life  by  holding  him  with 
his  head  downwards.  These  men  have  evidently  made  a  sally 
from  the  city  over  the  drawbridge,  for  the  purpose  of  assisting  and 

1  The  camp  which  has  been  already  described  (vol.  i.  p.  194)  occupies 
the  centre ;  a  lion  bound  couches  in  the  middle. 

*  Roaellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  222,  tav.  civ.-cvil 

•  Vol.  L  p.  129.  4  RotellinL     «.  p.  232,  tav.  cix.  ex. 


286  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 

rescuing  their  friends  whom  the  Egyptians  have  driven  into  the 
river.  In  another  part  of  the  Rameseion  is  represented  the  capture 
of  a  second  fortress.  A  scaling-ladder  is  applied  to  the  walls,  two 
sons  of  Rarneses  are  ascending  upon  it,  and  four  others  at  the  base 
are  leading  as  many  bodies  of  men,  who  are  sheltered  by  a  large 
wooden  coverlet  from  the  stones,  lances,  and  arrows  of  the  besieged. 
Four  other  royal  princes  appear  in  different  parts  of  the  field. 

Diodorus  Siculus1,  having  described,  on  the  authority  of  the 
Egyptian  priests  and  the  Greek  writers  who  had  visited  Thebes 
under  Ptolemy  Lagi,  the  fore-courts  of  the  monument  of  Osyman- 
dyas  and  the  colossal  statues  of  the  king,  his  wife  and  his  mother, 
proceeds: — "Next  to  the  pylon,"  they  say,  "is  a  peristyle  hall, 
more  wonderful  than  the  preceding,  in  which  are  all  sorts  of  carv- 
ings, representing  the  war  which  he  waged  with  the  revolted  Bac- 
trians.  Against  them  he  made  an  expedition  with  400,000 
infantry  and  20,000  cavalry,  the  whole  army  being  divided  into 
four  parts,  all  of  which  sons  of  the  king  commanded.  On  the  first 
wall  the  king  is  represented  besieging  a  fortress  surrounded  by  a 
river,  and  encountering  some  of  his  enemies,  accompanied  by  a  lion 
who  fights  fiercely  in  aid  of  him.  Some  of  those  who  expounded 
the  antiquities  said  that  the  king  had  really  tamed  a  lion,  which 
fought  for  him  and  put  his  enemies  to  flight ;  others,  that  being 
haughtily  vain  of  his  valor,  he  expressed  his  own  character  by  the 
figure  of  a  lion.  On  the  second  wall  captives  are  represented  with 
their  hands  cut  off,  and  otherwise  mutilated,  indicating  that  their 
minds  were  effeminate,  and  that  in  their  difficulties  they  had  made 
no  vigorous  use  of  their  hands.  The  third  wall  had  carvings  of 
all  kinds,  and  brilliant  pictures  representing  a  sacrifice  by  the  king, 
and  a  triumph  on  his  return  from  the  war." 

There  are  circumstances  in  this  description  which  identify  the 
eo-called  monument  of  Osymandyas3  with  the  Rameseion,  and  the 

1  Hist  1,  47 

No  name  like  Osymaidyat  appears  in  the  lists  of  Egyptian  kings;  bi\ 


T11E   EIGHTEENTH  DYKASTT. 


237 


Bculptures  of  which  Diodorus  speaks  with  those  which  Roseliini  lias 
drawn.  Such  are  the  river-flowing  round  the  fortress,  and  the  four 
sons  of  the  king.  It  is  true  that  he  also  mentions  circumstances 
which  are  not  found  here,  as  the  fighting  lion,  and  the  mutilation 
of  the  captives.  But  only  a  part  of  the  original  sculptures  of  the 
Rameseion  remains ;  and  as  we  have  already  seen  that  those  of 
Aboosimbel  and  Luxor  are  free  copies  of  the  same  general  subject, 
we  may  restore  and  supply  the  one  from  the  other ;  and  in  one  or 
other  all  these  circumstances  are  found.  If  then  it  be  ascertained 
that  all  these  relate  to  the  same  event,  we  know  from  Diodorus 
what  that  event  was;  it  was  reputed  to  be,  according  to  the  Egyp- 
tian priests,  the  campaign  of  Rameses  against  the  revolted  Bactri- 
ans.  Amidst  all  the  uncertainty  which  attends  the  interpretation 
of  the  hieroglyphical  inscriptions,  so  much  seems  to  be  ascertained, 
both  from  the  words  themselves,  and  from  the  comparison  of  the 
nations  who  now  appear  in  the  field  with  those  who  are  seen  in  the 
battle-pieces  of  Setei  Menephthah,  that  this  was  a  second  conquest, 
and  that  consequently  there  had  been  a  rebellion.  There  is  no 
name  indeed  which  bears  any  resemblance  to  that  of  Baetrians ; 
nor  is  it  necessary  to  suppose  that  the  country  bore  the  same  name 
in  the  Ptolemaic  times  as  in  that  of  Rameses  III.  Yet  the  name 
is  remarkable,  as  it  recurs  in  Tacitus.  The  priest  who  acted  as 
guide  to  Germanicus,  related  from  the  monuments  of  Thebes  that 
Rameses  had  possessed  Libya,  Ethiopia,  Media,  Persia,  Bactriana, 
and  Scythia,  with  the  territories  which  the  Syrians,  Armenians, 
and  their  neighbors  the  Cappadocians  inhabit,  extending  his  domi- 
nion to  the  Bithynian  sea  on  the  one  side,  and  the  Lycian  on  the 
other1.  Now  we  know  from  the  monuments  that  the  claim  of 
dominion  over  Libya,  Ethiopia,  and  Syria,  was  well  founded ;  in 

isimandu,  "  son  of  the  god  Mandu"  (6ee  vol.  i.  p.  331),  is  the  name  of  one  of 
the  eons  of  Rameses  III.,  and  may  have  been  a  title  of  his  father.  (Se« 
Roseliini,  Mon.  Stor.  i.  277.) 
1  Tac.  Ann.  2,  60. 


238 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


the  time  of  Herodotus  its  memorials  existed  in  Asia  Minor,  and 
may  yet  perhaps  be  found  there;  the  valley  cf  the  Tigris  and 
Euphrates  was  familiar  ground  to  the  military  sovereigns  of  the 
18th  and  19th  dynasties.  Confirmed  in  so  many  points,  why 
should  not  the  accounts  of  the  Egyptian  priests  be  believed,  when 
they  tell  us  that  Media,  Persia,  and  Bactriana  were  also  the  scene 
of  the  conquests  of  Rameses  ?  Such  were  the  first  conclusions  of 
Champollion  respecting  the  country  of  the  Sheto  and  the  other 
nations  who  are  represented  as  warring  with  Menephthah  and  his 
successors ;  and  upon  the  whole  they  appear  to  be  the  most  pro- 
bable. The  expression  of  Herodotus,  that  he  went  through  "  the 
whole  continent,"  subduing  all  whom  he  met,  may  be  explained 
by  two  other  passages,  in  which  he  uses  the  same  expression,  and 
from  which  it  is  evident  that  it  included  all  Asia,  from  the  shores 
of  the  ^Eo-ean  to  the  eastern  limits  of  Media  and  Persia1. 

One  of  the  strong  evidences  of  the  wide  range  which  the  expe 
ditions  of  Rameses  and  other  Egyptian  sovereigns  took  in  Asia, 
was  the  resemblance  which  the  Colchians  bore  to  the  Egyptians,  i 
Herodotus  does  not  speak  from  hearsay  on  this  point ;  he  had 
been  among  the  Colchians,  and  had  made  inquiries  both  from  them 
and  the  Egyptians.  He  acknowledges  that  the  resemblance  of 
their  dark  complexions  and  crisp  hair  was  not  decisive  ;  other 
nations  had  these  peculiarities  ;  but  he  lays  more  stress  upon  their 
linen  manufacture,  their  whole  mode  of  life,  their  language,  and 
their  practice  of  circumcision.  It  was  an  ancient  usage  only 
among  the  Colchians,  Egyptians  and  Ethiopians  ;  for  the  Syrians 
in  Palestine  (by  whom,  though  ignorant  of  their  distinct  nation- 

1  1,  96      '¥,6i'T(j)v  avrovofjiuv  TiavTuv  dva  r  r\  v  rt  v  t  i  p  9  v,  u>6t  avrtf  if  rvpavvtdaf 

nepifiXdov,  From  the  comparison  of  this  passage  with  the  beginning  of  c.  95, 
it  is  evident  that  "  all  on  the  continent"  means  all  who  were  subsequently 
included  in  the  dominion  of  Persia  (4,  91).  Darius  calls  himself  on  the 
stele,  which  he  set  up  near  the  HeVus,  tltpatuv  re  koI  naom  rUs  *  r<i  po? 

6an\tvf. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


23S 


ality,  he  must  have  meant  the  Jews,)  and  the  Phoenicians  acknow- 
ledged to  have  learnt  it  from  the  Egyptians,  and  the  Cappadocians 
from  the  Colchians1.  Pindar  calls  the  Colchians  dark-com- 
plexioned, speaking  probably  according  to  the  received  opinion  of 
his  contemporaries.  The  later  geographers  and  Ammianus  Mar- 
cellinus2  may  have  only  repeated  Herodotus.  As  we  know  no- 
thing of  the  Colchian  language,  we  cannot  bring  to  the  test  the 
declaration  of  Herodotus  that  they  were  similar ;  nor  is  much 
stress  to  be  laid  upon  it,  as  his  knowledge  of  the  Egyptian  language 
was  very  limited ;  but  the  correspondence  of  their  mode  of  life  was 
a  matter  in  wrhich  he  could  not  be  mistaken.  The  Colchians  were 
certainly  a  civilized  and  instructed  people3,  living  among  tribes 
remarkable  for  their  rudeness,  and  no  other  source  of  this  supe- 
riority appears  so  natural  as  a  settlement  of  the  soldiers  of  Sesos- 
tris4.  He  remarks  that  when  he  inquired  of  both  nations,  he 
found  that  the  Colchians  preserved  more  memory  of  the  Egyptians 
than  ,the  Egyptians  of  the  Colchians.  This  was  natural  under 
any  circumstances  ;  but  if  Pliny's  account  be  correct,  that  Sesostris 
was  defeated  by  Salauces,  son  of  ^Eetes  and  king  of  Colchis,  the 
silence  of  the  Egyptians  would  be  very  intelligible6.  The  wealth 
of  Colchis  in  gold,  of  which  Pliny  speaks,  and  which  gave  rise  to 
the  fable  of  the  fleece,  accounts  for  the  Egyptian  king's  including 
this  remote  country  in  the  range  of  his  expedition. 

1  Vol.  i.  p.  376.  Her.  2,  103. 

9  22,  8.    Colchos,  ^Egyptiorum  antiquam  sobolem. 
s  Bochart,  Geogr.  Sacr.  lib.  4,  c.  31. 

4  Ritter,  the  celebrated  geographer,  in  his  "  Vorhalle  Europaischer  Vol- 
kergeschichte,"  denies  the  Egyptian  origin  of  the  Colchians,  and  derives 
them  from  India.  One  of  his  proofs  will  excite  a  smile  at  the  present  day: 
M  the  Egyptians,"  he  says,  "  in  early  times,  according  to  the  unanimous  te* 
timony  of  antiquity,  kept  themselves  to  their  native  country  "  (p.  40). 

'  PI  in.  N.  H.  33, 16.  Salauces,  JEetse  soboles  (Cod.  Bamb.  vulg.  .Esubopea), 
victo  Sesostri,  iEgypti  regi  tarn  superbo,  ut  prodatur  annis  quibusque  sort* 
reges  3inguloa  e  6iibjectis  jungere  ad  currum  solitus,  atque  ita  triumphare. 


240 


HISTORY   OP  EGYPT. 


Herodotus  does  not  mention  how  long  the  absence  of  Sesostrii 
lasted.  Diodorus  makes  it  nine  years,  nor  is  this  improbable. 
Both  historians  relate  that  he  had  made  his  brother  vicero)r  in  his 
absence,  and  that  on  his  return  his  life  was  exposed  to  danger  at 
Daphne  near  Pelusium  from  his  treachery.  He  invited  the  con- 
queror to  a  banquet  in  his  tent,  and  when  he  had  fallen  asleep 
under  the  influence  of  wine,  set  fire  to  a  quantity  of  combustibles 
which  he  had  piled  on  the  outside.  Sesostris  awaking  and  find- 
ing his  imminent  danger,  prayed  to  the  gods  for  the  deliverance  of 
himself  and  his  children  :  his  prayer  was  heard,  and  he  escaped 
through  the  flames.  To  show  his  gratitude,  he  offered  gifts  to  the 
other  gods,  but  especially  to  Hephaistos,  as  the  principal  cause  of 
his  escape.  As  related  by  Herodotus  the  story  is  still  more  por- 
tentous. Discovering  his  danger,  he  consults  with  his  wife,  who 
advises  him  to  take  two  of  their  six  children,  and  make  a  bridge 
of  them  across  the  flames.  He  did  so,  the  children  were  burnt, 
but  Sesostris  and  his  wife  escaped.  In  gratitude  for  their  preser- 
vation he  erected  statues  of  himself  and  his  wife  thirty  cubits 
high,  and  of  his  sons,  twenty  cubits  high,  before  the  temple 
of  Hephaistos  at  Memphis1.  This  tale  betrays  its  origin  in 
an  age  when  Egyptian  tradition  had  begun  to  be  corrupted 
by  a  desire  to  conform  to  Greek  ideas.  To  the  Greeks  the  Mem- 
phi  an  Ptah  was  the  god  of  fire  ;  and  what  cause  more  natural 
for  the  erection  of  the  family  group  in  costly  statues,  than  then- 
deliverance  from  burning  ?    It  does  not  often  happen  that  Dio- 

1  Rameses  III.  appears  to  have  had  twenty-three  sons,  hut  four  are  seen 
conspicuously  on  several  of  the  monuments  (Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  iii.  2,  240, 
265),  and  this  might  give  rise  to  the  popular  opinion  that  all  but  four  had 
perished.    (Birch,  Gall.  Brit  Mus.  204.) 

Besides  Nofre- Atari,  who  dedicated  the  smaller  temple  at  Aboosimbel  to 
Athor,  he  had  another  wife,  Isinofre,  who  appears  along  with  him  in  the 
inscriptions  at  Silsilis,  accompanied  by  two  sons  and  a  daughter.  (Rosellini, 
Mon.  Stor.  1,  272.) 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY*. 


'241 


dorus  is  more  moderate  and  rational  than  Herodotus  ;  but  it  is  sc 
here.  Neither  author  gives  the  entire  story ;  Diodorus  does  not 
mention  the  burning  of  the  children,  nor  HerodoUis  say  that  the 
statues  were  erected  in  memory  of  the  escape,  but  both  circum- 
stances are  necessary  to  complete  the  narrative. 

Herodotus  and  Diodorus  describe  Sesostris  on  his  return  from 
his  long  expedition  as  devoting  himself  to  public  works  and  to 
legislation.  The  captives  whom  he  brought  back  were  employed 
in  dragging  stones  to  the  tern  pie  which  ho  built  to  Hephaistos,  and 
others  which  according  to  Diodorus1  he  erected  in  the  chief  city 
of  every  nome  to  its  tutelary  deity,  placing  on  all  of  them  an 
inscription  purporting  that  they  had  been  raised  by  the  labor  of 
captives  and  not  of  Egyptians.  Some  of  these  captives,  who  had 
been  brought  from  Babylon,  unable  to  endure  the  severity  of  their 
labor,  rose  and  seized  upon  a  strong  post  near  the  Nile  and  not 
far  from  Memphis,  to  which  they  gave  the  name  of  Babylon, 
whence  they  laid  waste  the  neighboring  country.  If  it  were  true 
that  they  defied  the  power  of  the  king  and  at  last  established 
themselves  here  in  security,  as  Diodorus  says,  this  would  give  us 
no  high  idea  of  the  power  of  the  Egyptian  monarchy.  Tradition, 
however,  varied  in  regard  to  the  origin  of  the  name  ;  Ctesias 
derived  it  from  an  invasion  of  Egypt  by  Semiramis  ;  Josephus  with 
most  probability  refers  it  to  the  invasion  of  Cambyses2.  Sesostris 
raised  mounds  of  earth,  to  which  he  removed  the  inhabitants  of 
those  towns  which  were  in  danger  of  being  flooded  in  the  inun- 
dation of  the  Nile  ;  cut  canals  through  the  whole  of  Lower  Egypt3, 

1  1,  56.  3  Antiq.  Jud.  2,  15. 

•Diodorus  represents  this  as  being  done  partly  to  render  Ecrypt  inacces- 
sible to  cavalry  and  chariots;  Herodotus  to  supply  fresh  water  to  parts 
remote  from  the  river.  The  country  having  been  rendered  unfit  for 
wheeled  carriages  by  the  cutting  of  canals,  it  was  a  natural  fiction  to  attri 
bute  to  him  the  introduction  of  mounted  cavalry.  Ilfxjro*  fariv  airir 
Hfnpdt>ai  I-Tair  avOpwrov  irtfiaivtiv.     (Schol.  Apoll.  Rhod.  4,  27!.) 

VOL.   II.  li 


242 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


and  built  a  wall,  1500  stadia  in  length,  from  Pelusium  to  Helio- 
poiis,  to  defend  the  frontier  of  Egypt  from  the  invasion  of  the 
Syrians  and  Arabs.  According  to  Herodotus  he  distributed  all 
the  lands  of  Egypt,  assigning  to  each  man  his  "  rood  of  ground," 
and  laid  a  land-tax  upon  them.  Even  the  institution  of  the  law 
of  hereditary  occupations  was  attributed  to  Sesostris  (Sesonchosis) 
by  Dicaearchus  and  Aristotle1.  That  a  reign  so  long  and  vigorous 
would  witness  many  improvements  in  legislation,  many  works  of 
public  utility,  we  cannot  doubt  ;  we  know  that  Rameses  III. 
covered  Nubia2  and  Egypt  with  memorials  of  his  devotion  to  the 
gods  and  his  magnificence  in  building ;  but  when  the  raising  of 
the  sites  of  all  the  cities,  the  cutting  of  all  the  canals,  the  division 
of  the  whole  land  of  the  kingdom,  the  distribution  of  the  people 
into  castes,  are  attributed  to  him,  we  see  the  tendency  of  populai 
history  to  crowd  into  one  reign  the  progressive  improvements  of 
many.  Egypt  had  been  a  civilized  kingdom  long  before  Rameses 
III.,  and  those  undertakings  which  are  essential  to  its  prosperity  and 
order  had  probably  been  the  gradual  work  of  several  sovereigns. 

The  hieratic  manuscript  known  by  the  name  of  the  Papyrus  of 
Sallier,  is  said  to  contain  an  account  of  a  war  carried  on  by 
Rameses  III."  with  the  Sheto  in  the  ninth  year  of  his  reign ;  but 
the  import  of  this  document  is  hitherto  so  little  known,  that  we 
must  content  ourselves  with  indicating  the  fact,  that  four  years 
later  than  the  events  which  have  been  just  described,  he  was  still 
involved  in  hostilities  with  them. 

The  south  wall  of  the  palace  of  Karnak  contains  an  inscription 
dated  in  the  twenty-first  year  of  the  reign  of  Rameses  and  the 

1  Pol.  7,  10.  'O  61  ^wpiafids  h  Kara  ytvos  rov  ttoXitikov  n\f)Qovs  i|  Aiyvvrov' 
ToAti  yap  vittprtivet  roTj  ^p6pocg  tt)v  Mr.  cj  fiaai'Xtia.v  f)  Utacoarpioc. 

a  They  are  found  at  Ibrim,  Derri,  Araada,  and  Wadi  Esseboua. 

1  "Several  hieratic  papyri,  which  we  still  possess,  are  dated  from  the 
Kameseion,  and  I  have  found  in  Thebes  the  sepulchres  of  two  librarian^ 
father  and  son,  under  Rameses  Meiamun."    (Lepsius,  Einleitung,  1,  89.) 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


24^ 


twenty-first  day  of  Tybi,  in  which  it  is  recorded  that  four  chiefs 
of  the  Sheto  came  to  the  tent  of  his  majesty  to  supplicate  for 
peace,  who  granted  it  to  them  on  condition  of  their  paying 
tribute  in  silver,  gems,  and  balsam  or  spicery1.  We  learn  little 
from  this  document  respecting  the  events  of  this  war  or  revolt.  A 
phrase  in  the  inscription  (1,  8  at  the  end)  seems  to  imply  that  a 
battle  had  been  fought  in  the  land  of  Egypt ;  but  the  connexion 
is  not  sufficiently  clear  to  warrant  the  supposition  that  the  Sheto 
had  actually  invaded  Egypt.  It  is  remarkable  that  in  this  docu- 
ment three  of  the  gods  of  Egypt,  and  Sut  or  Sutch,  the  god  of  the 
Sheto,  who  resembles  the  figure  called  Typhon  or  Seth  in  the 
Egyptian  monuments,  are  represented  as  taking  a  share  in  the 
events  of  the  war  and  the  conclusion  of  the  peace,  on  behalf  of 
their  respective  worshippers2. 

This  is  the  latest  memorial  that  has  been  found  of  the  wars  of 
Rameses  III.  The  temple  of  Aboosimbel,  however,  contains  a 
large  stele  evidently  later  in  its  erection  than  the  edifice  itself, 
dated  the  13th  of  the  month  Tybi  and  the  35th  of  his  reign*. 
Its  purport  is  rather  religious  than  historical.  He  appears  upon  it, 
preparing  to  smite  three  foreigners  in  honor  of  the  god  Ptah- 
Sokari.  A  long  inscription  contains  the  discourse  of  this  divinity 
to  the  king,  in  which  he  declares  that  he  and  the  other  gods  have 
granted  to  him  that  his  edifices  should  be  stable  as  the  pillars  of 
heaven,  and  promise  that  he  shall  celebrate  many  panegyries,  that 
he  shall  conquer  his  enemies,  and  that  the  rest  of  the  world  shall 
be  obedient  to  him,  like  the  Sheto  represented  on  the  walls  of  this 
temple.  The  king  in  reply  boasts  of  having  enlarged  and  adorned 
the  temple  of  the  god  in  the  habitation  of  Ptah,  that  is  Memphis, 
his  peculiar  dwelling-place.    We  know  from  Herodotus  and  Dio« 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iiL  2,  p.  268,  tav.  cxvi. 

*  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iiL  2,  280,  note.    This  may  possibly  throw  light 
on  the  obliteration  of  the  figure  of  Seth    See  vc"_  L  p.  860. 
1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iiL  2,  p.  163. 


244 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


dorus  what  he  did  for  the  enlargement  and  decoration  of  thia 
temple ;  the  prostrate  colossal  statue  of  Mitrahenny  bears  the 
image  of  Ptah  and  the  contemplar  goddess  Pasht,  in  the  tablet  on 
the  breast  and  the  shield  on  the  belt1.  The  quarries  of  Silsilis 
contain  several  stelce  in  which  mention  is  made  of  panegyries  cele- 
brated by  Rameses  III.  in  his  30th,  34th,  37th,.  40th  and  44th 
years.  The  last  appears  to  have  been  celebrated  en  a  larger  scale 
than  usual,  the  cities  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt  being  specially 
mentioned  as  taking  part  in  them2. 

The  smaller  temple  at  Aboosirnbel  was  dedicated  by  Nofreari3, 
queen  of  Rameses,  to  the  goddess  Athyr,  and  contains  chiefly  reli- 
gious inscriptions,  but  also  some  in  honor  of  Rameses  III.,  whose 
victories  over  the  nations  of  Africa,  over  the  north  and  the  south, 
are  commemorated,  but  without  any  precise  dates.  The  face  of 
the  rock  from  which  these  temples  were  excavated,  also  exhibits 
sculptures  of  various  kinds,  and  among  them  some  of  historical 
import.  One  records  an  act  of  homage  to  Rameses  III.,  in  the 
38th  year  of  his  reign,  on  the  part  of  an  Ethiopian  prince,  Sote- 
kauto4,  holding  the  office  of  basilicogrammat.  Neither  here,  nor  in 
the  other  numerous  examples  of  such  homage,  do  the  persons  render- 
ing it  exhibit  any  trace  of  Ethiopian  features  or  appear  in  Ethiopian 
costume.  They  invoke  the  gods  of  Egypt,  offer  prayers  for  the 
Pharaohs6,  and  are  in  every  respect  Egyptian.    Either  therefore 

1  Bonomi,  in  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit  2nd  Series,  2,  300. 

3  Rosellini,  Mon.  del  Culto,  p.  230. 

8  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  173  ;  Mon.  Reali,  tav.  exi. 

4  Rosellini,  u.  s.  p.  187.  He  is  called  "the  living  eyes  of  the  king"  and 
"ears  of  the  chamberlains  of  the  royal  house."  Compare  Jul.  Poll.  ii.  84. 
'EiKaXovvTO  6e  rivti  w  ra  k  a  I  dtpQaXjioi  aa  i  \  i  (*>s  ol  ra  Xsyduai  hayytWovm 
koX  ra  bpd&ntva. 

5  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  p.  189.  Rameses  III.  added  two  lateral 
columns  to  the  inscriptions  on  the  obelisks  of  Luxor,  erected  by  Ramese3 
IL,  but  they  contain  no  historical  information.  The  colossal  statues  of 
granite  which  (vol.  i.  p.  144)  are  attributed  to  Rameses  IL  should  belong  U 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


245 


Nubia  between  the  Cataracts  were  governed  in  this  age  by  Egyp- 
tian princes,  or,  as  seems  more  probable  from  the  multitude  of 
temples  of  that  religion,  its  population  was  Egyptian.  One  of  these 
inscriptions  on  the  rocks  of  Aboosimbel  is  important,  as  declaring 
that  Rameses  had  employed  the  captives  of  his  Asiatic  wars  in 
building  the  temples  of  the  gods'. 

Aristotle  and  Strabo  inform  us  that  Sesostris  undertook,  Pliny 
that  he  meditated2,  the  construction  of  a  canal  to  join  the  Nile  with 
the  Red  Sea.  Herodotus,  when  he  relates  the  similar  undertaking 
of  Necos,  makes  no  mention  of  Sesostris,  and  it  is  probable  that 
the  undertaking  has  been  attributed  to  him  from  the  celebrity  of 
his  name4. 

The  tablet  which  Rameses  III.  caused  to  be  erected  at  Abydos, 
containing  the  shields  of  his  predecessors,  has  been  already 
described.  Setei  Menephthah  appears  to  have  been  the  builder  of 
the  temple  or  palace,  the  greater  part  of  which  is  now  buried  in 
the  sand,  and  to  have  begun  the  temple  of  Osiris,  which  his  son 
Rameses  III.  completed. 

Eusebius  gives  sixty-eight  years  to  Rameses,  and  his  sixty-second 
is  found  on  a  tablet  in  the  British  Museum.  This  collection  also 
contains  one  of  the  finest  specimens  of  Egyptian  sculpture,  in  his 
colossal  bust  of  red  granite,  the  remains  of  a  statue  once  placed  in 
the  Rameseion  of  western  Thebes  and  removed  thence  by  Belzoni5. 

Mention  has  been  already  made  of  the  tomb  in  the  valley  of 

Rameses  IIL,  according  to  the  criterion  laid  down  in  p.  225  of  this 
volume. 

1  Diod.  Sic.  1,  56.  Upos  ray  Ipyaaias  t&v  uiv  Aiytnrriwv  oiitva  rrapiAa.tff,  $C 
airwv  St  riHv  al^fiaXdHruy  arravru  KartOKtvaou     Ai6ireo  itrl  ira<n  toi;  IzooTs  e^iypaiptv 

us  ovSeis  lyxuptoi  *t$  aira  ^t^(5^6^«.    The  -Ja  is  an  exaggeration. 
1  Meteor.  1,  14.    Strabo,  lib.  1,  p.  38.    Plin.  N.  H  6,  29 
■  2,  153. 

•  Lepsius  (Einl.  1,  349)  thinks  that  Sesostris  carried  his  canal  only  to  th« 
eastern  extremity  of  the  valley  of  Goshen. 

Birch,  Gall,  of  Brit  Mus.  p.  104.   Vol  L  p.  180. 


246 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Bab-el-Melook  in  which  the  shields  of  both  the  second  and  tli6 
third  Rameses  occur.  Rosellini,  who  entered  it  with  difficulty, 
found  it  nearly  filled  with  rubbish,  either  washed  down  by  torrents 
or  purposely  brought  in  when  it  was  abandoned1.  It  has  not  been 
explored  to  its  furthest  extremity,  but  there  is  no  appearance  that 
it  was  ever  elaborately  executed,  as  we  might  expect  in  the  tomb 
of  so  powerful  a  monarch,  and  one  who  reigned  so  long.  Was 
the  great  Sesostris  content  with  having  covered  Egypt  with  monu- 
ments of  his  magnificence  and  indifferent  to  the  splendor  of  his 
sepulchre,  or  are  we  to  believe  that  the  Rameseion  was  his  burial- 
place  as  well  as  his  palace  ?  Such  a  combination  would  be  very 
repugnant  to  Egyptian  usages,  and  yet  the  authors  whom  Diade- 
ms* followed  distinctly  asserted  that  the  tomb  of  the  sovereign  who 
built  the  Rameseion  lay  apart  from  those  of  the  rest  of  the  kings, 
and  was  approached  by  a  flight  of  steps  from  the  palace.  It  may 
therefore  remain  to  be  discovered. 

With  Rameses  III.  we  lose  the  guidance  of  the  Tablet  of  Abydos, 
but  the  procession  at  Medinet  Aboo  gives  us  a  royal  titular  shield,  to 
which  it  appears  from  other  monuments  that  the  name  of  Meneph- 
thah  II.  belongs3.  Herodotus  represents  Sesostris  as  being  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son  Pheron,  whose  name  historians  are  agreed  in  con- 
sidering as  a  misunderstood  Pharaoh.  Diodorus  gives  him  as  suc- 
cessor Sesoosis  IL,  confounding  him  probably  with  the  next  but  one 
in  order,  Setei  Menephthah  II.  The  Rameseion  contains  the  portraits 
and  names  and  offices  of  the  twenty- three  sons  of  Rameses  III. ; 
the  thirteenth,  Menephthah,  bears  the  addition  of  king,  which  has 
evidently  been  made  by  a  later  hand,  and  subsequently  to  his 
accession  to  the  throne.  Six  princesses,  elegantly  clothed  and  with 
a  sistrum  in  their  hands,  are  figured  in  the  same  place4.    No  pro- 

1  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  284.  a  1,  49. 

Instead  of  the  phonetic  characters  for  Ptah,  the  last  syllable  is  expressed 
by  the  figure  of  the  god.    (Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  1,  204.    Lin.  iv.  12.) 
4  Roselliw.  Mon.  Stor.  i.  27  h.  6.  7.    iii.  2,  297. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


247 


perly  historical  monuments  of  his  reign  exist ;  he  appears  at  Silsilis 
in  acts  of  adoration  to  various  divinities1,  among  the  rest  the  Nile, 
who  was  worshipped  with  especial  honor  at  this  place,  where  he 
seems  to  issue  again  .as  from  a  second  source.  Nor  does  any  great 
building  appear  to  have  been  erected  by  this  king ;  when  his  name 
is  found,  it  is  on  trifling  additions  made  to  the  works  of  preceding 
monarchs.  The  fourth  year  is  the  highest  date  that  has  yet  been 
found  on  his  monuments.  His  tomb  in  the  Bab-el-Melook  is  167 
feet  in  length,  and  has  been  ornamented  with  great  care  in  the 
portions  near  the  entrance,  and  one  piece  of  sculpture  still  remains 
of  which  the  colors  are  as  brilliant  as  when  they  were  first  laid  on*. 
Menephthah,  crowned  with  a  splendid  head-dress,  and  clad  in  a 
long  transparent  robe  fringed  at  the  bottom,  stands  before  the 
hawk-headed  god  Phre,  who  promises  him  length  of  days  upon 
the  throne8.  This  is  a  sufficient  proof  of  the  custom  of  excavating 
the  tomb  during  the  lifetime  of  the  king.  The  name  of  the  suc- 
cessor of  the  Rameses,  who,  according  to  Eusebius,  reigns  sixty- 
eight  years,  according  to  Josephus  sixty-six,  and  who  must  there- 
fore be  Rameses-Sesostris,  is  in  Africanus,  Amenophath,  who  reigns 
nineteen  years.  Removing  the  A,  which  may  have  been  prefixed 
as  in  Armesses,  Menophath  approaches  closely  to  Menephthah. 
With  him  the  18th  dynasty  of  Manetho  conch  ^es. 

To  the  reign  of  this  Menephthah  it  appears  probable  that  we 
are  to  refer  the  commencement  of  a  Sothiac  cycle.  It  lias  been 
already  stated  that  the  1461  years  of  which  it  was  composed,  hav- 
ing run  out  in  139  a.  d.,  must  have  begun  in  1322  b.  c*  If  there- 
fore we  could  ascertain  in  what  year  of  what  king  of  Egypt  it 
began,  we  should  have  a  fixed  point  for  our  chronological  reckon- 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii  2,  298. 

3  Wilkinson,  Mod  Eg.  <fe  Thebes,  2,  211.  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  30«. 
8  Rosellini,  Mon.  Reali,  tav.  cxviii.    A  cast  of  this  sculpture  was  takes 

by  Mr.  Hay,  and  is  in  tht  British  Museum.    (Birch,  GalL  pL  4 1.) 

4  Vol  L  p  280. 


248 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


ings.  Now  a  passage  in  the  writings  of  tjie  Alexandrian  astrono- 
mer and  mathematician  Theon,  published  by  Larcher  in  his  Notes 
to  Herodotus,  implies  that  this  cycle  had  one  of  its  beginnings,  if 
not  its  institution,  in  the  reign  of  a  certain  king  Menophres1.  As 
there  is  no  king  in  the  lists  whose  name  exactly  answers  to  this, 
Champollion-Figeac  conjectured  that  the  king  intended  was  the 
Ammenephtkes  or  Amenophis  who  stands  third  in  the  list  of  the 
19th  dynasty,  and  the  year  of  the  commencement  of  the  cycle  the 
thirty -second  of  his  reign2.  Bunsen  has  given  reasons,  as  convinc- 
ing as  the  nature  of  the  evidence  allows,  for  considering  Meneph- 
thah  II.  as  the  king  intended'.  We  have  thus  a  fixed  point  from 
which  we  can  reckon  downward  to  the  reign  of  Sheshonk,  and 
thence  to  the  Dodecarchy  and  the  close  of  the  monarchy  of  the 
Pharaohs,  with  tolerable  certainty,  and  upwards  at  least  to  the  com- 
mencement of  the  18th  dynasty.    The  astronomical  ceiling  at  the 

1  A.afiPavofici'  ra  dird  Mefo^pfwf  luss  r/}j  X)j(«a>s  Avyovarov.  'Ofiov  ra  iiricvva- 
y6jitva  tTi]  a%tf  ols  imirpooriOovficv  tu  and  ri/f  dp^iji  AioKXrjriavov  irt]  p''  yiiovrai 
ofiov  Irrj  <j\pL  "  The  sum  of  the  years  from"  (the  a;ra  of)  "  Menophres  to  the 
end  of"  (the  aira  of)  "Augustus  is  1605,  to  which  adding  the  100  years 
from  the  beginning  of  (the  sera  of)  Diocletian,  we  have  altogether  1705 
years."  The  sera  of  Diocletian  began  the  29th  of  August,  a.  d.284.  (Ideler, 
Handb.  der  Chron.  1,  163 ;  Champollion-Figeac,  Premiere  Lettre  a  M.  le 
Due  de  Blacas,  p.  100.)  Deducting  the  283  years  of  the  Christian  ajra 
which  preceded  it,  from  1605,  the  joint  duration  of  the  two  preceding  a?ras, 
we  have  1322  b.  c.  for  the  commencement  of  that  of  Menophres.  This  is 
the  year  in  which  we  knev  from  Censorinus  (vol.  i.  p.  280,  281,  note)  that 
a  Sothiac  cycle  began. 

"Syncellus  (p.  103,  193,  ed  Dind.)  says,  Tu  I  (5th)  !rti  roi  *i  (25th) 

BaaiXcvaavroi  Koy^apews  rr/;  AlyvirTOv,  Irri  <r'  ivvaortfaf  rod  Kvvikov  Xeyo^cvov 
kvkXov,  dird  Tov  npcorov  BaaiXtios  Kai  oUtatov  Mcorpatu  7%  Aiyv-rrov  irXnpovvrat  Irq 

ip'  (700)  0aai\'cuyv  *f.  Champollion-Figeac  joined  the  words  irXvpovvrat  Irn  ip' 
with  mi  K.vviKov  Xtyofiipov  kOkXov,  instead  of  with  BaaiXto>v  kL,  and  hence  con- 
cluded, that  ihe  fifth  year  of  Concharis,  the  last  king  before  the  Hyksoi, 
fell  in  the  700th  year  of  a  Sothiac  cycle.  See  Bunsen's  Egypt,  1,  221,  Eng 
"  Bunsen-  ^Egyptens  Stelle,  B.  3,  p.  123. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


249 


Rameseion1,  if  erected  near  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Rameses 
Sesostris,  would  exhibit  the  state  of  the  heavens  as  tkc;y  appeared 
in  the  beginning  of  that  of  his  successor.  The  reign  of  Sesostris 
was  one  of  the  times  assigned  for  the  appearance  of  the  Phoenix9. 

After  the  death  of  Menephthah  we  have  again  difficulties  from 
the  want  of  conformity  between  the  monuments  and  the  lists,  and 
discrepancies  among  the  monuments  themselves.  In  the  proces- 
sion of  Medinet  Aboo,  the  next  shield  to  that  of  Menephthah  is 
Setei-Menephthah  II.,  t.  e.  Sethos,  whom  the  lists  make  the  first 
of  the  19th  dynasty.  But  we  find  on  monuments  the  shields  of 
two  other  personages  with  titles  of  royalty,  whose  names  read 
Mai-n-Phre  Siphthah3  and  Amun-meses.  Siphthah  appears  at 
Silsilis  making  an  offering  lo  Amunre,  accompanied  by  an  officer 
of  his  court,  who  puts  up  a  prayer  for  the  king ;  and  in  another 
sculpture  Siphthah  supplicates  Amunre  that  his  son,  Numei,  may 
sit  on  the  throne  after  him,  a  prayer  nowhere  else  found  on  Egyp- 
tian monuments,  and  from  which  it  has  been  argued  that  he  felt 
doubtful  of  the  stability  of  his  own  power4.  At  Qoorneh,  he  is 
represented  on  a  stele  inserted  into  the  wall,  receiving  from  the 
same  god  the  scimitar,  the  emblem  of  military  dominion,  Setei- 
Menephthah  I.,  Rameses  III.,  and  Adimes  the  queen  of  Amenoph 
I.,  standing  by6.  The  presence  of  these  persons  seems  to  indicate 
some  genealogical  connexion  with  the  18th  dynasty  on  the  part  of 
Siphthah,  although  we  are  unable  to  say  what  it  may  have  been. 
His  tomb  in  the  Bab-el-Melook6  is  of  great  length,  and  ornamented 
with  a  variety  of  sculpture.  His  wife  Taoser,  Taosiri,  or  Taseser, 
appeai-s  frequently  making  offerings  to  the  gods,  sometimes  alone, 
sometimes  in  company  with  her  husband.    As  the  epithet  Osirian 

Vol.  i.  p.  281.    The  expression  "  Rameses  II.  or  III."  indicates  the  doubt 
whether  these  sovereigns  were  the  same  or  different. 
1  Tacit  Ann.  6,  2S.  *  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iiL  2,  324, 

*  Rosellini,  u.  *.  329.  *  Rosellini,  u.  «.  ISO. 

•  No.  14  on  Sir  G.  Wilkinson's  Flan.    Rosellini,  u  s.  331 

1* 


250 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


(/xaxapi-Tr/s-)  is  subjoined  to  her  name,  it  is  evident  that  she  was. 
deceased  when  these  sculptures  were  executed.  There  is  no  date 
on  any  of  the  monuments  of  Siphthah,  but  everything  tends  tc 
show  that  he  was  not  admitted  as  a  legitimate  monarch  of  Egypt, 
though  he  assumed  the  title,  and  had  for  a  time  possession  of 
Upper  Egypt,  so  as  to  prepare  himself  a  sepulchre  at  Thebes1. 
Of  Amun-meses  we  know  still  less  than  of  Siphthah,  but  he  seems 
also  to  have  been  an  intrusive  king,  and  the  circumstance  that  a 
change  of  dynasty  took  place  about  this  time  may  account  for 
their  appearance  in  monuments  and  their  exclusion  from  the  lists. 

Assuming  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Rameses  III.,  or  the  commence- 
ment of  that  of  Menephthah  II.,  to  fall  in  the  year  b.c.  1322,  and 
that  Rameses  III.  reigned  66  years,  we  are  brought  to  1388  b.c. 
for  the  date  of  his  accession.  There  is  no  certainty  in  the  num- 
bers assigned  by  the  lists  to  his  predecessors  ;  but  we  know  from 
the  monuments  that  Amenophis  III.  reigned  at  least  36  years, 
Tho^hmes  III.  at  least  35,  and  Amosis  22  ;  while  Rameses  I. 
reigned  probably  only  one  or  two  years.  If  we  allot  to  the  twelve 
predecessors  of  Rameses  III.  twenty  years  each,  we  shall  be  brought 
to  1628  b.c.  as  an  approximate  date  for  the  establishment  of  the  New 
Monarch  v.  If,  however,  the  kings  whom  we  have  distinguished 
as  Rameses  II.  and  III.  were  one  and  the  same,  only  eleven  reigns 
intervened  between  Rameses  III.  and  Amosis. 


Nineteenth  Dynasty.    Seven  Diospolitan  kings. 
(Eus.  Five.) 

Years. 

1.  Setiios,  reigned   >  61    Eus.  55. 

2.  Rapsaces  (Rampses,  Eus.)   .61    Eus.  66. 

'6.  Ammenephthes        .  .  .20    Eus.  40. 

4.  Rameses  ...  .60    Omitted  Eos 

5.  Amiiexemnes  .....  tf  26. 


1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  p.  319. 


THE   NINETEENTH  DYNASTY. 


Years 

6.  Thtjoris,  ealled  in  Homer  Polybus,  the  husband  of 

Alcandra1,  in  whose  time  Troy  was  taken         .  7 

201 

"  In  this  same  second  volume  of  Manetho  are  9G 
kings,  2121  years." 

It  could  not  escape  the  observation  of  critics,  that  the  con. 
menceraent  of  this  dynasty  bore  a  very  suspicious  resemblance  tc 
the  termination  of  the  last2.  We  have  Rampses  reigning  66  years, 
followed  by  Amraenephthes,  wdio  reigns  40  in  the  19th,  and  Rame- 
ses  reigning  68,  followed  by  an  Amenophis  reigning  4u,  (Euseb.) 
in  the  18th.  The  names  Ramesses,  Armesses,  Armais,  Armaios, 
Ermaios,  if  we  strike  out  the  vowels,  which  were  not  originally 
expressed,  reduce  themselves  to  the  same  three  letters,  R,  M,  S,  and 
therefore  probably  denote  the  same  name,  if  not  the  same  person ; 
nor  are  Rampses  and  Rapsaces  so  remote  from  Rameses  as  to  pre- 
clude the  possibility  of  their  also  being  the  same.  Amenophis, 
Amenophath,  and  Ammenephthes  so  nearly  resemble  each  other,  as 
to  excite  a  similar  suspicion,  especially  as  the  Amenophath  of  the  1 8th 
dynasty  reigns  19  years,  Amenophis  of  the  19th,  19  years  and  6 
months',  and  Ammenephthes,  20.  Again,  the  Sethos-Rameses  of 
Manetho,  quoted  by  Josephus,  is  so  exactly  a  counterpart  of  Sesos- 
tris-Rameses,  that  we  cannot  hesitate  to  pronounce  their  histories  to 
be  the  same  in  origin4.    "  Sethos,  who  is  also  Rameses,"  says  he, 

1  In  the  Armenian  Eusebius  Thuoris  is  said  to  be  "  vir  strenuus  ac  fortis- 
eimus,"  as  if  the  translator  had  read  aXKavSpog  dvfip,  which  is  the  reading  of 
two  MSS.  of  Syncellus,  p.  169  D.  320  ed.  Dind. 

3  "Hi  ipsi  reges,  ultimi  Dynastiaj  18  et  pi-imi  Dyn.  19,  valde  mihi  sunt 
suspecti  tanquam  iidera,  bis  positi  et  male  in  diversos  distincti,  quum  utique 
eadem  sint  nomina  regum,  idem  ordo,  idem  denique  spatium  regni.'' 
'Perizon.  ^Egypt.  Orig.  Investig.  c.  xii.  p.  194.) 

8  The  authors  of  the  lists  have  suppressed  the  odd  months  everywhere,  ai 
we  find  by  comparing  them  with  the  quotation  from  Manetho  in  Josephus. 

*  Joseph,  c.  Apion.  1,  15. 


2£2 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


"  bad  a  large  force  of  ships  and  cavalry.  lie  established  his  brother 
Arinais  as  administrator  of  Egypt,  and  ir  vested  him  with  all  other 
royal  authority,  only  enjoining  upon  him  not  to  wear  the  diadem, 
nor  to  injure  the  queen,  the  mother  of  his  children,  and  to  abstain 
from  the  royal  harem.  He  himself  having  made  an  expedition  to 
Cyprus  and  Phcenice,  and  again  to  the  Assyrians  and  the  Medes, 
brought  them  all  under  subjection,  some  by  force  of  arms,  others 
without  fighting,  through  terror  of  his  great  power;  and  being 
■endered  proud  by  his  success,  he  went  on  yet  more  boldly,  sub- 
ouing  cities  and  lands  that  lay  towards  the  East.  After  the  lapse 
of  a  considerable  time,  Armais,  who  had  been  left  behind  in  Egypt, 
'  >-}gan  to  do  boldly  just  the  reverse  of  what  his  brother  had  exhort- 
ed him  to  do.  He  took  the  queen-mother  to  himself  by  force, 
and  did  not  abstain  from  the  harem1 ;  and  at  the  persuasion  of 
his  friends  he  began  to  wear  the  diadem,  and  set  himself  up  against 
his  brother.  Selhos  was  informed  of  these  things  by  the  chief 
priest,  and  immediately  returned  to  Pelusium  and  took  possession 
of  his  kingdom.-  And  the  country  was  called  Aiguptos  from  his 
name;  for  he  says  that  Sethosis  was  called  Aiguptos,  and  Armais, 
his  brother,  Danaus."  Here  we  have  evidently  the  same  narrative 
as  in  Diodorus  and  Herodotus  respecting  Sesostris  ;  the  great  force 
of  ships  and  cavalry,  the  conquest  of  Hither  Asia,  the  invasion  and 
subjugation  of  countries  lying  still  further  East  (the  Bactrians  of 
Diodortis),  the  distinction  between  the  nations  who  timidly  sub- 
mitted and  those  who  resisted  by  force  of  arms,  the  usurpation  of 
power  by  his  brother,  and  the  resumption  of  it  by  Sesostris  at  Pe- 
lusium. The  recital  of  Manetho,  it  is  important  to  observe,  since 
his  authority  has  been  often  so  lightly  treated,  is  simple  and  histori- 
cal ;  it  is  in  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  that  we  have  it  embellished 
and  exaggerated  from  popular  tradition. 

The  monuments  strengthen  the  suspicion  which  the  lists  excite 


1  Coinp.  2  Sam.  xvi.  20. 


THE  NINETEENTH  DYNASTY. 


253 


"We  have  seen  that  the  62nd  year  of  Rameses  TIL  has  been  found  ; 
but  there  is  no  trace  of  any  other  king  of  these  dynasties  reigning 
so  long.  We  are  therefore  led  to  conclude  that  the  Rameses  of 
the  19th  dynasty,  who  reigns  sixty  years,  and  the  Rampses,  who 
reigns  66,  are  one  and  the  same  historical  personage,  Rameses,  III. 
of  the  18th.  The  identity  of  Amenophis  and  Ammenephthes  can- 
not be  proved  by  the  same  argument,  because  the  monuments, 
instead  of  40,  which  the  lists  exhibit,  have  hitherto  furnished  us 
only  with  4  years.  But  only  one  king*  has  been  found  whose 
name  can  with  any  probability  be  read  into  Amenophath.  The 
Ammenemes,  who  now  stands  fifth  in  the  19th  dynasty,  is,  accord- 
ing to  Lepsius  and  Bunsen,  the  Amenmeses  of  the  monuments,  a 
contemporary  and  rival  of  Menophthes;  the  last  of  the  18th. 

Thus  when  critically  examined,  the  whole  19th  dynasty  appears 
to  collapse,  and  resolve  itself  into  a  repetition  of  the  18th,  with 
the  exceptions  of  Sethos  the  first,  and  Thuoris  the  last  name. 
The  Sethos  of  the  extracts  from  Manetho's  history  in  Josephus 
is  only  a  synonym  of  Rameses-Sesostris ;  the  Sethos  of  the  lists 
and  the  monuments  is  Setei  Menephthah  II.  (p.  249).  He  is 
called  Osirei-Menephthah  by  Rosellini1  and  Wilkinson,  as  the 
figure  of  Osiris  occurs  instead  of  Set  in  some  variations  of  the 
shield,  namely  in  the  tomb,  and  among  the  ruins  of  Karnak,  as 
well  as  on  some  of  the  sphinxes  of  - the  dromos,  which  were  origi- 
nally placed  there  by  Horus2.  A  sarcophagus  with  his  shield, 
rudely  carved,  is  found  in  his  tomb  in  the  Bab-el-Melo'ok3,  and 
these  are  all  the  memorials  of  his  reign,  which  can  hardly  have 
extended  to  fifty-five  years,  according  to  the  present  reading  of  the 
mcnuments.  The  second  is  the  highest  that  has  been  found.  Ac- 
cording to  all  appearance,  it  Was  both  a  short  and  an  inactive  one. 

In  the  monuments  nothing  has  come  to  light  by  which  the 
name  Thuoris  can  be  explained.    Polybus  is  not  spoken  of  in 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iiL  2,  311,  318. 

1  Rosellini.  «.  f.  p.  309.  ■  Rosellini,  u.  s.  p.  314. 


254 


HISTORY    OF  EGYPT 


Homer1  as  a  king  of  Thebes,  but  as  a  rich  man  by  whom  splendid 
gifts  were  bestowed  on  Menelaus,  while  his  wife  Alcandra  (not 
very  consistently  with  the  Herodotean  story  of  Proteus)  gave 
appropriate  similar  presents  to  Helena.  That  we  should  not  find 
an  Egyptian  king  to  answer  to  every  name  which  the  Greeks  inter- 
wove in  their  mythology  is  not  surprising ;  yet  as  fiction  is  not 
wholly  arbitrary,  we  might  have  expected  some  apparent  reason 
for  the  selection  of  this  name.  Bunsen  would  read  for  Thuoris, 
Phuoris.  Were  this  admitted,  a  probable  derivation  would  be 
from  Ptfouro,  which  is  Egyptian  for  1  king ' 2.  Phuoris  wculd 
then  be  a  name,  like  Pheron,  inserted  in  the  room  of  one  that  had 
been  lost  or  was  unknown.  It  is  in  this  way  that  we  find  Pharaoh 
used  in  the  earlier  Jewish  b.ooks,  while  in  the  latter  and  contempo- 
rary history,  Shisbak,  Hophra,  Necho  are  mentioned  by  name. 
No  such  sovereign  is  found  in  the  procession  of  Medinet  Aboo,  nor 
can  we  trace  any  resemblance  in  the  history  of  Pheron  to  that  of 
Thuoris.  Pheron,  the  son  of  Sesostris,  loses  his  sight,  either  by 
nereditary  disease,  or  as  a  punishment  for  impiously  darting  hia 
javelin  into  the  Nile  when  its  inundation  was  exceeding  bounds, 
and  recovered  it  by  a  remedy  prescribed  by  the  oracle.  In  gratituae 
to  the  god  and  at  the  command  of  the  oracle,  he  erected  two  lofty 
obelisks  to  the  Sun  at  Heliopolis8.  One  obelisk  remains  there,  but 
no  doubt  had  once  its  companion  ;  it  bears  the  name  of  Sesor- 
tasen  I.  Pliny  appears  to  refer  to  it  as  set  up  by  a  king  Mesphres 
Others  at  Heliopolis  he  attributes  to  Sothis,  in  whose  name  we 
have  perhaps  the  Sesoosis  II.  of  Diodorus.  Elsewhere  Pliny4  gives 
the  name  of  Nuncoreus  to  the  son  of  Sesoosis,  and  says  that  the 
obelisk  which  he  erected  on  the  recovery  of  his  sight  was  in  the 
Circus  of  the  Vatican.     There  is,  however,  another  name,  not 

1  Od.  6;  126. 

'  Ouro  is  the  Coptic  for  'king,'  whence  the  royal  serpent,  ffatxtXfoicot,  ig 
called  Urceus.    (Horapoll.  1,  1.) 

a  Dio<L  1,  59.    Her.  2,  111.  4  N.  EL  86,  lc. 


TIIE   NINETEENTH   DYNASTY.  255 

indeed  in  the  lists,  but  in  the  monuments,  for  which  a  place  must 
be  found.  The  tomb  of  Siphthah  already  mentioned  in  the  Bab- 
el-Melook  originally  exhibited  on  its  walls  his  shield  and  that  of 
his  wife  ;  but  they  have  been  covered  with  plaster  and  other  inscrip- 
tions substituted  for  them.  The  name  of  the  king  who  had 
thus  usurped  the  sepulchre  of  another  is  not  clearly  made  out1, 
owing  to  the  number  of  characters  not  phonetic  with  which  the 
shield  is  filled  ;  but  it  seems  to  be  Merir  or  Merita.  His  name  is 
also  on  the  granite  sarcophagus  which  remains,  though  broken. 
In  the  procession  of  Medinet  Aboo,  his  shield  follows  that  of 
Setei-Menephthah  II.  We  cannot  therefore  question  his  r*oyal 
dignity.  Bunsen,  on  the  authority  of  Sir  G.  Wilkinson,  makes 
nim  the  father  of  Rameses  III.  (IV.),  and  progenitor  of  the  long 
line  of  princes  of  that  name  who  fill  up  the  20th  dynasty.  The 
same  author  has  also  remodeled  the  two  preceding  dynasties.  He 
makes  the  18th  to  end  with  Horus,  and  the  19th  to  consist  of 
Ramessu,  Setei  L,  Rameses  II.,  Menephthah,  Setei  II.  Merira,. 
whom  he  takes  to  be  the  same  as  Phuoris,  he  places  at  the  head 
of  the  20th  dynasty. 

The  period  of  the  18th  and  19th  dynasties  exhibits  Egypt  in 
new  relation  to  the  rest  of  the  world.  Under  the  Old  Monarchy 
we  cannot  trace  its  dominion  beyond  the  peninsula  of  Sinai,  the 
northern  shores  of  the  Red  Sea,  the  Libyan  tribes  immediately 
contiguous  to  the  Delta,  and  in  the  12th  dynasty  Lower  Nubia. 
With  the  expulsion  of  the  Shepherds,  however,  begins  a  series  of 
foreign  wars,  which  led  the  armies  of  Egypt  to  the  verge  of  the 
then  known  world. 

Nations  seem  impelled  by  their  geographical  position  and  their 
relation  to  neighboring  countries  to  seek  to  expand  themselves  in 
certain  directions.    The  first  necessity  for  the  Egyptians  was  to 

1  Posellini  calls  him  Uerri,  or  Reraerri  (Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  317,  tav.  xiv.  116), 
where  the  various  shields  are  given.  One  of  them,  1 16*,  has  the  figure 
which  in  the  shield  of  Menephthah  is  nranounced  Set. 


256 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


secure  the  valley  of  the  Nile  beyond  the  Cataracts  of  Syene 
From  this  quarter  their  independence  was  always  threatened.  Nubia 
was  inhabited  by  a  people  nearly  allied  to  the  Egyptians  in  blood, 
and  not  inferior  in  valor  or  perhaps  in  civilization  ;  the  banks  of 
the  Nile  offered  them  an  easy  road  to  descend  on  Egypt,  which 
could,  therefore,  have  no  peace  or  safety  unless  they  were  kept  in 
subjection.  Possibly  this  may  have  been  facilitated  by  matrimo- 
nial alliances  formed  towards  the  close  of  the  Hyksos  period,  or  by 
the  first  sovereigns  of  the  18th  dynasty1.  However  this  may  be,  we 
find  that  Thothmes  I.  had  possession  of  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  as 
far  south  as  the  island  of  Argo  ;  and  the  Egyptians  remained  mas- 
ters of  this  country,  as  completely  as  of  Egypt  itself,  during  the 
18th,  19th  and  20th  dynasties. 

There  was  no  such  motive  for  attempting  conquests  towards  the 
West.  The  sandy  desert  which  borders  the  Nile  on  that  side 
offered  no  temptation  to  ambition,  and  was  too  thinly  peopled  to 
be  formidable.  The  Oases  were  valuable  as  resting-places  for  com- 
merce, but  for  this  purpose  military  possession  of  them  was  not 
necessary.  The  sea-coast  westward  from  the  Canopic  mouth  is  not 
desert,  but  is  of  no  extraordinary  fertility  till  you  reach  the  district 
of  Cyrene.  The  Adyrmachidaj,  the  immediate  neighbors  of  the 
Egyptians  in  the  time  of  Cambyses,  had  in  great  measure  adopted 
their  customs,  and  therefore  probably  lived  under  their  laws,  but 
still  retained  many  barbarous  usages2.  The  Giligammae,  who 
extended  thence  to  the  territories  of  Cyrene,  closely  resembled 
them.  No  mention  of  the  characteristic  production  of  this  region, 
the  Silpkiu?n,  has  hitherto  been  found  on  the  Egyptian  monu- 
ments, nor  does  any  inscribed  memorial  of  Egyptian  dominion 
remain  in  it.  In  the  name  Nahsi,  applied  to  the  black  nations  in  the 
hieroglyphical  inscriptions,  a  resemblance  has  been  conjectured  to 
the  Nasamones,  who  dwelt  on  the  coast  between  Cyrene  and  the 


1  See  before,  p.  175  of  this  vol 


*  Herod.  4,  168. 


THE  NINETEENTH  DYNASTY". 


2b\ 


Syrtis,  faecing  their  flocks  there,  and  in  the  season  of  dates  gather- 
ing a  harvest  of  them  in  the  Oasis  of  Augila :  but  the  Xasamones 
can  scarcely  have  been  more  black  than  the  Egyptians,  living  as 
they  did  on  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  no  reliance  can 
be  placed  on  such  verbal  resemblances.  Dominion  over  Libya  is 
claimed  for  the  kings  of  Egypt  in  various  inscriptions  of  the  18th 
dynasty,  but  nothing  indicates  its  extent,  nor  is  any  nation  of  West- 
ern Africa  clearly  characterized  in  the  sculptures1.  Till  the  settle- 
ment of  the  Phoenician  colonies,  which  falls  at  a  later  period,  this 
region  appears  to  have  contained  no  civilized  or  powerful  nation. 

Towards  Palestine,  Syria,  Arabia,  and  Mesopotamia,  Egypt  stood 
in  a  very  difFerent  relation.  She  had  to  fear  at  once  the  power  of 
the  nomadic  tribes,  which  still  continue  to  roam  over  the  desert 
regions  included  in  these  limits,  and  the  civilized  communities 
which  had  been  established  in  other  parts  of  them.  At  the  com- 
mencement of  the  18th  dynasty  she  was  only  just  recovering  her- 
self from  the  invasion  of  one  of  the  former  class ;  the  Hyksos  had 
been  driven  out,  but  from  Palestine  they  still  threatened  the  fron- 
tier. The  desert  which  divides  the  two  countries  was  but  a  sligh 
protection  to  Egypt;  it  has  been  passed  by  many  invading  armies, 
and  would  offer  little  obstacle  to  Palestinian  or  Arabian  tribes. 
Besides  these,  Palestine  contained  many  warlike  nations,  "  dwelling 
in  cities  great  and  fenced  up  unto  heaven,"  11  children  of  Anak,'' 
whose  size  and  strength  disheartened  the  Israelites  and  made  them 
shrink  from  the  attempt  to  conquer  their  country2.  They  had  cha- 
riots and  horses,  and  in  the  equipments  and  arts  of  war  were  not 

1  There  is  a  country  hieroglyphically  designated  by  "  the  bows"  or  "  9 
bows,"  over  which  the  Egyptian  sovereigns  are  said  to  reign.  A  bow  in 
Coptic  is  Phity  and  hence  is  supposed  to  stand  for  Phut,  which  (Gen.  x.  6)  is 
the  name  of  an  African  nation,  probably  the  Mauritanians.  (Joseph.  Ant 
1,  6,  2.)  But  this  character  of  the  nine  bows  occurs  where  it  cannot  well 
be  understood  exclusively  of  the  Libyans.    (See  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4.  16.) 

•  Deut  ix.  1,  2.  Numb.  xiii.  31. 


258 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


inferior  to  the  Egyptians  themselves.  The  towns  oh  the.  coast  wer« 
probably  already  engaged  in  navigation  and  commerce :  Zidon  is 
mentioned  in  the  dying  words  of  Jacob.  Syria  and  Palestine  were 
not  only  formidable  neighbors  to  Egypt,  but  a  most  enviable  pos- 
session. From  the  variety  of  their  soil  and  surface,  they  furnish 
every  choice  production  of  the  vegetable  world ;  in  the  level  dis- 
tricts, grain,  in  the  more  hilly  regions,  the  olive,  the  vine,  the  pis- 
tachio, and  the  odoriferous  gums,  for  which  the  temple  service  of 
Egypt  made  a  large  demand  ;  on  the  mountain  sides  inexhaustible 
forests  for  architecture,  ship-building,  and  the  manufacture  of  arti- 
cles of  luxury.  Hence  we  find  that  in  all  ages  the  acquisition  of 
Palestine  has  been  coveted  by  the  sovereigns  of  Egypt.  Thoth- 
mes  I.  must  have  held  it,  or  he  could  not  securely  have  carried  on 
wars  in  Mesopotamia.  Sesostris  has  left  the  record  of  his  conquest 
on  the  coast ;  and  the  last  military  exploits  of  the  Rameses  appear 
to  have  had  Palestine  for  their  scene.  When  the  spirit  of  conquest 
revived  in  the  22nd  dynasty,  we  find  Sheshonk  invading  Palestine, 
and  besides  Jerusalem  and  "the  fenced  cities  of  Judah,"  occupying 
other  places  in  that  country1.  There  is  again  an  interval  in  which 
Egypt  was  in  a  state  of  weakness  and  anarchy  ;  but  when  Psammi- 
tichus  had  united  its  forces,  the  schemes  of  Asiatic  conquest  were 
renewed.  The  danger  on  this  side  had  become  more  imminent. 
In  earlier  times  Egypt  appears  as  the  assailant  of  the  Mesopota- 
mian  nations ;  but  the  Assyrians  under  their  later  sovereigns  had 
become  a  conquering  people,  and  Sennacherib  had  advanced  to  the 
gates  of  Pelusjum.  The  power  of  the  Assyrians  soon  after  passed 
into  the  hands  of  a  people  even  more  warlike,  the  Babylonians; 
Neco,  who  had  advanced  to  the  Euphrates,  received  a  total  defeat 
at  Carchemish.  After  this,  the  Pharaohs  renounced  their  attempts 
to  make  themselves  masters  of  the  country  as  far  as  the  Euphra- 
tes ;  but  Apries  recovered  much  of  the  sea-coast  of  Palestine  and 


1  2  Chron.  xii.  4. 


THE   NINETEENTH  DYNASTY. 


269 


of  the  interior  of  Syria.  Under  the  Persian  power  all  these  coun 
tries  were  united  in  one  monarchy ;  but  no  sooner  had  an  inde- 
pendent power  been  established  in  Egypt  than  a  struggle  for  the 
possession  of  Syria  began  on  the  part  of  the  Ptolemies,  which  was 
met  by  attempts  on  that  of  the  Seleucidae  to  make  themselves  mas- 
ters of  Egypt.  The  same  struggle  has  been  renewed  since  the 
Mohammedan  Conquest.  The  powers  which  have  successively 
reigned  in  Egypt,  Fatemites,  Ayubites,<ty[amlukes,  Turks,  have  all 
aimed  at  the  same  object,  but  down  to  the  recent  attempt  of 
Mohammed  Ali,  no  permanent  union  has  ever  been  effected  between 
the  two  countries. 

Even  the  Pharaohs  with  all  their  boastful  claims  to  victory  and 
dominion  never  could  incorporate  them  with  Egypt.  If  one  sove- 
reign appears  to  have  put  down  all  resistance,  we  find  that  his  suc- 
cessors have  soon  to  combat  the  same  nations.  Yet  this  would  be 
an  insufficient  ground  for  calling  in  question  the  reality  of  their 
expeditions  and  victories.  We  are  not  indeed  to  receive  the 
accounts  of  them  as  literally  true ;  Egyptian  sculptures  and  hiero- 
glyphics were  not  more  veracious  than  modern  gazettes  and  bul- 
letins ;  Bel  and  Nebo  may  have  been  thanked  for  the  same  events 
as  Amun  and  Phre ;  we  know  that  Te  Deum  has  been  sung  for 
the  same  battle,  at  Vienna  and  Paris.  But  it  would  be  the  excess 
of  incredulity  to  suppose  that  the  walls  of  the  temples,  palaces,  and 
tombs  of  Egypt  could  be  inscribed  with  the  scenes  of  imaginary 
campaigns,  and  that  the  diversity  of  names,  physiognomy,  costume 
and  armor  which  appears  in  them  has  been  devised  for  the  purpose 
of  imposture.  The  evidence  of  the  Statistical  Tablet  is  still  more 
decisive.  Here  we  have  the  year,  month,  and  day  of  the  king's 
reign  specified  on  which  his  expedition  was-  undertaken  ;  and  its 
fruits  in  spoil  or  tribute  registered  with  the  most  formal  minute- 
ness. If  such  evidence  can  be  rejected,  we  must  renounce  all  hope 
of  establishing  history  in  these  ancient  times.  Few  events  of  the 
middle  ages  are  certified  to  us  by  such  authority 


260 


HISTORY    OF  EGYPT. 


It  may  seem  incredible  that  kings  of  Egypt  should  be  able  U 
carry  on  wars  so  far  from  home  as  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates; 
and  still  more  the  confines  of  Bactria.  This  feeling,  however, 
arises  from  the  ignorance  in  which  we  have  remained  till  lately  of 
the  times  of  the  Thothmes  and  the  Rameses.  We  have  known 
nothing  of  the  wealth  and  power  of  Egypt,  its  population,  its 
military  discipline,  the  perfection  of  its  arts,  and  its  civil  organiza- 
tion. The  monuments  confirm  themselves,  for  they  show  that  all 
these  existed  in  the  15th  and  16th  centuries  before  the  Christian 
era ;  and  where  they  exist,  the  ambition  of  conquest  is  not  long 
absent.  The  power  of  a  single  aggressive  monarchy  was  then  not 
easily  resisted  ;  extensive  coalitions  and  alliances  were  impracticable. 
The  extraordinary  stability  and  regularity  of  the  Egyptian  govern- 
ment allowed  the  sovereigns  to  be  absent  from  their  dominions 
without  danger  ;  the  people  were  not  seduced  from  their  allegiance, 
even  in  the  nine  years'  expedition  of  Sesostris.  If  Cambyses  could 
reign  from  Media  to  the  confines  of  Ethiopia  and  to  the  ^Egeau 
Bea,  there  seems  no  reason  why  the  sovereigns  of  the  18th  and 
19th  dynasties  of  Egypt  may  not  have  traversed  these  countries 
with  their  armies,  and  made  them  for  the  time  their  tributaries. 

To  this  period  later  writers  refer  the  arrival  of  the  first  Egyp- 
tian colonists  in  Greece.  Herodotus  fully  believed  in  the  fact, 
but  he  did  not  connect  it  with  any  particular  event  in  Egyp- 
tian history.  He  relates  the  introduction  of  the  worship  of  Egyp- 
tian deities  at  Dodona,  by  a  female  minister  stolen  from  the  temple 
of  Thebes  ;  the  flight  of  the  daughters  of  Danaus  from  the  sons 
of  ^Egyptus,  and  their  touching  at  Rhodes  in  the  way ;  he  attri- 
butes to  them  the  introduction  of  the  rites  of  Ceres  into  the  Pelo- 
ponnesus, and  traces  -the  genealogy  of  the  Dorian  kings  through 
Perseus  and  Danaus  to  Egypt.  Divination,  processions  and  solemn 
festivals,  according  to  him,  all  came  to  Greece  from  the  samcsource1. 

1  2,  54,  58,  171,  182.  6,  53.  The  inhabitants  of  Chemmis  claimed  Danam 
and  Lynceus  as  natives  of  their  city. 


THE  NINETEENTH  DYNASTY. 


261 


Neither  he  cor  the  Greek  writers  who  followed  him  appear  to  have 
doubted  the  fact  of  the  extensive  influence  of  Egypt  on  Greece, 
nor  its  having  been  produced  by  colonization.  The  circumstances 
of  the  arrival  and  establishment  of  Danaus  are  indeed  clear! y 
mythic — the  fifty-oared  ship,  the  equal  number  and  marriage  of 
his  daughters  and  his  brother  ^Egyptus'  sons,  the  murder  of  all 
but  Lynceus  by  the  Danaides1.  But  removing  these,  there  remain 
the  belief  of  the  Greeks  that  the  ancient  royal  family  of  Argos 
was  of  Egyptian  descent — a  belief  which  cannot  have  sprung  up 
and  become  national,  without  a  specific  cause — and  the  conviction 
of  Herodotus,  who  knew  both  Greece  and  Egypt  well,  that  the 
Grecian  rites  had  been  derived  from  Egypt  Some  circumstances1 
seem  to  indicate  that  Phoenicia  was  the  medium  through  which 
the  worship  of  Io  was  brought  to  Greece  ;  yet  the  interval  was 
probably  short,  as  the  Egyptian  name  was  preserved.  Josephus* 
says  that  the  Egyptians  became  known  to  the  Greeks  through  the 
means  of  the  Phoenicians,  who  visited  Greece  for  purposes  of  com- 
merce, and  these  visits  began  in  the  heroic  age. 

Speaking  of  the  introduction  of  the  Bacchic  rites  into  Greece, 
Herodotus  gives  it  as  his  opinion  that  Melampus,  by  whom  they 
were  taught  to  the  Greeks,  had  himself  derived  his  knowledge  of 
them  through  the  Phoenicians,  namely  from  Cadmus  the  Tyrian, 
and  those  who  came  with  him .  from  Phoenicia  into  Bceotia4. 

1  The  number  of  fifty  sons  and  daughters  arose  from  a  mythical  propriety. 
The  vessel  in  which  a  voyage  from  Egypt  to  Greece  was  performed  could 
not  be  inferior  to  a  pentecontor,  the  largest  then  known.  But  the  heroes  of 
mythology,  as  the  Argonauts,  were  their  own  rowers ;  hence  the  sons  of 
iEgyptus  were  fifty,  and  the  Danaides,  whom  each  coveted  for  a  bride,  of 
an  equal  number.  The  sons  of  ^Egyptus  had  served  their  pu-pose  when 
one  of  them  had  furnished  a  sovereign  to  Argos ;  the  rest  were  disposed  of 
by  the  daggers  of  their  wives.    The  Danaides  remained. 

7  See  p.  52  of  this  volume. 

'  QolviKts  Kar'  ifinopiav  ro«$  'EWrjaip  etrtianXioi/Tei  eid$    iyv^a6riaavt   «dl  il 

*tl*uv  AiyfvrMt*    (Job.  c  Apion.  1,  12.)  'Herod.  %,  43. 


262 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Indeed  there  is  some  reason  to  believe  that  Melampus,  the  sup 
posed  founder  of  these  Bacchic  rites  in  Greece,  and  progenitor  of 
a  caste  of  soothsayers,  is  only  another  name  for  Egyptian,  and 
that  the  Egyptian  origin  of  the  Bacchic  rites  is  the  fact  meant  to 
be  expressed,  in  calling  Melampus  their  author1.  The  Attic  worship 
of  Neith,  under  the  name  of  Athena,  has  evidently  come  from  the 
Phoenicians  of  Bceotia. 

In  the  age  of  Herodotus  historical  chronology  was  not  suffi- 
ciently cultivated  to  induce  an  identification  of  Danaus  with  an 
individual  king  or  prince  of  Egypt.  The  Greeks  had  already  con- 
nected the  war  of  Troy  and  the  wanderings  of  Menelaus  with 
Egyptian  history,  but  they  contented  themselves  with  turning  Pro- 
teus into  a  king  of  Egypt,  and  Thone  into  a  guardian  of  the 
mouth  of  the  Nile.  But  when  learned  chronologers  began  to 
synchronize  the  histories  of  different  countries,  it  was  natural  to 
seek  for  such  illustrious  personages  as  Danaus  and  ^Egyptus,  joint 
founders,  through  a  son  and  daughter,  of  the  Argive  royal  family, 
among  the  characters  of  history.  The  feud  of  Rameses  and  the 
Lrother  whom  he  made  his  viceroy,  repeated  in  the  story  of  Sethos 
and  Armais,  was  one  of  the  few  personal  anecdotes  which  the  Egyp- 
tian records  had  preserved,  and  was  therefore  fixed  upon  to  explain 
the  hostility  of  Danaus  and  JEgyptus.  Sethosis,  says  Manetho, 
was  called  ^Egyptus,  and  Ermaios  (Armais)  his  brother  Danaus2. 
The  resemblance,  indeed,  ceased  with  this  circumstance  ;  but  this 
identification  served  to  make  the  Macedonian  conqueror  of  Egypt 
through  Hercules,  Perseus  and  Danaus,  a  descendant  of  the  most 
illustrious  of  the  ancient  Pharaohs.  No  regard  was  paid  to  the 
heroic  chronology  of  Greece  in  these  deductions ;  for  Amenophis 

1  Apollod.  Bibl.  ii.  1,  4.  Alyvrrros — Karaarptxpajxtvoz  rrji/  M  cX  a  jxn  6  6  cu  v 
X<Zpav  d<p'  eavrov  d>i>6pacrev  AiyvTrrov.  There  appears  no  sufficient  reason  for 
the  conjecture  of  Scaliger,  jVL>a/i/?wW,  since  Eustathius  and  the  Scholiasi 
cn  the  Prometheus  evidently  read  as  we  now  do.    (See  Heyne  ad  loc.) 

s  Jceeph.  c.  Ap.  1,  26. 


THE   NINETEENTH  DYNASTY. 


26a 


III.,  who  preceded  Rameses  the  brother  of  Armais-Danaus  by  five 
reigns,  was  made  to  be  Memnon,  a  contemporary  of  the  War  of 
Troy,  and  Thuoris,  the  successor  of  Rameses  by  two  reigns,  the 
Polybus  under  whom  Troy  was  taken. 

We  must  therefore  regard  these  identifications  as  arbitrary,  so 
far  as  they  relate  to  persons.  Yet  there  was  a  good  reason  for 
referring  the  commencement  of  Egyptian  influence  upon  Greece  to 
this  period  of  history — the  18th  and  19th  dynasties.  Such  expe- 
ditions as  Thothmes,  Amenophis  and  Sesostris  undertook,  could 
not  be  without  effect  upon  all  the  countries  around.  Their  occu- 
pation of  Phoenicia  and  Asia  Minor  may  have  caused  migrations 
from  these  countries  to  a  more  western  land,  the  traces  of  which 
remained  in  the  Greek  religion  and  manners,  though  the  circum- 
stances are  disguised  in  mythe.  Sesostris  is  said  by  Herodotus  to 
have  crossed  into  Thrace ;  Diodoriis  represents  him  as  conquering 
the  Cyclades ;  he  was  the  first  Egyptian  king  who  built  ships  of 
war,  and  the  pentecontor  or  vessel  of  fifty  oars  first  appears  in 
Greek  mythology,  in  the  story  of  Danaus  and  JEgyptus.  It  is 
from  this  time  also,  namely  the  fourteenth  century  before  Christ, 
that  something  like  consistency  begins  to  appear  in  Grecian 
history. 

Diodorus,  in  a  fragment  of  his  40th  Book,  refers  the  expulsion 
of  the  Jews  and  the  emigrations  of  Danaus  and  Cadmus  to  the 
same  age  and  the  same  cause.  The  Exodus,  or  Departure  of  the 
Children  of  Israel  from  Egypt,  falls  according  to  the  common 
ctronology  about  the  year  1490  b.c.  ;  but  as  no  king  is  named,  in 
the  account  either  of  their  settlement  in  Egypt  or  of  their  departure, 
we  cannot  connect  the  scriptural  history  with  the  regnal  chrono- 
logy of  the  Pharaohs.  The.  time  of  their  residence  is  distinctly 
fixed,  both  in  the*  prophecy  of  the  fortunes  of  his  descendants  tc 
Abraham  and  in  the  narrative  of  the  Exodus  itself.  In  the  forme? 
(Gen.  xv.  13)  God  sars  to  Abraham,  "  Thy  seed  shall  be  a  straugei 
i»  a  land  that  is  no'  theirs,  and  shall  serve  them;  and  tbev  shall 


?64 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


afflict  them  four  hundred  years.  But  in  the  fourth  generation 
they  shall  come  hither  again."  In  Exodus  (xii.  40)  it  is  said. 
"  The  sojourning  of  the  children  of  Israel  in  the  land  of  Egypt  was 
four  hundred  and  thirty  years  ;  and  at  the  end  of  the  four  hundred 
and  thirty  years,  even  on  that  very  day,  all  the  hosts  of  Jehovah 
went  out  from  the  Jand  of  Egypt."  These  words  are  so  precise, 
that  no  other  sense  would  have  been  affixed  to  them  than  that  the 
sojourning  in  Egypt  lasted  430  years,  had  not  a  difficulty  arisen 
from  the  mention  of  the  fourth  generation  in  the  prophecy  to 
Abraham,  and  the  genealogical  notices  in  Exod.  vi.  16-19, 
Numb.  xxvi.  58,  where  Kohath  is  made  the  grandfather,  and 
Amram  the  father  of  Moses ;  Kohath  being  the  son  of  the  Patri- 
arch Levi  (Gen.  xlvi.  11),  and  having  gone  down  with  him  into 
Egypt.  The  difficulty  of  stretching  out  four  generations  to  400 
years  was  early  felt,  where  it  was  most  natural  that  a  chronological 
difficulty  connected  with  Egypt  should  be  felt,  at  Alexandria. 
Accordingly  in  the  Septuagint  Version,  made  by  learned  Jews  at 
that  seat  of  Graeco-Egyptian  science,  Exod.  xii.  40  reads  thus  : 
"  The  sojourning  of  the  children  of  Israel,  which  they  sojourned  in 
the  land  of  Egypt  and  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  was  i30  years  ;" 
the  Samaritan  Pentateuch,  which  so  often  agrees  with  the  Septua- 
gint against  the  Hebrew1,  here  also  follows  the  Greek  Version. 
Josephus  is  inconsistent;  in  one  place  he  reckons  the  whole  period 
of  Egyptian  bondage  at  400  years2 ;  in  another3  he  gives  215  years 
to  the  sojourning  of  x\.braham  and  the  patriarchs  in  Canaan,  and 
215  to  the  sojourning  in  Egypt.     This  reckoning  appears  to  have 

1  This  may  perhaps  he  explained  by  the  fact  that  the  Samaritans  appear 
to  have  been  a  considerable  body  in  Egypt  (Flav.  Vop.  Saturn  in  us,  c.  8), 
and  may  have  lived  there  more  harmoniously  with  the  Ilellenistic  Jewa 
than  w'th  the  Jews  of  Palestine,  who  hated  the  Hellenists  as  much  as  they 
did  the  Samaritans. 

*  Ant.   2,  9,  1.     Tfrptwocn'djj'  fiis>  triov  ^ovuv  in\  Tavrais  iifjvvaav  ra  *aizu)oimu 

■  Aut.  2,  15,  2. 


THE   NINETEENTH  DYNASTY. 


265 


been  adopted  by  the  Jews,  who  chiefly  used  the  Septuagint,  in  the 
age  of  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  and  is  the  foundation  of 
St.  Paul's  remark  (Gal.  iii.  11),  "that  the  promise  to  Abraham 
preceded  by  430  years  the  giving  of  the  Law."  That  the  reading 
of  the  Septuagint  is  an  arbitrary  and  uncritical  alteration  of  the 
text  is  now  generally  admitted ;  it  appears  to.remove  one  difficulty 
to  create  a  greater ;  since  the  increase  of  the  children  of  Israe; 
from  seventy  persons  to  600,000  fighting-men  in  230  years  is 
incredible.  A  generation  is  not  to  be  understood  in  the  prophecy 
to  Abraham  in  the  strict  and  scientific  sense  ;  it  evidently  mean? 
the  average  period  of  the  life  of  man,  which  might  fairly  be  est: 
mated  at  a  century,  when  110,  120,  130,  and  137  years  are  assigned 
as  its  actual  duration.  There  is  then  no  sufficient  ground  for 
impeaching  the  purity  of  the  Hebrew  text,  nor  for  giving  to  it  any 
other  than  its  obvious  meaning,  that  the  children  of  Israel  dwelt 
400  years  in  Egypt1.  The  words  of  the  prophecy  to  Abraham  do 
not  necessarily  imply  that  their  oppression  should  last  so  long. 

If  then  the  Exodus  falls  in  the  15th  century  before  Christ,  and 
the  children  of  Israel  went  down  into  Egypt  400  years  before,  their 
settlement  must  have  taken  place  under  one  of  the  dynasties 
between  the  14th  and  the  18th.  The  friendly  reception  which 
they  met  with  in  Egypt,  and  the  facility  with  which  the  fertile 
land  of  Goshen,  lying  towards  Palestine  and  Arabia,  was  assigned 
to  them,  is  most  naturally  explained,  if  we  assume  that  the  Pha- 
raoh who  raised  Joseph  to  the  rank  of  vizir  was  one  of  the  Hyksos 
race.  The  Hyksos  were  Phoenician  shepherds,  therefore,  of  a 
Semitic  race  like  the  Israelites;  and  by  placing  them  on  the 
frontier  of  Asia,  they  secured  themselves  a  friendly  garrison  in  that 

1  There  still  remains  the  difficulty  that  Moses  is  made  the  great-grandson 
of  Levi.  But  is  it  probable  that  genealogical  registers  would  be  preserved 
with  such  accuracy,  as  to  make  them  historical  documents,  in  that  inter- 
val when  the  children  of  Israel  had  ceased  to  be  a  family  and  had  not  yef 
become  a  nation  ? 

vol.  II.  12 


266 


HISTORY    OF  EGYPT. 


vulnerable  part  of  their  dominions.    It  is  true  that  we  find  no 

marks  of  the  sovereignty  of  a  foreign  race  in  the  account  of  the 
settlement  of  the  Israelites.  Everything  corresponds  with  the 
usages,  ceremonials  and  condition  of  society,  as  we  know  them 
from  monuments  of  the  native  Egyptians.  The  native  gods  are  in 
high  honor;  the  prime-minister  receives  for  a  wife  the  daughter 
of  the  chief-priest  of  Re  at  Heliopolis;  the  lands  of  the  priests, 
alone  escape  forfeiture  to  the  crown  in  the  famine.  He  is  invested 
with  the  insignia  of  office  with  the  same  ceremonies  which  were 
practised  at  the  court  of  Setei  Menephthah1.  The  king  has  a 
splendid  retinue — a  chief  captain  of  the  guard,  a  chief  butler  and 
chief  baker,  magicians  and  wise  men.  There  is  the  same  marked 
contrast  between  Egyptian  usages  and  those  of  neighboring 
nations ;  they  will  not  eafc  with  a  Hebrew  any  more  than  they 
would  touch  the  knife  of  a  Greek2 ;  when  Jacob  dies,  forty  days 
are  consumed  in  his  embalmment,  and  seventy  more  in  mourning 
for  him.  The  language  of  Egypt  was  unintelligible  to  the  Hebrews, 
and  as  far  as  we  can  judge  from  the  disguised  fragments  which 
have  been  handed  down  to  us,  was  the  same  as  that  of  the  monu- 
ments. This  would  be  of  great  weight  were  it  certain  that  all  the 
details,  as  well  as  the  great  facts  of  the  narrative,  have  been 
derived  from  contemporary  authority.  It  might  also  be  said,  that 
if  the  Hyksos  had  been  already  established  some  centuries  in 
Egypt  when  Joseph  was  transported  thither,  they  would  have 
adopted  the  language  and  manners  of  the  conquered  people. 
Joseph  suggests  to  his  brethren  that  they  should  call  themselves 
shepherds,  in  order  that  the  land  of  Goshen  might  be  assigned  to 
them,  adding,  "  for  every  shepherd  is  an  abomination  to  the  Egyp- 
tians ;"  and  this  has  been  thought  to  refer  to  the  sufferings  inflicted 
on  Egypt  by  the  Hyksos  and  to  prove  that  they  had  recently  been 
expelled.    But  the  settlement  of  an  aged  man.  with  his  children 


Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  pi.  80. 


1  Her.  2,  41 


THE  NINETEENTH  DYNASTY. 


267 


and  grandchildren,  amounting  in  all  only  to  seventy  persons, 
could  hardly  excite  apprehension,  however  much  the  Egyptians 
had  suffered  from  an  invasion  of  a  nomad  people.  We  do  not 
know  indeed,  from  other  authorities,  that  shepherds,  lik*>  swine- 
herds, were  an  abomination  to  the  Egyptians ;  but  they  were  of  a 
low  caste,  and  their  occupation  evidently  ranked  below  that  of 
the  cultivator  of  the  soil1. 

The  language  of  the  Book  of  Exodus,  "  a  new  king  arose  who 
knew  not  Joseph,"  points  to  a  change  of  dynasty,  and  the  com- 
mencement of  the  New  Monarchy,  rather  than  the  succession  of  a 
sovereign  of  the  same  family,  in  whom  such  ignorance  would  be 
incredible  ;  and  a  long  interval  must  have  occurred,  of  which  the 
historian  gives  us  some  general  measure  by  saying  that  "the 
children  of  Israel,  after  the  death  of  Joseph  and  all  that  genera- 
tion, multiplied  and  waxed  exceedingly  mighty  and  the  land  was 
filled  with  them."  Their  oppression  extended  through  several 
reigns,  for  Pharaoh  not  being  a  personal  name,  its  recurrence  is 
no  proof  that  one  sovereign  is  intended  throughout.  After  the 
expulsion  of  the  Hyksos,  the  Israelites,  who,  though  not  the  same, 
were  closely  connected  with  them,  naturally  became  an  object  of 
alarm,  and  the  kings  of  the  18th  dynasty  endeavored  first  to 
check  their  increase  and  then  to  break  their  spirit. 

In  endeavoring  to  connect  the  Exodus  of  the  Israelites  with  the 
Egyptian  history,  we  must  lay  out  of  the  account  entirely  the  nar- 
rative of  the  expulsion  of  the  Hyksos  by  Manetho.  It  is  only  by 
the  means  of  the  interpolations  of  Joseph  us2  that  it  has  appeared 
to  describe  the  Exodus  of  the  Israelites.    The  authentic  chronicles 

1  Wilkinson,  M.  .and  C.  2,  16.  41  As  if  to  prove  how  much  they  despised 
every  order  of  pastors,  the  artists  both  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt  delighted 
in  representing  them  as  dirty  and  unshaven ;  and  at  Beni  Hassan  and  Hie 
tombs  near  the  pyramids  of  Geezah,  they  are  caricatured  as  a  de'ormed 
and  unseemly  race." 

*  See  p.  158  of  thia  vol 


268 


IIISTORV  OF  EGYPT. 


of  Egypt  contained,  as  far  as  we  can  judge,  no  notice  of  their 
settlement,  residence  or  departure.  Nor  do  the  monuments  sup- 
ply the  deficiency  ;  except  that  they  appear  to  have  been  employed 
in  brick-making  in  the  reign  of  Thothmes  III.1  But  the  account 
which  Manetho  really  gives  of  the  departure  of  the  Jews,  though 
by  his  own  confession  derived  from  unauthentic  and  fabulous 
sources2,  deserves  attention  as  exhibiting  the  popular  belief. 
Josephus  having  represented  Manetho  as  identifying  the  Jews  with 
the  Hyksos,  charges  him  with  falsehood  in  mentioning  Amenophis'' 
as  the  king  under  whom  the  Exodus  took  place,  when  he  had 
himself  declared  it  to  be  Tethmosis ;  but  Manetho  is  liable  to  no 
such  imputation,  and  it  is  Josephus  who  has  sacrificed  truth  to 
national*  pride.  This  popular  account  represents  the  expelled 
nation,  not  as  foreigners,  but  as  an  impure  and  diseased  portion  of 
he  Egyptian  people.  "  Amenophis,  a  pious  king,  desirous  of 
obtaining  a  vision  of  the  gods,  such  as  Horus  his  predecessor  had 
enjoyed,  had  been  exhorted  by  his  namesake  Amenophis,  an 
inspired  man,  to  clear  the  land  of  all  impure  persons,  and  those 
who  labored  under  any  bodily  defect.  He  accordingly  collected 
them  to  the  number  of  80,000,  and  relegated  them  to  the  quarries 
eastward  of  the  Nile,  along  with  the  separated  portion  of  the  other 
Egyptians.  It  happened  that  among  the  leprous  persons,  who 
in  virtue  of  the  edict  were  consigned  to  this  region  and  condemned 
to  labor,  were  some  learned  priests.  The  soothsayer  who  had 
given  auvice  to  the  king  to  clear  his  land,  was  alarmed  wnen  he 
thought  of  the  hostility  which  he  should  bring  down  on  the  part 
of  the  gods  by  the  violence  offered  to  their  ministers,  and  put  an 
end  to  his  life,  leaving  behind  him  a  written  prediction,  that  the 
impure  persons  would  obtain  auxiliaries  and  be  masters  of  Egypt 
for  thirteen  years.     The  king,  moved  by  their  sufferings,  assigned 

*  See  p.  194  of  this  voL  3  See  p.  158  of  this  vol.,  not* 

"  ' AftcvuxfHh  lioir<jif)ffaf  t(i06Xifiov,  0aoi\ta.     (C.  Aj).  1,  26.) 


THE   NINETEENTH  DYNASTY. 


209 


them  as  an  abode  the  Typhonian  city  of  Abaris,  which  'bad  once 
been  occupied  by  the  Shepherds,  but  was  then  unpeopled.  Here 
they  chose  for  themselves  a  leader  Osarsiph,  one  of  the  priests  of 
Heliopolis.  He  formed  them  into  a  confederacy,  whose  principle 
was  hostility  to  the  religion  of  Egypt  and  opposition  to  its  laws 
and  customs.  Having  fortified  their  city  they  sent  for  aid  to  the 
Shepherds  who  had  been  expelled  by  Tethmosis  and  then  occupied 
Jerusalem,  and  invited  them  to  invade  Egypt  by  the  promise  of 
re-establishing  them  in  the  country  from  which  they  had  been 
expelled.  Two  hundred  thousand  men  obeyed  the  call,  and  Ame- 
nophis  went  to  meet  them  with  300,000  men,  but  thinking  that 
he  was  acting  in  opposition  to  the  divine  will,  withdrew  with  his 
forces  into  Ethiopia,  leaving  behind  him  his  son  Sethos  (called 
also  Rameses  from  Rampses  «his  father),  a  child  of  five  years  old, 
having  first  collected  together  the  most  honored  of  the  sacred 
animals,  and  warned  the  priests  to  bury  their  images.  Here  he 
remained  during  the  fated  period  of  thirteen  years,  while  the 
inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  and  the  impure  men  of  Egypt  committed 
all  manner  of  outrages,  plundering  the  temples,  mutilating  the 
images  of  the  gods,  and  compelling  the  priests  to  kill  and  cook 
the  sacred  animals.  The  priest  Osarsiph  changed  his  name  to 
Moses  when  he  joined  this  race.  At  the  end  of  the  thirteen  years 
Amenophis  returned  with  a  great  force,  and  with  his  son  Rampses 
attacked  the  Shepherds  and  the  impure  persons,  and  pursued  them 
to  the  borders  of  Syria." 

We  cannot  recognize  in  this  tale  anything  that  claims  even  the 
character  of  an  original  historical  tradition,  disguised  and  perverted 
by  length  of  time  and  national  feeling.  It  might  have  originated 
in  the  age  when  the  Jews  began  to  settle  themselves  in  Egypt,  and 
by  the  establishment  of  their  monotheistic  worship  to  give  offence 
to  the  religious  feeling  of  the  Egyptians1,  as  well  as  in  that  of  the 

1  Is.  xix.  18.    Plutarch,  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  363, ,  makes  Typhon  the  father  of 


270  HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 

Exodus; 'for  tLe  fundamental  fact  which  it  implies,  the  religious 
antagonism  of  the  Jewish  and  Egyptian  people,  extended  through 
all  times,  and  found  an  expression  in  this  form1.  Beyond  this 
there  is  scarcely  a  resemblance  to  the  Scripture  narrative.  Instead 
of  immigrants,  immemorially  hostile  to  the  polytheism  of  Egypt, 
the  founders  of  the  Jewish  nation  are  impure  Egyptians,  and  their 
leader  a  renegade  priest.  The  bitterness  of  national  and  religious 
hatred  and  contempt  is  expressed  by  representing  them  as  origi- 
nally a  company  of  lepers,  a  disease  of  which  we  do  not  read  in 
Scripture  before  their  residence  in  Egypt,  but  which  seems  to  have 
been  rife  among  them  afterwards,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  anx- 
ious precautions  of  the  Law  against.this  disease2.  The  historical 
narrative  and  the  tale  agree  in  the  circumstance  that  the  departure 
of  the  Jewish  people  was  accompanied  by  calamity  to  the  Egyp- 
tians, but  all  the  circumstances  of  that  calamity  are  entirely  differ- 
ent. The  Amenophis  to  whom  it  refers,  if  an  historical  personage, 
must  be  the  Menephthah  of  the  monuments,  the  father  of  Rameses* 
Sesostris ;  we  'know'  his  history  from  these  monuments  with  con 
siderable  minuteness,  and  it  is  quite  inconsistent  with  the  story  of 
Manetho.  Probably,  however,  Amenophis  has  been  introduced 
into  the  story,  .without  regard  to  chronology,  from  his  high  repu- 
tation for  piety3.  What  Jews  and  Christians  regard  as  an  act  of  cru- 
elty and  injustice,  the  Egyptians  considered  as  the  necessary  means 
of  obtaining  the  favor  or  averting  the  displeasure  of  the  gods.  The 

Hierosolymus  and  Judscus,  and  all  the  places  connected  especially  with 
Typhon  were  on  the  eastern  side  of  Egypt 

1  Chneremon  (Jos.  c.  Apion.  1,  32)  makes  Moses,  whose  Egyptian  name 
was  Tisithen,  and  Joseph,  whose  name  was  Peteseph,  to  be  hierograinmats, 
and  the  leaders  of  the  2,500,000  impure  persons.  According  to  Lysima- 
chus,  Bocchoris  was  the  king  who  endeavored  to  clear  his  country  of  impure 
person j  by  drowning  them. 

*  Tho  story  of  Job  proves  that  the  leprosy  was  considered  as  indicating 
the  extremest  degree  of  divine  displeasure  and  consequent  guilt. 

8  See  p.  1*76  of  this  voL 


THE   NINETEENTH  DYNASTY. 


271 


ting  was  to  be  rewarded,  according  to  one  account,  by  a  sight  of 
the  gods,  according  to  others,  by  deliverance  from  pestilence1,  or  from 
the  displeasure  of  Isis2,  or  famine3,  if  he  destroyed  or  expelled  the 
enemies  of  the  gods.  Popular  fable,  such  as  we  are  dealing  with, 
would  naturally  fix  on  an  eminent  name  like  that  of  Amenophis, 
whose  connexion  with  Ethiopia  gave  probability  to  the  account  of 
his  flight  to  that  country. 

Who  was  the  Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus,  in  the  silence  of  Egyptian 
monuments  and  the  uncertainty  of  Jewish  chronology,  we  may 
never  be  able  to  ascertain.  The  most  important  fact' in  reference 
to  the  providential  character  of  that  event,  a  crisis  in  the  religious 
history  of  the  world,  is,  that  Israel  was  brought  out  of  Egypt,  not 
in  a  period  of  its  weakness  and  depression,  but  when  its  monarchy 
was  warlike  and  powerful ;  and  only  the  strong  hand  and  out- 
stretched arm  of  Jehovah  could  have  effected  its  deliverance. 

We  could  not  suppose  that  this  event  was  accomplished  by  the 
aid  of  an  auxiliary  body  of  Palestinian  Hyksos,  without  imputing 
to  the  author  of  the  book  of  Exodus  a  wilful  suppression  of  the 
truth.  But  it  is  possible  that  the  expulsion  of  the  Hyksos  under 
the  first  kings  of  the  18th  dynasty  may  not  have  been  so  com- 
plete, but  that  a  considerable  remnant  of  the  population  was  left 
behind  in  the  country  eastward  of  the  Delta,  and  that  uniting 
themselves  with  the  Israelites,  they  may  have  contributed  to  pro- 
duce that  great  increase  of  numbers  which  alarmed  the  kings  of 
Egypt.  It  was  probably  during  the  close  union  of  Phoenicia  with 
Egypt  that  .the  alphabetical  character  of  the  former  was  arranged, 
and  learned  by  the  Israelites.  In  the  preceding  part  of  the  history 
there  is  no  trace  of  its  use;  but  from  the  account  of  the  giving  of 
the  Law,  it  is  evident  that  it  was  known  at  the  Exodus,  though 
probably  little  diffused  among  the  nation  at  large4.    Such  an 

'  Diod.  Fr.  lib.  40. 

1  Clifer.  ap.  Jos.  c.  A  p.  1,  32.  •  Jos.  u.  s.  1,  S3. 

*  The  mention  of  a  signet-ring  in  the  history  of Judah  is  no  proof  of  the 


272 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


adaptation  of  the  phonetic  system  of  the  Egyptians  is  mcie  likely 
to  have  been  made  by  the  Phoenicians  than  by  the  Jews,  and  the 
use  of  the  same  alphabet  by  both  may  be  best  explained  by  their 
dwelling  together  in  Egypt  before  they  became  neighbors  in  the 
land  of  Canaan. 

During  their  residence  in  Egypt,  and  probably  in  consequence 
of  this  intermixture,  the  common  people  among  the  Israelites 
appear  to  have  lost  in  great  measure  their  belief  in  the  God  of 
their  forefathers.  When  Moses  came  with  a  message  from  him,  it 
is  evident  that  he  was  not  known  to  them  under  his  distinctive 
appellation ;  nor  have  we  any  account  of  their  religious  history 
during  the  whole  interval  from  the  settlement  in  Goshen  to  the 
Exodus.  Their  ancient  faith  was  revived  by  the  mission  of  Moses 
and  the  events  of  their  deliverance,  but  there  are  evident  marks  of 
the  prevalence  both  of  Egyptian  and  Phoenician  superstitions 
among  them,  notwithstanding  the  repugnance  which  their  tradi- 
tionary usages  created  between  them  and  the  Egyptians1.  As  tho 
land  of  Goshen  bordered  on  Heliopolis,  and  was  not  far  removed 
from  Memphis,  the  chief  seats  of  the  worship  of  Mnevis  and  Apis, 
it  is  not  wonderful  that  in  their  first  distrust  of  the  power  of  Jeho- 
vah, they  recurred  to  the  worship  of  the  golden  calf.  The  prophet 
Amos  informs  us,  that  during  their  wanderings  in  the  Desert,  they 
neglected  the  sacrifices  of  Jehovah  for  those  of  Moloch  and  Chiun2, 
Palestinian  and  Arabian  divinities3,  with  whom  they  had  probably 
become  acquainted  by  their  intercourse  with  the  Palestinian  and 
Arabian  Hyksos. 

U9e  of  alphabetical  characters  in  the  patriarchal  times.  Though  worn  only 
as  an  ornament,  of  Egyptian  fabric,  it  would  serve,  like  the  bracelets  and 
the  staff,  to  identify  the  owner,  which  is  all  that  the  story  requires.  (Gen, 
xxxviii.  18,  25.) 

1  Exod,  viii.  26  *  Amos  v.  25.  1  Selden  de  Dis  Syria,  c  6,  41. 


THE  TWENTIETH  DYNASTY. 


27? 


THE  THIRD  VOLUME  OF  MAXETHl 
Twentieth  Dynasty. 

Teare 

Twelve  Diospolitan  kings,  who  reigned   .  135 

[Eusebius  in  Syncellus  (p.  139,  DincL)  178  years.    A.rmen.  172.] 

The  monuments  have  fortunately  preserved  for  us  the  names  of 
the  sovereigns  of  this  dynasty,  which  appear  to  have  been  lost  in 
Manetho,  from  the  circumstance  of  their  being  all  Rameses.  Ac- 
cording to  the  reckoning  of  those  who  make  Rameses  II.  and  III.  to 
be  one  and  the  same,  Rameses  III.  will  be  the  first  of  this  dynasty, 
son  of  Remerri  or  Merira,  who  himself  never  reigned.  According 
to  our  arrangement  it  will  begin  with  Rameses  IV.  The  follow- 
ing is  the  succession  which  Lepsius  has  derived  from  the  monu- 
ments : 

Rameses  IV. 
Rameses  V. 
Rameses  VI. 
Rameses  VI L 
Rameses  VEIL . 
Rameses  TX. 
Rameses  X. 
Rameses  XX 
Rameses  XXL 
Rameses  XII L 

The  monuments  of  the  reign  of  Rameses  IV.  show  that  the 
power  of  the  18th  and  19th  dynasties  had  been  transmitted  unim- 
paired to  the  20th.  The  pavilion  of  Medinet  Aboo  or  Southern 
Rameseion,  exhibits  the  splendid  ceremony  of  his  coronation1.  In 
the  first  compartment  the  king  appears,  seated  under  a  canopy,  the 

1  Vol.  i  p.  136,  137.    Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  pL  76i 

12* 


Brothers  reigning  in  succession. 


274  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 

cornice  of  which  is  formed  by  a  row  of  the  royal  serpents  or  urcct. 
Two  figures  of  the  goddess  of  Truth  and  Justice  stand  behind  his 
throne,  and  cover  the  back  of  it  with  their  outstretched  wings. 
Rameses  wears  his  helmet  and  carries  in  his  hand  the  emblem  of 
Life,  and  the  hook  and  scourge,  the  emblems  of  Dominion,  which 
serve  also  to  identify  him  with  Osiris.  The  sphinx  and  the  hawk, 
symbols  of  royalty,  adorn  the  side  of  the  throne,  which  is  supported 
by  the  figure  of  a  lion  and  of  two  captives.  The  poles  on  which 
this  canopy  is  carried  are  supported  on  the  shoulders  of  twelve 
princes  of  the  blood  ;  other  attendants  carry  a  broad  umbrella  and 
feather-fans.  Three  priests,  distinguishable  by  their  shaven  crowns, 
walk  beside  the  throne,  carrying  the  arms  and  insignia  of  the  king, 
and  four  immediately  behind  it.  They  are  followed  by  six  more 
princes  of  the  blood,  some  with  hatchets  and  some  with  feather- 
fans.  Military  attendants  bearing  the  steps  of  the  throne  ana 
square  blocks  of  wood  on  which  it  might  be  rested,  when  lowered 
from  the  shoulders  of  the  bearers,  close  the  lower  line  of  the  pro- 
cession. In  the  upper,  immediately  behind  the  throne,  walk  two 
men  in  civil  costume,  who  from  their  attitude  appear  to  be  making 
proclamation1 ;  they  are  followed  by  princes  of  the  blood,  fan- 
bearers  and  guards.  In  front  of  the  throne  walk  two  priests,  who 
turn  their  faces  back  towards  the  king  and  scatter  grains  of  incense 
on  a  censer  ;  a  scribe  reads  from  a  roll ;  two  more  princes  of  the 
blood,  mixed  with  the  priests  and  military  officers,  make  up  the 
rest  of  the  procession,  which  is  headed  by  drummers,  trumpeters, 
and  players  of  the  double  pipe. 

The  second  compartment  begins  with  a  libation  and  burning  of 
incense  made  by  the  king,  who  has  descended  from  his  throne,  to 
Amun  Khem.  The  statue  next  appears  carried  in  procession  by 
twenty-two  priests,  hidden  all  but  the  feet  and  heads  by  the 

1  The  hand  raised  towards  the  mouth  is  an  indication  of  rehearsing  in 
Egyptian  pictures. 


THE  TWENTIETH  DYNASTY. 


275 


drapery  of  the  platform  on  which  the  statue  is  erected.  The  king 
walks  before  the  god,  having  a  staff  in  one  hand,  a  sceptre  in  the 
other,  and  the  red  crown  of  the  Lower  Country  on  his  head.  He 
is  preceded  by  a  white  bull,  before  whom  a  priest  burns  incense, 
and  a  long  train  of  other  priests  carry  standards  on  which  are  fixed 
images  of  the  jackal,  the  bull,  the  cynocephalus,  the  hawk,  em- 
blems respectively  of  Anubis,  Apis,  Thoth  and  Horus.  The  images 
and  shields  of  some  of  the  predecessors  of  Rameses  are  also  borne 
on  the  shoulders  of  the  priests,  but  a  more  complete  succession  is 
given  afterwards.  The  king  now  appears  wearing  the  Pschent, 
•  which  on  the  Rosetta  stone1  he  is  described  as  having  put  on  when 
he  entered  the  temple  of  Memphis,  to  perform  the  ceremonies  pre- 
scribed on  taking  the  throne.  The  hieroglyphics  in  front  of  the 
king  describe  him  as  putting  on  the  crown  of  the  Upper  and  Lower 
countries.  Four  birds  are  at  the  same  time  let  loose  by  the  priests, 
and  the  columns  of  hieroglyphics  above  them  being  headed  by  the 
symbols  of  the  four  cardinal  points,  it  has  been  ingeniously  con- 
:ectured  by  Champollion2,  that  the  birds  wTere  to  announce  to  East, 
West,  North  and  South,  the  fact  that  Rameses  IV.  was  crowned. 

In  the  last  compartment  the  king  has  laid  aside  his  crown,  and 
with  a  helmet  on  his  head  cuts  with  a  sickle  six  ears  of  corn,  which 
a  priest  binds  together  and  offers  to  the  sacred  bull.  This  cere- 
mony no  doubt  was  emblematical  of  the  relation  between  the 
kingly  office  and  agriculture,  the  great  source  of  the  prosperity  of 
Egypt.  It  was  also  very  appropriate  to  the  character  of  Arrun 
Khem,  who  symbolized  the  productive  power  of  nature.  The 
queen,  who  was  not  present  at  the  procession  of  the  statue  of 
Amun  Khem,  appears  in  the  two  last  compartments,  not,  however, 
as  taking  a  part  in  the  ceremony,  but  only  as  a  spectator. 

1  K-aXovfiifT]  0a(Ti\eta  PxtVTi  *>"  ^ptdtfitvos  tirijXfcv  si?  to  iv  M:^ti  *  *  * 
rt\tcOi)  tH  vojtttyntv    rij  TrapjXt'upei  tFjs  0aoi\das.     (L.  il,  12  from  the  end.) 

1  Lettres  d'Egjpte,  p.  347. 


270 


HISTORY    OF  EGYPT. 


The  interior  court  of  the  palace  at  Medinet-Aboo  contains  an 
inscription  in  not  fewer  than  seventy-five  columns,  bearing  date  the 
fifth  year  of  his  reign,  in  which  his  victories  over  various  nations 
are  commemorated1.  It  is  not  accompanied  by  any  historical  pic- 
ture, and  is  in  some  parts  injured  by  time  and  in  others  obscure  in 
its  construction  ;  but  enough  remains  and  is  intelligible  to  furnish 
us  with  the  information  that  the  king  had  already  made  two  expe- 
ditions2, and  reduced  into  submission  various  nations  of  Asia,  some 
of  whose  names  have  occurred  in  the  historical  inscriptions  of  his 
predecessors,  others  not  mentioned  before.  Among  the  former  are 
the  Mennahom  and  the  Tohen  ;  among  the  latter  the  Mashiosha3.  • 

The  inscription  is  supposed  by  Rosellini,  from  its  redundant  and 
tautological  style,  and  the  more  than  usual  quantity  of  flattery  to 
the  king  which  it  contains,  to  be  the  substance  of  some  poem  com- 
posed to  celebrate  the  expedition. "  An  embassy  from  the  "  men  of 
the  great  island  "  is  also  mentioned,  to  which  the  king  is  said  to 
have  "  passed  like  a  waterfowl  over  the  waters4."  This  island  can 
scarcely  be  any  other  than  Cyprus,  which,  according  to  Manetho, 
as  reported  by  Josephus,  was  a  conquest  of  Sethosis  Rameses6. 

Of  the  next  expedition  of  Rameses  IV.,  undertaken  in  the 
eleventh  and  twelfth  years  of  his  reign,  we  have  more  ample 
details  in  a  magnificent  series  of  bas-reliefs  on  the  north-eastern 
walls  of  the  palace  of  Medinet-Aboo6.  The  whole  progress  of  a 
campaign  is  recorded  there.  We  have  first  an  allocution  of  his 
army  by  the  king  ;  he  stands  on  a  raised  platform  ;  the  com- 

Rosellini,  M.  R.  tav.  cxxxix.  exl. 

*  His  return  from  one  with  his  prisoners  is  mentioned,  cols.  40,  41  (Ros. 
Mon.  Stor.  4,  88),  but  he  appears  subsequently  to  have  undertaken 
another. 

*  Supposed  by  Mr.  Osburn  to  be  the  inhabitants  of  Dar-mesek,  Dama9cu» 
(Ancient  Egypt,  p.  102.) 

4  Cols.  61-53.  5  Cont  Apion  1,  15. 

9  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4,  14-50;  Mon.  Reali,  tav.  cxxiv.-cxxsdv 


THE  TWENTIETH  DYNASTY. 


277 


manders  have  received  their  banners  and  kneel  with  them  in  their 
hands,  while  others  stand  at  a  distance  and  lift  their  hands  towards  hiui 
in  homage.  In  another  division  the  arming  of  the  troops  is  repre- 
sented ;  bows,  quivers,  spears,  battle-axes  and  scimitars  are  piled  on 
the  ground,  and  distributed  by  the  officers  to  men  who  come  in 
companies  to  receive  them.  The  lowest  compartment,  which  per- 
haps should  be  considered  as  the  first  in  order,  exhibits  the  enrol- 
ment of  the  soldiers,  performed  by  a  prince  of  the  blood,  attended 
by  his  officers.  Next  begins  the  march.  The  king  in  his  biga  is 
accompanied  by  his  guards,  and  as  Diodorus  describes  Osymandyas, 
by  a  lion ;  before  him  is  another  chariot  on  which  is  erected  the 
royal  standard,  the  head  of  Amun  with  the  disk  of  the  sun.  In 
six  lines  of  hieroglyphics  placed  above,  the  god  promises  to  go 
before  him  into  the  land  of  the  enemy,  and  make  him  pass  victo- 
rious thi\ugb.  it.  This  and  the  following  scene  represent  the 
march  through  Egypt ;  the  next  exhibits  the  Egyptians  in  conflict 
with  their  enemies.  Their  head-dress  is  different  from  that  of  any 
foreigners  whom  we  have  yet  fDund  on  the  monuments  ;  a  high 
cap  or  helmet,  wider  at  the  top  than  at  the  base,  divided  into 
colored  stripes  with  disks  of  metal  attached  to  it,  descending  on 
the  back  of  the  neck,  and  fastened  beneath  the  chin.  It  is  not 
unlike  the  head-dress  of  figures  on  the  Persepolitan  monuments', 
but  in  other  respects  their  costume  is  different.  They  carry  round 
shields,  with  spears  and  short  straight  swords.  The  arrows  of 
the  king  are  making  havoc  among  them  ;  they  fly  in  all  directions, 
and  some  of  them  appear  to  have  seized  on  an  Egyptian  chariot,  of 
which  the  driver  had  been  killed,  to  aid  in  their  escape.  They  were 
probably  a  people  of  a  nomadic  life ;  for  in  the  rear  are  waggons 
with  solid  wheels  snd  bodies  of  wickerwork,  drawn  by  oxen,  con- 
taining their  women  and  children.  Their  name,  which  was  read 
Tokari  by  Cir  j.  Wilkinson,  is  read  Fekkaroo  by  Champollioc 


1  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  I,  367. 


278 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


and  Roselhni',  but  no  name  in  ancient  geography  lias  "been  found 
by  which  it  ct.n  he  explained.  The  Egyptians  were  aided  in  this 
campaign  by  a  body  of  foreign  auxiliaries,  who  must  have  been 
taken  permanently  into  their  service,  as  they  form  a  part  of  the 
army  when  it  sets  out  on  its  march,  and  have  previously  appeared 
among  the  troops  of  Rameses  III.  They  have  a  helmet  of  a  ver} 
peculiar  shape,  a  horned  crescent  being  fixed  on  the  top,  with  the 
addition  of  a  stem  surmounted  by  a  ball2.  Their  name  is  written 
Shairetaan,  with  an  addition  which  shows  them  to  have  been  a 
maritime  people,  and  though  at  times  in  alliance  they  were  at 
other  times  in  hostility  with  Egypt. 

The  next  scene  repiesents  a  lion-hunt;  one  of  these  animals 
lies  in  the  agonies  of  death  under  the  feet  of  the  royal  horses ; 
another  pierced  with  three  arrows  is  taking  refuge  among  the 
water-plants,  which  indicate  die  vicinity  of  a  river.  Remembering 
the  allusions  of  the  Jewish  prophets  to  the  lions  which  harbor  on 
the  banks  of  Jordan,  and  arc  driven  out  by  the  swelling  of  its 
waters3,  we  can  hardly  avoid  the  conclusion  that  Rameses  was  now 
on  his  progress  through  Palestine.  If  this  be  the  case,  it  will  be 
somewhere  on  the  coast  of  Palestine,  or  a  country  not  very  distant, 
that  we  should  seek  for  the  scene  of  the  next  transaction — a  naval 
fight  between  the  Egyptians  and  the  nation  whom  they  had  just 
before  defeated  by  land.  It  is  the  only  representation  of  a  naval 
battle  remaining  among  the  Egyptian  monuments4.  The  Egyp- 
tian vessels  have  both  oars  and  sails,  those  of  the  enemy  sails  only, 
and  they  differ  in  their  build  ;  the  prow  of  the  Egyptian  vessel  is 
the  head  of  a  lion,  of  the  other  that  of  a  water-fowl  ;  the  opposite 

1  Osburn  makes  them  Ekronites,  i.  e.  Philistines,  (Anc.  Egypt,  p.  107, 
140.) 

3  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  .135;  Mon.  Reali,  tav.  ci.  He  calls  them 
"royal  guards,"  but  they  were  evidently  not  Egyptians.  Osburn  considera 
them  as  Sidonians.    (Anc.  Egypt,  p.  119.) 

•  Jer.  xlix.  19  ;  1,  44.  4  Vol.  i.  p.  195. 


THE  TWENTIETH  DYNASTY. 


279 


and  is  armed  with  a  spike.  The  rowers  are  protected  by  a  raised 
bulwark  which  runs  along  the  side;  the  combatants  assail  each 
other  with  arrows  from  a  distance,  or  board  and  fight  hand  to  hand 
when  the  vessels  are  in  contact.  The  Egyptians  as  usual  are  com- 
pletely victorious ;  one  of  the  enemies'  ships  has  been  upset  and,  is 
sinking;  another  has  grounded,  and  the  crew  are  endeavoring  to 
escape.  But  the  king  and  a  body  of  archers  are  stationed  on  the 
shore  ;  the  fugitives  are  slain  or  made  prisoners,  and  are  marched 
off  bound  under  the  convoy  of  Egyptian  soldiers.  It  is  remarkable 
that  among  the  crew  of  the  hostile  vessels  are  many  of  the  same 
nation,  distinguishable  by  their  helmet  with  the  horns  and  disk, 
who  serve  in  the  army  of  Rameses.  We  need  not,  however,  sup- 
pose that  some  change  of  policy  had  converted  them  from  allies 
into  enemies  ;  Greeks  were  found  fighting  against  Greeks  in  the 
armies  of  Persia. 

In  the  next  ccrapartment  the  king  appears,  having  laid  aside 
his  arms,  in  his  civil  costume,  and  again  harangues  his  soldiers, 
and  distributes  arms  and  insignia  to  the  officers  as  rewards  of  merit. 
The  hands  of  the  slaughtered  enemies  are  told  out  before  him  and 
their  numbers  recorded  by  the  scribes,  and  the  prisoners  led  up, 
some  fettered  by  the  arms  and  others  by  the  wrists.  The  presenta- 
tion of  the  captives  to  the  triad  of  Theban  gods,  Maut,  Amun  and 
Chonso,  closes  the  series ;  but  here,  besides  the  Fekkaroo  pri- 
soners of  another  people  are  introduced,  the  Rebo,  against  whom 
Rameses  IV.  carried  on  wars.  This  people  have  been  incidentally 
mentioned  in  the  inscription  which  records  the  expedition  of 
Rameses  III.  in  hi:  fifth  ysar  against  the  Sheto,  whose  neighbors 
they  must  have  beer,  Ths  walls  of  the  second  court  of  the  palace 
of  Medinet-Aboo  give  the  details  of  this  or  some  other  war  of 
Rameses  IV.  against  them.  Probably  the  war  occurred  at  some 
later  period  of  his  reign  ;  for  in  the  presentation  of  the  prisoners  to 
Amun,  the  Fekkaroo  and  Rebo  appear  both  as  prisoners,  whereas 
in  the  campaign  represented  in  the  inner  court,  the  Fekkaroo 


280' 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


are  acting  as  auxiliaries  against  the  Rebo.  From  their  costume 
we  should  suppose  the  last  to  be  the  inhabitants  of  a  somewhat- 
colder  climate,  as  in  addition  to  tunics  they  wear  long  upper  vests, 
crossed  by  bands  of  a  different  color,  open  below  and  fastened  on 
by  a  strap  over  the  shoulder.  This  garment  appears  sometimes 
to  have  been  of  leather.  The  head  is  covered  with  a  close-fitting 
cap,  and  adorned  with  feathers  ;  but  in  war  they  wore  a  helmet 
or  cap  fastened  by  a  strap  beneath  the  chin.  Their  physiognomy 
also  indicates  a  northern  race  ;  their  eyes  are  blue,  the  nose  aqui- 
line, the  beard  red.  Occasionally  we  find  the  limbs  tattooed. 
The  slaughter  made  of  them  was  great ;  3000  hands,  according 
to  the  inscription,  are  poured  out  before  the  king1,  as  he  sits  on 
his  chariot  after  the  battle  to  receive  the  returns  ;  and  an  equal 
number  in  three  other  compartments,  indicating  that  6000  had 
been  slain.  Besides  these,  1000  appear  to  have  been  made  prison- 
ers. As  the  conclusion  of  the  whole,  the  king  returns  to  Egypt 
and  presents  his  captives  to  Amunre  and  Maut. 

The  sixteenth  is  the  latest  year  of  Rameses  IV.  that  has  been 
found  on  the  monuments,  and  the  lists  give  only  the  duration  of 
the  whole  dynasty  ;  but  from  the  extent  of  the  works  executed  in 
his  reign,  and  the  size  and  magnificence  of  his  tomb,  we  may  pre- 
sume that  it  was  of  more  than  the  average  length.  He  appears 
originally  to  have  destined  for  himself  a  tomb  at  the  very  entrance 
of  the  Bab-ef-Melook,  but  to  have  abandoned  his  design,  when  the 
excavation  had  been  carried  but  a  short  way,  and  chosen  a  spot 
further  on  in  the  valley2.    It  had  been  knovv^  as  the  Harper's 

1  This  and  another  kind  of  mutilation  which  the  bodies  of  the  slain  had 
undergone  are  inaccurately  represented  by  Diodcrua  as  if  performed  on 

tho  living  prisoners.  'Ei/  di  r<Z  dsvrcpo*  roij^ia  roij  ai^fiaXwrovs  vird  tov  /3aat\eo)S 
dyofirvovs  tipyaaOat  rd  t£  aiSoia  kui  rag  %£ipas  uvk  e^ovras'  Si  u>v  6okciv  &r\\ovaQau 
6i6ri  Tali  ipv%aig  avavSpoi  kui  Kara  ru$  lv  roif  ieivois  ivtpytiag  a^sipcg  77(701/  (1,  48). 
This  is  part  of  his  description  of  the  tomb  of  Osymandyas,  in  which  various 
buildings  appear  to  be  confounded. 

2  According  to  Sir  G.  Wilkinson,  Raineees  III.  began  the  tomb,  and  his 


THE  TWENTIETH  DYNASTY". 


281 


Tomb,  long  before  the  discovery  of  the  hieroglyphics  assigned  it 
tc  Rameses  IV.,  Bruce  having  copied  two  remarkable  figures  of 
harpers  which  one  of  the  apartments  contains.  Its  whole  extent 
is  405  feet;  not,  however,  to  that  direct  depth  in  the  mountain, 
the  line  of  direction  having  been  diverted  to  avoid  interfering  with 
an  adjoining  tomb.  The  principal  hall  contained  the  sarcophagus 
of  the  king,  but  it  had  long  been  rifled.  It  is  o-f  red  granite,  and 
is  covered  with  inscriptions  which  have  been  filled  up  with  a  green 
enamel.  The  sarcophagus  itself,  seven  feet  in  depth  and  fourteen 
in  length,  is  in  the  Louvre,  the  cover  at  Cambridge. 

The  queen  of  Rameses  IV.  is  not  named,  though  she  is  repre- 
sented in  the  scene  of  the  Coronation  ;  but  on  the  jambs  of  a  dopr 
in  the  Valley  of  the  Queens,  the  shield  of  Rameses  VI.  appears  on 
one  side,  and  on  the  other  that  of  "  the  royal  mother,  ruler  of  the 
world,  Ise"  She  must  therefore  have  been  the  queen  of  Rameses 
IV.1  It  is  probable  that  his  three  brothers,  one  of  whom  ascended 
the  throne  before  and  two  after  him,  were  also  her  sons  ;  some  at 
least  of  the  numerous  other  princes  of  the  blood  who  appear  in 
the  procession  at  his  coronation  must  have  been  children  by  his 
concubines.  That  he  maintained  a  harem  we  know  from  the 
representations  in  some  of  the  smaller  apartments  of  his  pavilion  at 
Medinet-Aboo,  where  he  is  seen  among  them,  playing  at  a  game 
of  draughts  or  chess2.  Ten  princes  appear  with  their  names  in 
one  of  the  courts  of  the  palace  ;  the  inscriptions  of  the  four  first  of 
these  have  received  additions,  as  they  successively  came  to  the 
throne  ;  the  rest  are  qualified  simply  as  princes. 

We  found  a  temporary  agreement  between  the  authentic  and 
monumental  history  of  Egypt,  and  the  legendary  history  as  it  was 
received  by  Herodo+us,  in  the  isign  of  Rameses  III.,  his  Sesostrk 

.egend  can  still  be  traced  near  the  entrance  beneath  that  of  Rameeee  IV 
Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  207.) 
1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4,  119. 

3  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  3,  116;  Mon.  Reali,  tav.  cxxiL  2,  8. 


282 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


It  disappears  again  in  .that  of  his  successor,  whom  he  calls  Ph  jroii, 
and  of  whom  he  expressly  says  that  he  undertook  no  expedition. 
The  interpolation  of  Proteus  after  Pheron  among  the  kin^s  of 
Egypt,  in  order  to  connect  its  history  with  that  of  the  Iliad  and 
Odyssey,  shows  how  little  regard  was  paid  to  truth  in  framing  this 
legendary  tale.  It  is  therefore  useless  to  seek  among  the  successors 
of  Rameses  III.  for  the  Rampsinitus  of  Herodotus  who  surpassed 
in  riches  all  his  successors,  and  built  himself  a  treasure-house,  from 
which  the  sons  of  the  architect  ingeniously  contrived  to  abstract  a 
portion  of  his  wealth  by  means  of  a  moveable  stone.  The  name 
appears  to  contain  that  of  Rameses,  which  is  spelt  among  other 
varieties  Rampses  in  Manetho  ;  but  the  story  of  his  descent  -into 
Hades,  and  his  playing  at  dice  there  with  Ceres,  so  clearly  dis- 
closes the  unhistorical  character  of  the  accounts  which  Herodotus 
received,  as  to  deter  us  from  any  attempt  to  place  him  in  relation 
with  really  historical  personages1.  Diodorus  having  related  the 
blindness  of  Sesoosis  II.,  who  corresponds  with  the  Pheron  of  Hero- 
dotus, passes  over  a  long  line  of  his  successors  with  the  remark 
that  they  did  nothing  worthy  of  being  recorded. 

This  appears  to  be  true  of  the  successor  of  Rameses  IV.  All 
record  of  foreign  expeditions  ceases  with  his  reign.  The  principal 
memorials  of  Rameses  V.  are  the  lateral  inscriptions  of  the  obelisk 
which  Thothmes  I.  erected  at  Karnak.  They  contain,  however,  no 
historical  fact.  His  tomb  in  the  Bab-el-Melook  is  small ;  the  sar- 
cophagus remains  in  it,  but  has  been  broken2.  Rameses  VI.  has 
in  several  places  effaced  the  name  of  his  brother,  as  if  some  hos- 
tility between  them  had  preceded  his  elevation  to  the  throne  ;s  but 
we  have  no  memorials  of  his  reign,  and  can  only  conjecture  that  it 
was  long,  from  the  unusual  amount  of  labor  bestowed  on  the  pre- 
paration of  his  tomb.    It  is  342  feet  in  length,  descending  by  a 

Herod.  2,  121,  122.  a  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  A  Thebes,  2,  21i 

*  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4,  118. 


THE  TWENTIETH  DYNASTY. 


283 


gradual  slope  to  the  depth  of  25  feet  below  the  ground,  and 
divided  into  a  number  of  chambers1.  The  whole  surface  of  the 
walls  and  ceilings  is  covered  with  a  profusion  of  colored  sculptures 
of  minute  size,  chiefly  astronomical  and  mythical.  One  of  them  is 
the  Judgment-scene  before  Osiris  already  described2,  and  the  sup- 
posed return  of  a  wicked  soul  to  the  world.  Of  Rameses  VII. 
there  is  absolutely  no  memorial  except  his  tomb,  which  is  of  much 
less  finished  execution  than  that  of  his  predecessor.  The  sarco- 
phagus is  excavated  in  the  rock  of  the  floor  to  the  depth  of  four 
feet,  and  coYered  with  a  slab  of  granite.  Rameses  VIII.  is  known 
only  by  the  occurrence  of  his  shield  among  those  of  the  other  sons 
of  Rameses  IV.  (III.  according  to  another  reckoning)  at  Medinet- 
Aboo,  and  on  two  tablets  in  the  Museum  of  Berlin.  The  titular 
shield  contains  the  figure  of  the  same  deity  as  the  phonetic  shield 
of  Setei,  and  it  has  here  also  been  effaced.  From  this  time  it  never 
occurs  in  the  monuments3.  The  shields  of  the  sovereigns  of  this 
dynasty  are  much  more  crowded  with  characters  than  those  of  the 
18th.  As  these  kings  were  all  brothers,  it  was  natural  that  the 
reigns  of  the  last  should  be  short.  His  third  year  has  been  found 
on  a  monument4.  Rameses  IX.  (VIII.)  was  according  to  Lepsius 
the  son  of  Rameses  VII.  (VI.)  He  began  a  temple  to  Chons  on 
the  right  bauk  of  the  Nile  near  Karnak,  but  left  it  imperfect  except 
the  sanctuary5 ;  his  tomb  is  small,  and  appears  to  have  remained 
unfinished  at  his  death,  as  the  walls  of  some  of  the  apartments 
have  figures  and  inscriptions  traced  upon  them,  but  not  sculptured. 
The  tombs  of  Rameses  X.,  XL,  and  XII.  have  also  been  ascer- 
tained. That  of  Rameses  X.  is  executed  with  care,  and  adorned 
with  astrological  paintings.  The  seventeenth  year  of  Rameses 
XL's  reign  has  been  found  on  a  papyrus,  and  the  second  of  Rameses 

1  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  <fc  Thebes,  2,  210.  ■  YoL  i.  p.  402,  403. 

•  Bunsen,  B.  3,  p.  118.    Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4,  124. 
4  Bunsen,  JSgyptens  Stelle,  B.  3,  p.  119. 

*  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4,  125 


284 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


XII1. ;  of  Ramcses  XIII.  and  XIV.  nothing  beyond  the  names  is 
known,  which  is  the  more  indicative  of  the  inactivity  which  charac- 
terized the  last  years  of  this  dynasty,  because  Rameses  XIV. 
reigned  at  least  thirty-three  years'.  Rosellini  reckons  a  fifteenth, 
by  whom  a  hypostyle  hall  was  added  to  the  temple  of  Chons  at 
Karnak,  founded  by  Rameses  IX.3 

The  dominion  of  Egypt  had  long  been  on  the  decline,  but 
Amunre  addresses  the  last  Rameses  in  the  same  magnificent  lan- 
guage as  his  predecessors,  and  gives  him  "  to  put  all  foreign  lands 
under  his  feet."  The  diminution  of  power  in  the  Egyptian 
monarchy  since  Rameses  IV.  was  probably  caused  or  accompanied 
by  an  increase  in  that  of  its  neighbors.  Ethiopia  seems  to  have 
regained  its  independence.  The  Phoenician  cities  must  have  been 
rapidly  rising  by  means  of  commerce  to  the  prosperity  in  which 
we  find  them  in  the  age  of  Solomon.  The  recent  discoveries  of 
the  antiquities  of  Assyria  excited  the  hope  that  by  their  means 
light  would  be  thrown  on  the  relations  of  that  country  with  Egypt, 
whose  sovereigns,  from  Thothmes  I.  to  Rameses  IV.,  repeatedly 
invaded  Mesopotamia  and  Assyria.  We  cannot,  however,  trace 
any  conformity  between  their  respective  histories,  as  disclosed  by 
their  monuments.  Those  of  Khorsabad,  Koyunjik  and  Nemroud 
are  much  later  than  the  18th  and  19th  dynasties  of  Egypt.  No 
Egyptian  appears  among  the  nations  with  whom  the  Assyrians  are 
at  war4.    Yet  it  is  probable  that  when  the  invasions  of  the 

1  Amenmesee,  whom  Rosellini,  from  the  position  of  his  tomb,  "would  inter- 
pose between  Rameses  XII.  and  XIII.,  has  been  already  placed  la9t  but 
one  in  the  19th  dynasty.    See  p.  253  of  this  voL 

a  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  p.  49. 

■  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  50.  4,  137.  M.  R.  tav.  cxlvi 
*  We  do  not  find  any  close  resemblance  between  the  Asiatic  nations 
represented  in  the  Egyptian  monuments  and  those  who  appear  in  the 
Assyrian  sculptures.  A  people  armed  with  shields,  lite  those  described,  p. 
234,  are  seen  on  the  bas-reliefs  of  Khorsabad,  and  among  the  spoil  is  a  cha« 
riot,  resembling  that  brought  by  the  Rotno  to  Thothmes  ILL,  p.  187.  Th« 


THE   TWENTY-FIRST  DYNASTY. 


285 


Pharaohs  ceased,  perhaps  by  means  of  successful  resistance  to 
them,  the  Assyrian  monarchy  rose  in  power.  The  Greek  tradi- 
tions begin  -with  mythe  in  Semiramis,  and  end  with  it  in  Sardana- 
palus  ;  but  the  monarchy  which  these  mythes  represent  was  real, 
and  must  have  begun  in  the  thirteenth  century  b.  c.1,  that  is  about 
the  time  when  the  power  of  Egypt  declined. 

The  battle-pieces  of  the  reign  of  Rameses  IV.  are  not  inferior  in 
design  to  the  works  of  his  predecessors,  but  those  who  have  studied 
minutely  and  on  the  spot  the  remains  of  Egyptian  art  discover 
an  inferiority  in  the  execution.  The  inscriptions  which  Rameses  V. 
added  to  the  obelisk  erected  by  Thothmes  L  betray  even  in  an 
engraving  their  inferiority  in  execution.  In  design  there  could  be 
little  difference,  art  in  its  application  to  sacred  subjects  being  so 
completely  submitted  to  established  rules;  but  we  perceive  that 
the  style  becomes  more  loaded  and  elaborate,  an  indication  of  the 
decline  of  taste. 

T wenly-frst  Dynasty.    Seven  Tanite  kings. 


Years. 

Smetdbs,  reigned                        .           .  26 

Psousennes   46       41  Euseh. 

XZPHZECITERES  ...           .                 .           .     .  4 

Amenophthjs  .    .       .               ....  9 

Osochor     .    6 

PsiXACHEB    ...          .     -           ...  9 

Psousennes                 .    .            .        .    .  14       35  Euseb. 

In  all  ISO  years,  114  130 


Shairetana,  p.  278,  have  many  peculiarities  in  common  with  the  Assyrians 
of  Nemroud;  the  Tokkari  or  Fekkaroo,  p.  277,  in  their  arms  and  dress  and 
the  shape  of  their  carts  drawn  by  oxen,  bear  some  resemblance  to  a  nation 
represented  in  the  Assyrian  sculptures.    (Layard's  Nineveh,  2,  493,  foil.) 

1  Herodotus  (1,  95)  says  that  the  Merles  revolted  from  the  Assyrians,  who 
had  mled  Upper  Asia  520  years.  This  revolt  is  commonly  placed  711  ft.  a 
(Clinton,  rub  anno.) 


236 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Tanis  or  Zoan,  although  its  name  now  appears  for  the  first  time 

in  Egyptian  history,  had  long  been  the  most  important  city  on  the 
coast  of  Egypt1.  The  branch  of  the  Nile  on  which  it  stood  was  the 
most  easterly  and  the  nearest  to  Palestine  and  Arabia,  with  the 
exception  of  the  Pelusiac.  It  is  spoken  of  in  Scripture  as  being 
founded  seven  years  later  than  Hebron* ;  the  precise  date  of  the 
foundation  of  Hebron  we  do  not  know,  but  it  was  one  of  the  oldest 
towns  in  Palestine,  and  is  mentioned  in  the  history  of  Abraham. 
It  is  probable  that  Tanis  rose  into  importance  during  the  wars  of 
the  early  kings  of  the  New  Monarchy  with  the  Hyksos,  and  their 
expeditions  into  Western  Asia.  Although  Thebes  continued  to  be 
the  place  in  which  the  splendor  of  the  monarchy  was  chiefly  dis- 
played, and  where  the  sovereigns  held  their  court  during  intervals 
of  peace,  they  must  have  needed  a  residence  in  that  part  of  Lower 
Egypt  which  was  nearest  to  the  scene  of  their  most  important  ope- 
rations. That  it  should  be  at  the  same  time  not  very  distant  from 
the  sea  was  also  necessary,  when  they  established  a  navy  and 
carried  on  maritime  warfare  against  Phoenicia  and  Cyprus.  And 
as  the  eastern  branches  of  the  Nile  one  after  another  became  silted 
up,  it  is  probable  that  even  in  this  age  the  Pelusiac  mouth  may 
have  been  too  shallow  to  admit  ships  of  war.  In  the  78th  Psalm 
(vv.  12,  43)  the  wonders  which  accompanied  the  Exodus  are  said 
to  have  been  wrought  in  "  the  plain  of  Zoan."  This  Psalm  is  pro- 
bably somewhat  later  than  the  age  of  David,  but  it  proves  that  this 
was  supposed  to  have  been  for  the  time  the  residence  of  the  Pha- 
raoh who  had  "  refused  to  let  Israel  go."  In  the  age  of  -Isaiah  it 
was  still  considered  as  the  capital  of  the  Delta ;  "  the  princes  of 
Zoan  and  the  princes  of  Noph"  (Memphis)  are  spoken  of  as  equiva- 
lent to  the  nobles  of  Egypt.  The  ambassadors  who  go  down  to 
Egypt  to  form  an  alliance  which  implied  distrust  in  Jehovah*  are 


1  See  vol.  i.  p.  46. 
*  la.  xix.  11,  13. 


*  Numbers,  xiii  22. 
♦kxxx.4 


THE  TWENTV-FIRST  DYNASTY". 


287 


described  as  repairing  to  Zoan  and  Hanes,  or  Heracleopolis1 ;  the 
desolation  of  Zoan  is  threatened  by  Ezekiel,  as  the  consequence  of 
the  invasion  of  Egypt  by  Nebuchadnezzar.  In  Strabo's  time  it  was 
stili  a  large  town2,  the  capital  of  a  nome ;  in  the  age  of  Titus  it 
had  dwindled  to  an  insignificant  place3.  Its  ruins  attest  its  ancient 
importance;  its  principal  temple  stood  within  an  area  of  1500  feet 
by  1250,  and  appears  to  have  been  built  by  Rameses-Sesostris, 
whose  shield  is  seen  in  various  parts  of  the  ruins.  It  was  adorned 
with  an  unusual  number  of  obelisks4.  Had  its  remains  been 
explored  with  the  same  diligence  as  those  of  Middle  and  Upper 
Egypt,  we  should  probably  have  learnt  something  of  the  dynasty 
which  took  its  name  from  Tanis.  But  the  inhabitants  are  rude 
and  the  air  at  most  seasons  of  the  year  pestilential6,  and  no  travel- 
ler has  remained  here  long  enough  to  ascertain  what  may  be  buried 
beneath  the  mounds  of  earth  which  cover  the  site.  History  has 
preserved  no  account  of  the^ manner  in  which  the  sceptre  of  Egypt 
passed  from  the  Diospolite  dynasty  to  the  Tanite,  and  the  monu- 
ments do  not  supply  the  deficiency.  The  temple  which  Rameses 
IX.  erected  to  the  god  Chons  exhibits  a  priest,  whose  name  has 
been  read  Hraihor  or  Pehor%  distinguishable  by  his  shaven  heaM 
and  panther's  skin,  and  denominated  in  his  shield  "  High-priest  of 
Amun,"  who  at  the  same  time  appears  to  have  performed  the  func- 
tions of  royalty.  In  one  compartment  of  the  sculptures  Horus 
places  on  his  head  the  white  cap,  and  Nebthi  the  red  cap,  acts 
symbolical  of  his  investiture  with  the  dominion  of  Upper  and  Lower 
Egypt.    He  even  appears  in  a  military  capacity  with  the  title  of 

1  Champollion,  L'Egypte  sous  les  Pharaons,  1,  309.  P.  130  of  this 
volume. 

3  Lib.  17,  p.  802.  8  Joseph.  Bell.  Jud.  4,  11 

*  See  a  plan  with  drawings  of  some  of  the  inscriptions  in  Burton'a 
Excerpta  Hier.  pi.  38^11. 

6  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  &  Thobea,  1,  450 

•  Roaellini,  Mon.Stor.  4,  139. 


288 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


Commander  of  the  archers.  Another  priest,  whose  name  has  beei 
read  Pischiam,  appears  on  the  same  building,  qualified  with  the 
titles  of  royalty.  These  names  do  not  correspond  with  any  of  those 
in  Manetho1,  and  we  are  left  to  conjecture,  that  during  the  time  that 
elapsed  after  the  expiration  of  the  Rameside  dynasty,  and  before 
the  establishment  of  the  Tanite  in  full  authority  over  Upper  as  well 
as  Lower  Egypt,  the  High-priests  of  Thebes  assumed  the  royal  style 
and  even  military  command.  It  would  be  agreeable  to  the  prac- 
tice of  Manetho,  not  to  include  them  in  his  dynastic  lists,  but  to 
carry  on  his  chronology  by  means  of  the  Tanite  kings,  even  though 
two  or  three  generations  elapsed  before  their  authority  was  acknow- 
ledged in  Thebes.  His  omission  of  the  reign  of  Actisanes,  if,  as 
Diodorus  represents2,  such  an  invasion  from  Ethiopia  really  took 
place,  may  be  explained  on  the  same  principle.  He  did  not,  like 
Sabaco,  found  a  dynasty. 

During  the  long  interval  from  the  Exodus  to  the  reign  of  David, 
there  is  no  mention  in  Egypt  of  Jewish  history.  The  Jews  had 
not  consolidated  themselves  into  a  nation  during  the  prosperous 
times  of  the  J 8th  and  19th  dynasties,  and  if  they  occupied  Pales- 
tine could  offer  no  resistance  to  the  armies  of  Rameses  III.  or  IV. 
An  incident  mentioned  in  the  first  book  of  Kings  (xi.  14)  might 
have  given  us  some  light  into  Egyptian  history,  had  its  indications 
been  more  precise.  When  Joab,  in  the  reign  of  David,  slaughtered 
all  the  males  in  Edom,  Hadad,  one  of  the  royal  family,  made  his 
escape  into  Egypt,  and  being  hospitably  entertained  by  Pharaoh, 
received  in  marriage  the  sister  of  his  queen  Tahpenes.  The  name 
of  this  queen,  however,  has  not  been  found  on  any  monument,  and 
therefore  we  are  still  at  a  loss  respecting  that  of  her  husband. 
During  the  reign  of  Solomon  an  active  commerce  in  horses,  chariots, 

1  Bunsen  (B.  3,  121)  transfers  to  this  dynasty  a  Nefrukera  (Nephercheres) 
and  a  Menephthah  (Amenophthis).  He  also  gives  Pianch,  answering  to 
Psinachea. 

•  2,  60 


TOE  TWENTY-SECOND  DYNASTY. 


289 


and  linen  yarn  was  carried  on  between  Judsea  and  Egypt.  Solo- 
mon not  only  furnished  his  own  armies  with  horses  and  chariots 
from  this  country,  but  sold  them  again  to  the  Hittites  and  the 
kings  of  Syria1.  The  Pharaoh  whose  daughter  Solomon  married' 
must  have  been  one  of  the  latest  kings  of  the  21st  dynasty  :  he 
received  as  her  dowry  the  town  of  Gezer  in  Palestine,  which  the 
king  of  Egypt  had  recently  taken  ;  but  the  friendship  which  this 
alliance  established  was  soon  destroyed  under  the  22nd. 

Twenty-second  Dynasty.    Nine  Bubastite  kings. 


(Eu6eb.  Three.) 

Years. 

Sesonchis,  reigned   21 

Osorthon  15 

Three  others  [omitted  by  Eusebius]  .    .  .25 

Tacellotbis  13 

Three  others  [omitted  by  Eusebius]  ...  42 

116    Eus,  49 


In  regard  to  this  dynasty  we  have  no  longer  to  complain  of  the 
silence  of  history  and  the  monuments.  The  names  of  Sesonchis, 
Osorkon  and  Tacellothis  were  early  recognised  by  Champollion3, 
and  the  researches  of  other  Egyptologists  have  recovered  the  shields 
of  all  the  nine  kings  of  whom  this  dynasty  was  composed.  Those 
of  Sesonchis  and  several  of  his  successors  of  this  dynasty  contain  a 
character  which  does  not  occur  before,  the  white  crown  of  Upper 
Egypt,  &3  if  to  indicate  that  it  had  been  acquired  by  them.  Bu- 
baatis,  whence  its  name  is  derived,  was  one  of  the  most  ancient 
cities  of  Lower  Egypt* ;  it  is  mentioned  in  Manetho  in  the  second 
dynasty  of  the  Old  Monarchy,  and  it  stood  near  the  Pelusiac  arm 
of  the  Nile,  about  twenty  miles  below  the  apex  of  the  Delta.  In 

1  1  Kings  x.  28.    Vol.  i.  p.  166.  '  1  Kings  ix.  16 

•  Lettres  u  M.  le  Due  de  Blaoaa,  P.  i,  p.  1 19  '  Vol  i.  p.  46. 

VOL.  TT.  1? 


290 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


its  modern  name,  Tel  Basta,  we  recognize  tbat  of  the  goddess 
Pasht,  to  whom  the  principal  temple  was  dedicated — the  Artemis 
of  the  Greeks.  The  Hebrews  called  it  from  the  same  goddess 
Pi-beseth\  which  the  Septuagint  renders  Boubastos,  and  the  Coptic 
Poubast.  In  its  present  abandoned  and  desolate  condition  it  still 
exhibits  some  of  the  features  which  are  so  graphically  described  by 
Herodotus2.  "  There  is,"  says  he,  "  in  the  city  of  Bubastis  a  tem- 
ple very  deserving  of  description ;  larger  and  more  costly  temples 
exist,  but  none  so  pleasant  to  behold.  Except  the  entrance  it  is 
all  an  island  ;  two  canals  come  from  the  Nile,  not  united,  but  dis- 
tinct as  far  as  the  entrance,  and  one  flows  round  it  on  one  side,  and 
one  on  the  other.  The  propylaea  are  sixty  feet  high,  and  adorned 
with  excellent  sculptures  six  cubits  in  height.  The  temple  being 
in  the  middle  of  the  city,  one  who  walks  round  looks  down  upon 
it  from  all  sides ;  for  the  city  has  been  raised  by  accumulations  of 
earth,  and  the  temple  remaining  as  it  originally  was  can  be  looked 
into.  An  outer  wall  runs  round  it  with  sculptured  figures.  Within 
is  a  grove  of  very  large  trees,  planted  round  a  large  temple 
(vrjc'v),  in  which  the  image  of  the  goddess  is.  The  length  and 
breadth  of  the  hieron  is  a  stadium  each  way.  Near  the  entrance 
is  a  road  paved  with  stone  of  the  length  of  three  stadia,  leading 
eastward  through  the  agora,  its  breadth  400  feet.  Trees  reaching 
to  the  skies  are  planted  on  either  side,  and  it  leads  to  the  hieron 
of  Mercury."  The  temples  of  Pasht  and  Thoth  can  still  be  traced  ; 
the  mounds  which  surround  the  ancient  site  are  of  extraordinary 
height,  rising  above  the  area  of  the  temple. 

Sesokchis  (Shishak),  the  first  of  this  dynasty,  is  not  mentioned 
by  Diodorus,  nor  according  to  our  present  text  by  Herodotus.  A 
happy  conjecture  of  Bunsen's  has  restored  his  name  to  the  com- 
mencement of  the  136th  section  of  the  Euterpe.    "  After  Myceri 
nus  the  priests  said  that  Sasychis  became  king  of  Egypt,  and  buil 


1  Esck.  xxx-  IT 


•  %  1W. 


THE  TWENTY-SECOND  DYNASTY. 


291 


the  eastern  propylaea  of  the  temple  of  Vulcan1."  With  Herodo- 
tus the  time  of  the  building  of  the  pyramids  reprtsents  the  long 
interval  of  decline  and  insignificance  which  intervened  between  the 
illustrious  sovereigns  of  the  18th  and  19th  dynasty,  and  the  revival 
of  the  prosperity  of  Egypt  before  the  invasion  of  the  Ethiopians. 

The  reign  of  Sesonchis  is  the  first  which  we  are  enabled  to  con- 
nect, by  means  of  a  synchronism,  with  our  ordinary  reckoning  of 
the  years  before  Christ,  as  he  is  the  first  Pharaoh  who  is  men- 
tioned by  name  in  the  Jewish  Scriptures.  The  jealousy  of  Solomon 
having  been  excited  against  Jeroboam2,  in  consequence  of  his 
being  prophetically  pointed  out  by  Ahijah  as  the  future  sovereign 
of  the  ten  tribes,  Jeroboam,  to  save  his  life,  had  escaped  intc 
Egypt,  in  the  last  years  of  Solomon's  reign,  and  had  taken  refuge 
with  Sesonchis,  or  as  the  Hebrews  wrote  the  name,  Shashaq.  The 
folly  of  Rehoboam  had  caused  the  erection  of  a  separate  kingdom 
of  the  ten  tribes,  which  had  its  capital  at  Shechem.  Of  this 
Jeroboam  was  made  king,  and  set  up  here  the  worship  of  the 
Egyptian  divinities.  The  country  being  thus  divided  by  a  double 
schism,  political  and  religious,  and  a  powerful  ally  to  Egypt  being 
secured,  Sesonchis  made  an  easy  conquest  of  Jerusalem.  He  came 
up  in  the  fifth  year  after  the  accession  of  Rehoboam  with  an  over- 
whelming force  of  chariots  and  horsemen3,  and  an  auxiliary  body 
composed  of  Libyans,  Ethiopians,  and  the  Troglodyte  tribes  who 
dwelt  on  the  western  shore  of  the  Red  Sea4  and  Ethiopia.  Reho- 

1  Msra  <Js  MuKEfHcov  ycvzoQai  Aiyv-rov  QaoiXta  iXeyov  oi  'IPEEE  AEYXIN. 

The  loss  of  the  D  in  such  a  position  womld  easily  occur.  (Comp.  "Wessel.  ad 
Diod.  1,  94.)  The  Septuagint  calls  Shishak,  LovruKift,  From  the  mention 
of  his  legislation  he  appears  to  be  the  eame  as  the  Sasychis  of  Diodorus 
(h.  s.\  though  his  chronology  is  entirely  confused. 

*  1  Kiugs  xi.  40. 

•  Much  over-estimated  no  doubt  in  2  Chron.  xii.  8*at  1200  chariots  and 
60,000  horsemen. 

4  Such  is  the  probable  meaning  of  the  Sukiim,  mentioned  2  Chron.  xii.  3. 
They  were  skilful  slingers  and  very  useful  as  light  troops.    (Ileliod,  jElh. 


292 


niSTOIlY   OF  EGYPT. 


boaui  Lad  not  neglected  preparation ;  he  bad  built  some  strong 
places  and  fortified  others  in  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  had  put  gar- 
risons in  them  and  victualled  them  against  a  siege1,  and  had  given 
the  command  in  them  to  his  own  sons.  Sesonchis,  however, 
speedily  reduced  all  the  fenced  cities  of  Judah  and  Benjamin. 
Jerusalem  appears  to  have  made  no  resistance,  and  thus  escaped 
the  sufferings  of  a  siege  and  a  storm2 ;  but  the  treasures  both  of 
the  Temple  and  the  royal  palace  were  carried  off,  including  the 
golden  shields  which  Solomon  had  made  for  the  use  of  his  guards 
on  solemn  occasions,  and  placed  in  the  house  of  the  Xorest  of 
Lebanon.  It  was  part  of  the  threatening  of  the  prophet  Shemaiah 
that  Judah  should  become  subject  to  the  king  of  Egypt,  that  they 
might  "  learn  the  difference  between  the  service  of  Jehovah  and 
the  service  of  the  kingdoms  round  about3."  During  the  reign  of 
Sesonchis  they  probably  continued  in  a  t;tate  of  dependence,  which, 
however,  was  not  burdensome,  as  we  are  told  that  "  things  went 
well  in  Judah4 "  during  the  later  years  of  Eehoboam. 

A  monument  still  remaining  on  the  outer  wall  of  the  hypostylo 
hall  at  Karnak  confirms  in  a  very  remarkable  manner  this  nar- 
rative from  the  Jewish  Scriptures5.  Sesonchis  (Amunmai  Sheshonk) 
is  there  represented  as  usual  of  gigantic  size,  preparing  to  inflict 
death  on  a  group  of  prisoners,  African  and  Asiatic,  in  the  presence 
of  Amunre,  who  holds  out  a  scimitar  towards  him  with  one  hand, 
and  with  the  other  leads  to  him  a  number  of  foreigners  bound. 
To  each  of  the  five  cords  which  he  holds  in  his  hand  are  attached 

8,  ]  6.)  There  was  a  town  on  this  coast  called  Suche  (riin.  N.  H.  6,  34), 
smpposed  to  be  the  modern  Suakin. 

1  2  Chron.  xL  5-1 2.  The  Book  of  Kings  makes  no  mention  of  these  pre- 
parations. 

a  2  Chron.  xii,  7.  *"My  wrath  shall  not  be  poured  out  upon  Jerusalem 
by  the  hand  of  Shishak." 
•  2  Chron.  xii  8.  4  2  Chron.  xii  12. 

Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4,  14U ;  M.  R.  exlriil 


THE  TWENTY-SECOND  DYNASTY. 


293 


a  aeries  of  shields  surrounded"  with  an  embattled  edge  and  sur- 
mounted by  a  head,  round  the  neck  of  which  the  cord  is  passed. 
Each  of  the  five  rows  contains  thirteen  shields,  and  about  half  of 
the  sixty-five  is  legible.  The  first  in  the  first  line  contains  the  lotus, 
the  symbol  of  the  South,  with  the  character  for  region  ;  the  second 
the  papyrus,  the  symbol  of  the  North.  The  account  given  in  the 
Book  of  Chronicles  of  the  various  nations  composing  the  expedi- 
tion of  Sesonchis  shows  that  he  held  Lybia  and  Ethiopia  in  his 
obedience  when  he  invaded  Palestine,  and  renders  it  probable  that 
he  might  have  subdued  them  in  the  previous  part  of  his  reign. 
The  third  shield  is  composed  of  the  character  which  has  been  read 
Penne  or  Pone,  and  is  understood  to  denote  the  western  bank  of 
the  Nile,  along  with  the  bows  which  have  been  already  explained 
as  denoting  Libya.  Among  those  which  remain  legible,  few  have 
been  identified  with  known  geographical  names.  Champollion 
supposed  "  the  land  of  Mahanima  "  (line  2,  9)  to  be  the  Mahanaim1 
of  Scripture;  "the  land  of  Baithoron"  (1.  2,  11)  and  Makto 
(1.  3,  1)  to  be  Bethhoron  and  Megiddo,  both  of  which  Solomon 
fortified3.  Mr.  Osburn  has  since  pointed  out  some  others  which 
bear  a  resemblance  to  known  names  in  Palestine3.  Much  uncer- 
tainty attends  these  identifications,  because  it  is  necessary  to  assume 
certain  phonetic  values  for  characters  which  do  not  occur  else- 
where," or  only  in  positions  equally  ambiguous.  There  is,  however, 
no  uncertainty  respecting  the  most  important  figure  of  the  whole, 
the  third  in  the  third  line,  which  contains  in  well-known  characters 
Joudhmalk,  i.  e.  Joudah-Melek,  "  King  of  Judah,"  which  being 
followed  by  the  usual  character  for  land,  the  whole  will  be  read 
"  Land  of  the  King  of  Judah  these  shields  representing  not  per- 
sons but  places,  symbolized  by  a  figure  of  their  inhabitants. 
Another  figure  on  the  same  wall  represents  the  goddess  Egypt, 
who  holds  in  her  hand  four  cords,  to  each  of  which  seventeen 

1  Gen.  xxxii.  2.  1  1  Kings  ix.  15,  17.    2  Chron.  viii.  5, 

'  Ajicient  Egypt,  p.  158. 


294 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


similar  shields  are  attached.  The"  greater  part  are  legible,  but 
none  of  them  have  been  identified  with  names  known  in  geo- 
graphy. Since  this  is  the  case  on  a  monument  of  the  middle  of 
the  tenth  century  before  Christ,  we  cannot  be  surprised  at  the  little 
success  which  has  attended  the  attempts  made  to  ascertain  the 
nations  who  are  mentioned  in  the  sculptures  of  sovereigns  of  the 
18th  dynasty,  the  Thothmes,  Menephthah  and  the  Rameses. 
With  the  exception  of  a  few  general  designations  of  the  African 
nations,  we  meet  with  none  of  those  with  which  the  earlier  monu- 
ments have  made  us  familiar — Naharaina,  for  example, — or  those 
which  we  have  supposed  to  describe  people  inhabiting  the  countries 
eastward  of  the  Tigris  and  north-westward  of  the  Euphrates.  Not- 
withstanding the  pompous  list  of  names  in  the  record  of  the 
triumphs  of  Sesonchis,  it  is  not  probable  that  his  expedition 
extended  much  beyond  Palestine.  He  could  not  have  advanced 
towards  the  Euphrates  without  encountering  the  power  of  the 
Assyrians. 

There  are  other  memorials  of  Sesonchis1  at  Karnak  and  Silsilis, 
but  being  of  the  religious  class  they  throw  no  light  on  the  history 
of  his  reign.  A  stele  at  the  latter  place  bears  date  in  the  twenty- 
first  year  of  his  reign,  which  must  have  been  the  last.  It  speaks 
of  his  excavations  in  these  quarries  for  the  purpose  of  erecting 
buildings  at  Thebes'.  These  were  carried  on  by  his  successors  in 
the  Bubastite  dynasty3. 

1  A  cuirass  of  leather,  studded  with  brass  scales,  bearing  the  shield  of 
Sheshonk,  is  figured  in  M.  Prisse  d'Avennes'  Monumens  Egyptiens,  Paris, 
1846,  p.  735.  The  name,  however,  will  not  prove  that  it  was  worn  by 
Se6on<Jhis,  as  a  throwstick  is  figured  in  the  same  work,  bearing  the  shield 
of  a  queen. 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4,  165.    Champollion-Figeac,  LTJnivers,  859. 

*  It  would  be  premature  to  enter  into  any  speculations  respecting  the 
connexion  of  Egypt  and  Assyria  in  this  age  till  the  Assyrian  monuments 
are  better  understood.  See  Birch,  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit.  voL  iii.  From 
Layard's  account,  it  is  evident  that  the  Egyptian  remains  found  at  Nineveh 

\ 


THE  TWENTY-SECOND  DYNASTY. 


295 


If  Sesonchis  were  the  Sasychis  of  Diodorus  and  Herodotus,  he 
was  celebrated  as  a  legislator  as  well  as  a  conqueror.  To  him 
ITerodotus  attributes  the  law1  which  allowed  a  debtor  to  raise 
money  by  pledging  the  body  of  his  father,  under  the  condition 
that  if  he  did  not  repay  the  money,  neither  he  himself  nor  any  of 
his  family  should  be  interred,  either  in  the  family  sepulchre  or 
elsewhere.  He  was  said  also  to  have  erected  a  pyramid  of  brick, 
and  placed  an  inscription  upon  it,  in  which  he  claimed  for  it  a 
superiority  over  the  pyramids  of  stone.  The  inscription  as  given 
by  Herodotus  has  very  little  resemblance  to  a  genuine  inscription, 
and  was  probably  the  invention  of  his  guides.  But  it  is  not  at  all 
improbable  that  Sesonchis,  following  the  example  of  his  predecessor 
of  the  18th  century,  may  have  employed  his  Asiatic  captives  in 
brick-making.  The  sepulchres  of  the  kings,  after  the  last  of  the 
Rameses,  are  no  longer  found  in  the  Bab-el-Melook  ;  and  there  is 
no  reason  why  some  of  the  brick  pyramids  of  Lower  Egypt,  which 
have  been  ascertained  by  the  Prussian  Expedition  to  be  nearly 
double  the  number  previously  known,  may  not  have  been  the  tombs 
of  later  kings. 

If  some  of  them  were  built  after  the  end  of  the  19th  dynasty, 
when  royal  interments  ceased  at  Thebes,  we  can  understand  how 
all  of  them  were  referred  to  that  period.  Sasychis,  according  to 
Herodotus,  built  the  eastern  propyLnea  of  the  temple  at  Memphis, 
and  adorned  it  with  sculptures  of  remarkable  size  and  beauty. 
These  have  perished,  and  the  imperfect  remains  at  Karnak  afford 
no  criterion  of  the  state  of  the  arts  in  the  reign  of  Sesonchis.  It 
may  be  better  judged  of  by  the  statues  of  the  lion-headed  god- 
dess Pasht,  which  seem  to  have  been  multiplied  in  the  reign  of 
this  first  Bubastite  king.  One  of  these  is  in  the  Museum  of  Turin, 
another  in  the  Louvre,  and  a  third  in  the  British  Museum3.  In 

do  not  belong  to  the  earliest  age  of  the  Assyrian  monarchy,  as  they  occur 
above  ruined  buildings.    Layard's  Nineveh,  vol.  2,  p.  205. 

'  See  p.  48  of  this  voL  '  Gallery  of  Antiquities,  pi.  viii. 


296 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


regard  to  its  execution,  Mr.  Birch  observes: — "The  style  is  very 
different  from  those  executed  under  Amenoph  III.  in  the  sam ) 
collection  ;  the  cheeks  are  more  hollow,  the  limbs  more  lissom 
and  less  strongly  developed ;  the  whole  of  a  style  of  art  less  pure 
and  grand  than  that  of  the  184h  dynasty." 

A  son  of  Sesonchis  appears  joined  with  him  in  an  act  of  wor- 
ship at  Karnak.  His  name  is  Ushiopf  \  or  Schuopt,  and  like  the 
kings  mentioned,  p.  287,  he  united  with  the  sacerdotal  office  the 
post  of  captain  of  the  archers.  He  did  not,  however,  succeed  his 
father. 

Osorthon  is  the  next  king  in  Manetho's  list.  Where  this  name 
occurs  again  in  the  23rd  dynasty  in  Eusebius,  it  is  Osorcho  in 
Manetho  ;  and  although  there  is  no  various  reading  here,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  king  intended  is  the  Osorkon  of  the 
monuments.  His  shield  follows  that  of  Sheshonk  in  the  sculp- 
tures of  the  court  at  Karnak,  which  has  been  called,  from  having 
been  adorned  by  them,  the  Court  of  the  Bubastite  kings'.  It  is 
also  found  at  Bubastis  on  a  fragment  of  a  cornice,  and  cut  on 
some  blocks  where  originally  the  shield  of  Rameses-Sesostris  stood*. 
Among  the  Egyptian  antiquities  of  the  Louvre,  there  is  a  magni- 
ficent vase  of  alabaster,  which  contains  on  one  side -a  dedication 
by  Osorchon  to  Amunre.  It  was  subsequently  employed  to  receive 
the  remains  of  a  member  of  the  Claudian  family  at  Rome,  and 
bears  an  inscription  to  this  purpose  on  its  opposite  side*. 

The  Book  of  Kings  gives  no  account  of  the  relations  between 
Egypt  and  the  kingdoms  of  Judah  and  Israel,  from  the  invasion 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4,  168. 

*  See  vol.  i.  p.  148.  It  is  marked  B.  4.  8,  on  Sir  G.  Wilkinson's  Map  of 
Thebes.    Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  85. 

*  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  &  Thebes,  1,  429.  He  has  not  given  any  facsimile 
of  these  shields,  and  it  is  possible  that  they  may  not  all  refer  to  the  same 
Osorkon. 

4  Champollion-Figeac,  L'Univers,  p.  860. 


THE  TWENTY-SECOND  DYNA8TT. 


29< 


of  Skishak  till  the  reign  of  Hoshea,  who  made  an  alliance  with 
Seva,  or  So,  king  of  Egypt  (725  B.C.),  in  order  to  throw  off  the 
yoke  of  Salmaneser  and  the  Assyrians1.  The  Second  Book  of 
Chronicles,  however,  records  an  invasion  of  Judah  by  Zerach, 
the  Ethiopian,  in  the  reign  of  Asa,  the  grandson  of  Rehoboam. 
In  the  name  of  Zerach  critics  have  recognized  that  of  Osorchon,  the 
successor  of  Sesonchis.  A  war  between  the  two  countries  was  an 
exceedingly  probable  event.  Abijah,  the  son  of  Rehoboam,  had 
gained  a  great  victory  over  the  kingdom  of  Israel.  Asa  had 
raised  an  army,  according  to  the  Book  of  Chronicles,  of  580,000 
men,  and  built  several  fortified  places  in  Judah.  If  Egypt  had 
retained  a  claim  of  superiority  and  tribute  over  Judah  from  the 
time  of  Sheshonk's  invasion,  these  indications  of  a  growing  mili- 
tary power  would  not  be  overlooked  by  her.  Zerach  (941  b.c, 
Usher)  came  up  with  a  very  numerous  army*  as  far  as  Mareshah 
in  the  plain  of  Judah,  but  was  defeated  by  Asa  and  pursued  to 
Gerar  on  the  southern  boundary  of  Palestine.  The  only  difficulty 
which  attends  the  narrative  is,  that  Zerach  is  called  an  Ethiopian 
(Cushite).  No  king  of  the  Bubastite  dynasty  could  have  been  so 
designated  ;  the  works  of  Osorchon  and  his  successors  at  Thebes 
show  that  Upper  Egypt  was  in  their  possession  ;  and  therefore  if 
we  could  suppose  a  motive  for  an  invasion  of  Judaea  by  a  sovereign 
of  Ethiopia,  it  is  not  credible  that  he  should  have  marched  through 
Egypt  for  its  accomplishment.  On  the  other  hand,  chronology  forbids 
the  supposition  that  Zerach  could  be  one  of  the  25th  or  Ethiopian 
dynasty  of  Egyptian  kings,  the  earliest  of  whom  lived  200  years 
later  than  Asa.  The  reality  of  the  invasion  and  defeat  cannot. be 
called  in  question  ;  the  name  Zerach  is  not  very  remote  from  Osor- 
chon, when  reduced  to  its  consonants,  and  the  times  would  very 
exactly  correspond.  Rehoboam  reigned  twelve  years  after  the 
1  2  Kings  xvii.  4. 

•  Estimated  in  2  Chron.  xiv.  9,  at  a  million  of  men  and  three  hmmlred 
chariot* 

13* 


298 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


invasion  of  Sesonchis ;  Abijah,  bis  son,  tbree  years ;  the  victon 
of  Asa  took  place  in  tbe  fifteenth  year  of  his  reign1.  Thus  thirty 
years  elapsed  between  the  invasions  by  Sheshonk  and  by  Zerach, 
and  as  Sesonchis  reigned  twenty-two  years  and  Osorchon  fifteen, 
there  is  sufficient  room  for  both  events.  The  name  of  Ethiopian 
given  to  Zerach  in  the  Book  of  Chronicles,  which  was  not  written, 
at  least  in  its  present  form,  till  after  the  Captivity,  may  be  explained 
by  the  circumstance  that  his  army,  like  that  of  Sheshonk,  was 
composed  chiefly  of  Libyan  and  Ethiopian  troops.* 

The  names  of  the  three  successors  of  Osorkon  I.  are  not  given 
by  Manetho ;  Lepsius  makes  his  immediate  successor  to  have  been 
Amunmai  Pehor,  who  was  probably  his  son.  Another  son,  whose 
name  was  Sheshonk,  filled  the  office  of  high-priest,  and  is  men- 
tioned in  a  funeral  papyrus  which  appears  to  have  accompanied  the 
mummy  of  another  high-priest  of  the  name  of  Osorkon,  the  son  of 
this  Sheshonk,  and  consequently  grandson  of  Osorkon  L  Neither  • 
of  these  appear  to  have  ascended  the  throne.  Pehor  was  succeeded 
by  Osorkon  II.,  and  he  by  Sheshonk  II.  His  shield  is  distin- 
guished from  that  of  the  founder  of  the  dynasty,  by  the  addition 
of  the  name  of  the  goddess  of  Bubastis,  Pasht.  The  name  of  Take- 
lothis  was  recovered  by  Champollion  from  a  fragment8  of  a  piece  of 
sycamore-wood,  the  remainder  of  which  is  in  the  Vatican,  on  which 
a  priest  clad  in  the  leopard's  skin  is  represented,  performing  an  act 
of  adoration  to  Phre,  in  behalf  of  Takelothis'  son.  It  has  since 
been  found  on  the  wall  at  Karnak,  and  with  the  date  of  the  twenty- 
fifth  year  of  his  reign.  The  same  inscription  mentions  the  name 
of  »his  queen  Keromama,  and  of  his  son  and  probably  successor 
Osorchon,  who  is  called  high-priest  and  captain  of  the  archers4. 

»  2  Chron.  xv.  10.  '2  Chron.  xvi.  8. 

•  Champollion-Figeac,  L'Univers,  p.  361.  ChampolL'on  le  Jeune,  Lettre  4 
M.  le  Due  de  Blacas,  2,  123. 
«  Rosellini,  Mon  Stor.  4,  !70. 


THE  TWENTY-T£iiftJ»  DOT  AST!.. 


209 


Of  OsokkoK  III.,  Suesuonk  III.,  and  Tjlkelotiiis  II.1.  with  whom 
the  dynasty  became  extinct,  no  historical  fact  is  recorded. 

The  relations  of  Egypt  and  Judaea  appear  not  to  have  been 
friendly,  under  this  and  the  succeeding  dynasty,  even  when  there 
was  not  actual  war  between  them.  The  prophet  Joel2  (iii.  19) 
threatens  Egypt,  as  well  as  Edom,  with  desolation  for  its  violence 
against  the  children  of  Judah,  which  may  have  consisted  in  the 
forcible  seizure  of  the  inhabitants  for  slaves.  Eusebius  in  his  Canon 
remarks,  under  the  23rd  dynasty,  that  after  the  Phoenicians  the 
Egyptians  became  masters  of  the  seas,  and  they  probably  exercised 
their  dominion  piratically,  like  their  predecessors. 

Twenty-third  Dynasty.    Four  Tanite  kings. 

Year* 

Pktdbatis  [Petubastis,  Euseb.],  reigned    .  40    25  (Euseb,) 

In  his  reign  was  the  first  Olympiad. 
Osobcho  [Osorthon,  Euseb.]   .  .  8 

Whom  the  Egyptians  call  Hercules*. 

PSAMMDS   .  ,  .  10 

Zarr  [omitted  by  Euseb.]  .  81 

89  44 

Of  this  whole  dynasty,  till  lately,  no  name  had  been  read  on  the 
monuments,  as  no  fact  is  recorded  concerning  them.  Lepsius  has 
found  a  shield  with  the  name  of  Petsepasht,  the  Egyptian  word 
whence  the  Petubastis  of  Eusebius  was  derived.    The  occurrence 

J  Bunsen,  ^Egyptens  Stelle,  B.  3,  p.  135. 

"  His  age  is  uncertain,  but  from  the  absence  of  all  mention  of  Assyria 
he  is  thought  to  nave  lived  before  that  power  threatened  the  independence 
of  Palestine. 

'  This  remark,  from  its  turn  of  expression,  is  evidently  not  that  of  Mane- 
tho.    It  does  not  appear  what  ground  there  was  for  this  identification,  ts, 
Chon  is  said  to  have  been  the  Egyptian  name  for  Hercules.    Etym.  M,  a. 
3Ur.  Vol  i.  p.  322 


300 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


of  the  oame  of  the  great  goddess  of  Bubastis  in  that  of  the  founder 
of  the  dynasty,  leads  us  to  conclude  that  this  family,  though  called 
of  Tanis,  was  genealogically  connected  with  the  preceding.  This 
is  confirmed  by  the  name  of  the  second  king  Osorchon,  which  was 
borne  by  so  many  of  the  22nd  dynasty.  A  shield  at  Karnak,  con- 
taining the  name  Psemaut,  has  generally  been  attributed  to 
Psemmuthis  of  the  29th  dynasty,  which  arose  during  an  interval 
of  successful  revolt  from  Persia1,  a  prince  who  reigned  only  during 
a  part  of  the  year.  Lepsius  has  given  it  to  Psammus,  the  third  of 
this  dynasty.  There  remains  then  only  Zeta,  whose  name  has  not 
yet  been  found. 

The  fifth  year  of  Rehoboam,  in  which  Sheshonk  invaded  Judaea, 
is  generally  placed  974  b.  c.  Between  this  date  and  1322  b.  c. 
we  must  place  the  reigns  of  all  the  kings  from  Menephthah  (p.  250) 
to  Sheshonk.  These  three  centuries  and  a  half  suffice  for  the 
events  of  the  history,  but  their  distribution  into  reigns  would  be 
quite  hypothetical.  The  chronological  notice,  that  the  first  Olym- 
piad fell  in  the  reign  of  Petubastis,  seems  to  have  been  transferred 
hither  by  mistake.  It  is  not  found  in  Eusebius,  and  cannot  have 
proceeded  from  Africanus,  who  elsewhere  places  the  first  Olympiad 
in  the  first  year  of  Ahaz8.    This  is  too  late,  as  the  other  is  too  early. 

We  obtain  no  assistance  either  from  Herodotus  or  Diodorus,  in 
recovering  the  history  of  this  dynasty.  Herodotus  knows  the  name 
of  no  king  of  Egypt,  between  Sasychis  and  Anysis,  who  was  reign- 
ing at  the  time  of  the  Ethiopian  invasion.  Diodorus  passes  at  once 
from  the  builders  of  the  pyramids  to  Bocchoris,  and  he  makes  many 
years  to  have  intervened  between  him  and  Sabaco,  contrary  to  the 

1  Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  1,  207;  Mod.  Eg.  <fe  Thebes,  2,  256. 

*  Lepsius,  Einl.  1,  256,  makes  him  to  be  the  Sethos  of  Herodotus. 

•  Fynes  Clinton,  Fasti,  1,  150,  who  observes  that  the  year  b.  c.  776,  the 
admitted  sera  of  the  Olympiads,  fell  in  the  33rd  year  of  Uzziah.  His  reign 
lasted  61  years,  that  of  his  son  and  successor  Jotham,  the  father  of 
Aha/,  16. 


THE  TWENTY-FOURTH  DYNASTS'. 


301 


lists,  according  to  which  Bocchoris  was  taken  captive  and  burnt 
alive  by  the  Ethiopian  king.  There  are  not  even  any  private 
monuments  which  throw  light  on  the  condition  of  Egypt  during 
this  period.  That  it  was  one  of  decline  and  decay  we  may  infer 
from  the  ascendency  which  the  Ethiopians  acquired  in  the  next 
dynasty,  and  apparently  with  little  struggle  on  the  part  of  the 
Egyptians. 

Twenty -fourth  Dynasty. 

Years. 

Bocchoris  of  Sais  reigned    .  6     Euseb.  44 

In  his  reign  a  lamb  spoke1 

The  Dynasty  of  Sais,  founded  by  Bocchoris,  may  be  said  to  have 
been  in  fact  prolonged  to  the  time  of  the  Persian  conquest,  the 
Ethiopian  dynasty  being  intrusive  and  the  Dodecarchia  only  tem- 
porary. Sais  stood  near  the  Canopic  branch  of  the  Nile,  to  which, 
as  the  nearest  and  the  most  accessible,  the  traffic  of  the  Greeks 
was  from  the  first  attracted.  Naucratis,  the  only  harbor  in  Egypt 
to  which  strangers  were  admitted,  unless  under  the  plea  of  stress 
of  weather1,  was  on  the  Canopic  branch  and  nearer  to  the  sea 
than  Sais.  It  is  not  certain  when  the  Greeks  were  first  allowed 
to  settle  in  Naucratis.  Eusebius  in  his  Canon  Bays*,  that  the 
Milesians,  in  the  reign  of  Bocchoris,  became  powerful  at  sea  and 
built  the  city  of  Naucratis.    This  is  not  very  probable,  if  literally 

1  Probably  a  portent  of  the  approaching  calamities  of  Bocchoris  and  his 
kingdom.  So  when  Psammenitus  was  about  to  be  dethroned,  rain  fell  at 
Thebes  (Her.  8,  10).  According  to  ^Elian,  N.  H.  12,  3,  this  lamb,  besides 
speaking  with  a  human  voice,  had  two  heads,  eight  feet,  <tc 

*  This  is  Btated  by  Herodotus  (2,  179)  as  if  true  of  all  strangers.  Strabo 
intimates  that  it  was  chiefly  intended  against  the  Greeks  from  their  piratical 
habits,  17,  792.  The  duty  of  watching  the  coast  and  keeping  off  strangers 
»ras  committed  to  the  herdsmen,  a  rude  and  inhospitable  race. 

■  Under  Olymp.  vi. 


302 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


taken,  and  is  contradicted  by  Herodotus1,  who  says  the  Ioniana 
and  Carians  under  Psammitichus  were  the  first  foreigners  who 
were  allowed  to  settle  in  Egypt.  Considering  the  wide-spread 
colonization  of  the  Milesians  in  the  eighth  century  before  Christ', 
there  is  however  nothing  improbable  in  their  having  established 
more  regular  commercial  relations  with  Egypt  than  Greece  had 
possessed  before. 

Gradually  greater  privileges  seem  to  have  been  allowed  them? 
and  hence  the  variety  of  accounts  respecting  the  time  of  their 
establishment,  which  Strabo  against  all  probability  brings  down  as 
low  as  the  revolt  of  Inaros8,  462  b.c.  The  Portuguese  at  Macao 
at  first  only  obtained  permission  to  erect  sheds  for  their  goods,  but 
by  degrees  were  allowed  to  build  houses,  establish  a  government 
of  their  own  and  erect  a  fort.  The  story  of  the  landing  of  the 
Ionian  and  Carian  mercenaries  in  Egypt  at  the  time  of  the  Dode- 
carchia  indicates  that  armed  Greeks  were  a  novel  sight  to  the 
Egyptians4 ;  but  of  course  only  merchant  ships  and  men  in  peace- 
ful attire  would  be  admitted  to  Naucratis.  The  English,  when 
they  first  established  themselves  at  Formosa,  agreed  to  deliver  up 
all  their  guns  and  ammunition  while  in  port6.  We  do  not,  how- 
ever, derive  much  increase  of  our  knowledge  respecting  Egypt 
from  the  increased  resort  of  the  Greeks  before  the  time  of  Psam- 
mitichus. They  have  not  even  preserved  such  tales  of  wonder  as 
we  find  in  the  Homeric  legends.  The  Epic  Muse  was  silent ;  the 
Cyclic,  if  she  deserves  the  name  of  Muse,  was  occupied  in  combin- 
ing and  harmonizing  the  traditions  of  the  Mythic  age.  Prose 
history,  scientific  geography  and  astronomy  had  their  birth-place 
at  Miletus ;  but  in  a  later  century. 

1  2,  154.  "  Rambach  de  Mileto,  p.  19,  62.    Clinton,  F.  H.  1,  115. 

5  17,  p.  801.  According  to  him  they  first  fortified  a  place  at  the  Bolbitin  s 
mouth,  in  the  reign  of  Psammitichus ;  and  afterwards  removed  in  the  time 
of  Inaros  to  the  Saitic  nome,  and  fortified  Naucratis. 

Her.  2.  152.  6  Davis,  The  Chinese,  voL  1,  p.  ?>5. 


THE  TWENTY- FOURTH  DYNASTY. 


302 


The  name  of  Bocchoris,  which  was  probably  in  Egyptian  Pehor 
does  not  appear  on  any  monument  which  can  be  conclusivel) 
referred  to  his  reign1.  His  fathers  name,  according  to  Diodorus, 
was  Tnephachthus,  or  Gnephachthus,  in  which  we  recognise  that 
of  the  goddess  Pasht5.  Diodorus  calls  his  father  king,  and  relates 
an  anecdote  of  him  which  has  been  mentioned  under  the  reign  of 
Menes.  Bocchoris  himself  is  said  by  Diodorus  to  have  been  mean 
and  feeble  in  body,  but  to  have  surpassed  his  predecessors  in 
ingenuity  and  wisdom.  He  attributes  specially  to  him  the  laws 
which  regulated  commercial  contracts  and  the  prerogatives  and 
duties  of  the  king3.  This  reputation  seems  to  imply  that  at  his 
accession  he  found  public  and  private  law  in  a  state  of  decay,  and 
labored  to  renew  them.  He  is  celebrated  also  for  the  wisdom  of 
his  judicial  decisions,  many  of  which  were  handed  down  by  fame 
even  to  very  late  times.  A  very  different  account  of  his  character 
and  administration  is  given  by  iElian4,  who  says  he  had  obtained 
a  false  reputation  for  the  justice  of  his  decisions.  To  grieve  the 
Egyptians,  he  set  a  wild  bull  to  attack  their  sacred  Mnevis.  As 
the  assailant  was  rushing  furiously  on,  he  stumbled,  and  entangling 
his  horn  in  the  tree  persea,  Mnevis  gave  him  a  mortal  wound  in 
the  flank.  Plutarch6,  while  he  acknowledges  the  just  decisions  of 
Bocchoris,  calls  him  a  man  of  stern  character.  Possiblv  the 
avarice  which  Diodorus  attributes  to  him  may  have  been  only  the 
unfavorable  aspect  of  a  rigid  economy,  rendered  necessary  by  dila- 
pidated finances.    Economy,  especially  if  accompanied  by  strict- 

1  The  Amunse  Pehor,  whom  the  earlier  Egyptologists  identified  with 
Bocchoris,  has  been  removed  by  Lepsius  to  the  21st  dynasty.  See  before, 
p.  287.    Bunsen.  3,  135. 

a  Plut  Is.  et  Osir.  354  B.  gives  the  name  Technatis ;  Athenanis,  x.  p.  418, 

*  Toprov  v *  dtara$cu  ra  wtpl  rowj  /3aoi\ets  xdvra,  <at  ra  *tpl  rcliv  cvftpoXaiui 
i£a*pi#&krai.    (Dio<L  ibid.) 

«  Nat  Anim,  11.  U  ■         A*»«**f«4  p.  529,  E. 


304 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


ness  in  the  levying  of  taxes,  is  seldom  a  popular  virtue  in  ruleTS. 
The  celebrity  which  he  enjoyed  is  hardly  reconcilable  with  the 
short  reign  of  six  years  which  the  lists  attribute  to  him.  Eusebius 
makes  his  reign  to  have  lasted  forty-four  years ;  but  this  number 
is  suspicious,  as  being  the  same  which  this  author  attributes  both 
to  the  23rd  dynasty  which  precedes  and  the  25th  which  follows. 
The  cruel  death  inflicted  by  Sabaco  on  Bocchoris,  which  appears 
inconsistent  with  the  humanity  ascribed  to  the  Ethiopian  conqueror, 
may  be  explained,  if  we  suppose  that  Bocchoris  was  at  first  left  on 
the  throne  in  the  capacity  of  a  tributary,  but  revolting,  was  taken 
prisoner  by  Sabaco  and  then  put  to  death  by  burning.  Herodotus 
calls  the  king  who  was  reigning  at  the  time  of  the  Ethiopian 
invasion,  Anysis,  and  a  native  of  the  city  of  the  same  name,  pro- 
bably the  Ilanes  of  the  prophet  Isaiah1,  to  which,  as  well  as  Tanis, 
the  ambassadors  of  Israel  came,  seeking  an  alliance  with  the  king 
of  Egypt,  when  they  were  alarmed  by  the  prospect  of  an  Assyrian 
invasion,  in  the  reign  of  Sennacherib.  According  to  Herodotus, 
Anysis  was  not  put  to  death,  but  took  refuge  in  the  marshes  of 
the  Delta.  He  had  made  a  spot  of  solid  ground  of  a  little  more 
than  a  mile  square,  by  laying  down  ashes  amidst  the  muddy  soil. 
These  ashes  were  supplied  by  the  friends,  who,  unknown  to  the 
Ethiopians,  brought  him  provisions.  On  the  retirement  of  the 
Ethiopians  he  issued  from  his  retreat,  and  resumed  his  power,  after 
an  interval  of  fifty  years.  These  differences  are  irreconcilable,  but 
on  the  whole  it  appears  probable  that  a  considerably  longer  date 
is  to  be  allowed  to  the  reign  of  the  immediate  predecessor  of 
Sabaco  than  six  years. 

m 

1  xxx.  4.    See  p.  286,  287  of  thii  roL 


TIIE  TWENTY-FIFTH  DYNASTY. 


305 


Twenty-fifth  Dynasty,  of  three  Ethiopian  kings. 

Tears. 

1.  Sabaoo,  reigned   .    .     8    Eusebius  12 

He  took  Boechoris  prisoner  and  burnt  him 
alive. 

2.  Sebichos  (Sevechos)  his  son  14    Eusebius  12 

8.  Taekus  (Tarakos,  Eus.) ....  .  ..    18    Eusebius  20 

40  44 

The^word  Ethiopian  has  so  wide  a  meaning,  being  applied  to 
the  Arab  of  Yemen,  to  the  Abessinian,  the  native  of  Sennaar,  Dar- 
fur  and  Kordofan,  as  well  as  of  Nubia  and  Dongola,  that  it  is 
necessary  to  fix  its  sense  more'  precisely,  in  order  to  conceive 
rightly  of  the  conquest  of  Egypt  by  the  Ethiopians  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  eighth  century  before  Christ.  The  seat  of  the  monarchy 
of  Sabaco  and  his  successors  was  Napata,  whose  site  and  remains 
have  been  already  described1.  It  extended  as  far  north  as  to  the 
island  of  Argo  ;  the  space  between  that  and  the  Cataracts  of  Syene 
must  be  regarded  as  a  debateable  land,  which  was  held  by  Egypt 
or  Ethiopia  according  to  their  relative  strength.  Under  the  18th 
dynasty  we  have  seen  that  the  valley  of  the  Nile  was  completely 
possessed  by  Egypt,  even  to  the  south  of  the  Second  Cataract. 
During  the  feebleness  of  the  last  years  of  the  23rd  and  the  24th, 
it  is  probable  that  the  Ethiopians  had  advanced  their  arms  to  the 
very  frontiers  of  Egypt,  or  even  occupied  Thebes.  How  far  to  the 
south  of  Napata  the  Ethiopian  monarchy  extended  at  this  time  we 
do  not  know.  It  has  been  commonly  supposed  that  the  island  of 
Meroe  was  its  original  seat:  Herodotus  calls  the  city  of  Meroe 
"  the  metropolis  of  the  other  Ethiopians,"  meaning  probably  those 
of  the  island.    No  monuments  of  equal  antiquity  with  those  of 

1  VoL  l  p.  13. 


306 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


Napata  have  been  found  in  any  part  of  the  island1.  Diodor  as' 
says  that  the  city  of  Meroe  was  founded  by  Cambyses  and  named 
after  his  mother ;  but  Cambyses  never  reached  so  far.  In  the 
Persian  times  the  valley  of  the  Nile  above  the  First  Cataract  was 
held  by  the  Ethiopians,  but  as  tributaries ;  the  Persian  frontier 
garrison  was  established  in  Elephantine.  The  Ptolemies  before 
Euergetes  left  Ethiopia  in  possession  of  her  independence ;  we  find 
the  names  of  Erkamen  (Ergamenes)  and  Atharaman  on  the  monu- 
ments of  Lower  Nubia3.  Under  the  Romans,  in  the  reign  of 
Augustus,  Ethiopia  appears  again  as  a  powerful  monarchy,  and 
Petronius  marched  to  Napata  and  compelled  Candace  to  submit 
herself  to  the  emperor. 

The  Ethiopians  of  the  eighth  century  before  Christ  were  little 
inferior  in  civilization  to  the  Egyptians  themselves.  They  had  a 
system  of  hieroglyphical  writing  identical  with  the  Egyptian, 
though  applied  to  a  different  language,  and  therefore  not  yet 
deciphered4.  The  power  of  the  priesthood  was  greater  than  even 
in  Egypt,  and  completely  ascendant  over  the  monarchy.  Both  the 
historical  and  the  prophetic  books  of  the  Jews  afford  evidence  of 
their  military  power.  They  bear  a  part  in  the  invasions  of  Pales- 
tine; they  are  joined  by  Isaiah  with  the  Egyptians  when  he 
endeavors  to  dissuade  his  countrymen  from  relying  on  their  aid  to 
resist  Assyria.  In  the  87th  Psalm  (v.  4)  Ethiopia  is  mentioned 
along  with  Egypt,  Babylon,  Tyre  and  Philistia,  as  one  of  the  most 
illustrious  nations6.    Throughout  the  prophetic  writings  the  Ethio- 

1  See  vol.  i.  p.  8.  a  1,  33.  •  Vol.  L  p.  22,  24. 

4  It  is  said  that  Lepsius  has  ascertained  the  language  of  the  Ethiopian 
inscriptions.  Chasremon,  who  wrote  on  hieroglyphics  about  the  Christian 
eera,  called  them  Ethiopic  letters.  His  explanations  accord  in  general  with 
modern  discovery.  See  Birch's  Remarks  on  the  curious  fragment  of  Chae- 
remon,  preserved  by  Tzetzes,  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit.  3,  384. 

6  The  meaning  of  the  passage  evidently  is,  that  though  it  was  an  honor 
to  be  a  native  of  Egypt,  Babylon,  or  Ethiopia,  it  was  a  greater  honor  to  b« 
a  native  of  Ziou. 


THE  TWENTY-FIFTH  DTNA8TY. 


307 


pians  are  very  generally  conjoined  with  Egypt,  so  as  to  show  that 
the  UDion  between  them,  produced  sometimes  by  the  ascendency 
of  one  country,  sometimes  of  the  other,  was  so  close,  that  thei' 
foreign  policy  was  usually  the  same1.  We  are  not  therefore  tc 
consider  the  subjugation  of  Egypt  by  the  Ethiopians  as  if  they  had 
fallen  under  the  dominion  of  a  horde  of  Arabs  or  Scythians.  The 
blameless  Ethiopians3  is  the  earliest  epithet  which  the  Greeks 
applied  to  them ;  Diodorus3  celebrates  the  moderation  of  Actisanes, 
and  the  account  which  Herodotus4  gives  of  Sabaco's  retirement 
from  Egypt  proves  his  humanity  and  reverence  for  the  gods.  The 
dynasty  was  changed  ;  the  head  of  it  either  put  to  death  or  driven 
into  the  marshes  of  Lower  Egypt ;  but  the  order  of  government 
appears  to  have  suffered  little  change.  No  difference  of  religion 
or  manners  embittered  the  animosity  of  the  two  nations  ;  they  had 
been  connected  by  royal  intermarriages  ;  Amnion  and  Osiris  were 
equally  honored  at  Thebes  and  Meroe5;  and  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Upper  Egypt,  the  Ethiopians  would  seem  hardly  so  foreign  as  the 
people  of  Sais. 

The  Egyptian  history  cf  Herodotus,  if  we  understand  by  that 
word  a  series  of  facts  connected  in  chronological  order,  reaily 
begins  with  the  invasion  of  Sabaco.  He  himself  remarks,  that  the 
settlement  of  the  Ionians  and  Carians  in  Egypt,  in  the  time  of 
Psammitichus,  gave  the  Greeks  an  accurate  knowledge  of  all  its 
subsequent  history,  and  the  effect  would  naturally  extend  upwards 
also.  Herodotus  indeed  considers  the  same  king  Sabaco  as  reign- 
ing through  the  whole  fifty  years  that  the  Egyptians  kept  posses- 
sion of  Egypt ;  but  the  similarity  of  two  of  the  names  may  partly 
account  for  this  error,  which  at  all  events  was  not  his,  since  the 
relation  of  the  departure  of  Sabaco  is  evidently  formed  on  tne 
assumption  of  the  identity  of  the  invader  with  the  sovereign  who 
withdrew  from  the  country. 

1  Is.  xx  5.    Nahum  iii.  9.    Ezek.  xxx.  4. 

1  II  a',  423.  ■  2,  60.  *  2,  189.  Her.  2,  29 


308 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


The  name  of  Sabaco,  written  Shabek,  is  found  at  Luxor,  with 
the  usual  titles  of  Egyptian  sovereignty,  on  the  internal  wall  of  the 
propyla  raised  by  Rameses-Sesostris1.  The  sculptures  having  been 
injured,  or  decayed  with  time,  Sabaco  renewed  them  and  substi- 
tuted his  own  name  for  that  of  Rameses  ;  they  indicate  that  Egyp- 
tian art  still  existed  in  considerable  vigor.  A  statuette  of  the 
same  king,  of  the  stone  called  plasme  cTemeraude,  is  preserved  in 
the  Villa  Albani  at  Rome,  and  his  name  occurs  also  as  a  date  on 
some  amulets  and  small  figures  from  the  collection  of  Anastasy, 
now  in  the  Louvre.  The  shield  of  Sabaco  has  also  been  found 
over  a  gate  of  the  palace  of  Karnak,  and  on  some  fragments  one 
of  which  bears  the  date  of  his  twelfth  year.  This,  according  to 
Eusebius,  was  the  last  of  his  reign  ;  according  to  the  text  of  Mane- 
tho,  with  which  the  summation  of  the  years  of  the  dynasty  agrees, 
he  reigned  only  eight  years.  The  name  of  the  succeeding  king, 
however,  Sebechus  or  Sevechus,  is  evidently  the  same  as  Sabaco, 
which  Manetho  probably  adopted  as  one  already  established  in 
history ;  and  the  shield  at  Karnak  which  has  been  attributed 
to  the  first  Ethiopic  king  may  with  equal  propriety  be  given 
to  the  second,  as  their  phonetic  names  are  written  in  the  same 
characters2,  and  thus  the  monuments  and  the  lists  will  be  brought 
into  accordance,  the  date  of  the  twelfth  year  being  allotted  to 
Sovechus. 

Diodorus  bestows  the  highest  praise  on  Sabnco,  as  surpassing  in 
piety  and  clemency  all  his  predecessors9.    Herodotus  agrees  in 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  107 ;  4,  175,  177.  Champollion-Figeac,  L'Uni- 
vers,  p.  363.  The  name  also  occurs  (Rosellini,  2,  108)  on  monuments  of 
private  persons,  who  call  themselves  natives  of  Cush. 

*  See  Bunsen,  Plates  of  25th  Dynasty,  Nos.  1  <fc  2. 

•  His  account  of  Actisanes  has  the  air  of  being  a  confused  tradition  of 
this  Ethiopian  conquest ;  the  only  circumstance  which  he  definitely  men- 
tions concerning  his  reign  is,  that  he  did  not  put  criminals  to  death,  bnt 
banished  them  to  Rhinocolura  on  the  confines  of  Syria  (1,  60). 


TIIE  TWENTT-FIFTII  DYNASTY. 


309 


representing  him  as  having  abolished  the  punishment  of  death,  and 
substituted  for  it  compulsory  labor  on  public  works1.  They  were 
such  as  in  the  more  glorious  days  of  the  monarchy  had  been  per- 
formed by  foreign  prisoners.  The  increase  in  the  rise  of  the  Nile 
since  the  reign  of  Sesostris,  had  made  it  necessary  to  add  to  the 
height  of  the  embankments  which  prevented  the  towns  of  Lower 
Egypt  from  being  laid  under  water  at  the  time  of  the  inundation. 
He  also  employed  culprits  in  excavating  canals.  The  circum- 
stances of  his  retirement  from  Egypt,  as  related  by  both  historians, 
indicate  that  the  priests  bore  subjection  to  a  foreign  power  impa- 
tiently and  caballed  for  its  overthrow.  He  dreamt  that  a  figure 
standing  over  him  in  his  sleep,  counselled  him  to  collect  all  the 
priests  in  Egypt  together  and  cut  them  to  pieces2.  Sabaco  per- 
ceived in  this  a  design  on  the  part  of  the  gods  .to  entice  him  to  the 
commission  of  an  act  of  impiety  which  should  bring  on  his  ruin. 
He  had  been  told  by  the  oracles  of  Ethiopia  that  he  should  reign 
over  Egypt  fifty  years,  and  being  disturbed  by  the  dream  he  deter- 
mined voluntarily  to  withdraw  into  Ethiopia.  As  related  of  the 
Ethiopian  king  who  had  invaded  Egypt  this  cannot  be  true ;  but 
the  subsequent  elevation  of  a  priest  of  Memphis  to  supreme  power 
makes  it  probable  that  the  sacerdotal  order  of  that  city,  controlled 
in  their  ascendency,  had  placed  the  Ethiopian  sovereigns  in  the 
dilemma  of  yielding  to  them  or  undertaking  their  extermination. 
No  memorials  of  any  of  this  dynasty  except  Tirhakah  have  been 
found  in  Lower  Egypt,  though  it  is  evident  from  the  account  of 
the  raising  of  the  mounds  that  it  was  subject  to  Sabaco. 

It  is  related  in  the  Second  Book  of  Kings  (xvii.  4),  that  Hoshea, 

1  Herod.  2,  137. 

*  M.£covs  Siarcifiteiv,  Her.  2,  139.     DiodorilS  adds,  Jia  n'taoiv  avnov  SdlO?  jura 

rijs  9eoa-rii.  (1,  C5),  a  circumstance  which  seems  to  have  been  added  fnm, 
the  story  of  Xerxes  (Her.  7,  40),  who  commanded  the  eldest  son  of  Pythiua, 
whom  he  had  endeavored  to  beg  off  from  military  service,  to  be  cut  in  twt 
pieces,  which  were  fixed  on  either  side  of  the  line  of  march. 


310 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


king  of  Israel,  who  had  become  tributary  to  Shalmaneser,  king  of 

Assyria,  had  entered  into  a  secret  alliance  with  Seva,  the  king  of 
Egypt,  the  Sevechus  of  Manetho1,  and  relying  on  his  assistance, 
M  had  brought  no  present  to  the  king  of  Assyria,  as  he  had  done 
year  by  year ;"  for  which  the  king  of  Assyria  put  him  in  prison, 
and  after  a  three  years'  siege  took  Samaria  and  carried  the  people 
captive  into  Assyria  and  Media.  This,  according  to  the  Jewish 
Chronology,  took  place  in  the  year  722  b.c.,  the  ninth  of  Hoshea's 
reign.  The  kings  of  the  Ethiopian  dynasty  would  naturally  enter 
into  the  policy  of  the  native  kings  of  Egypt,  which  evidently  was 
to  uphold  the  power  of  Israel  and  Judah,  the  only  barrier  between 
themselves  and  the  warlike  and  aggressive  empire  of  the  Assyrians. 
It  is  probable  that  the  rapid  movements  of  Shalmaneser,  who  had 
an  ally  in  the  king  of  Judah,  anticipated  the  aid  which  Sevechus 
had  engaged  to  furnish  to  Hoshea ;  but  the  very  brief  narrative 
of  the  Book  of  Kings  gives  us  no  details.  Many  of  the  Israelites 
avoided  the  captivity  which  threatened  them,  by  taking  refuge  in 
the  friendly  territory  of  Egypt,  while  others  even  penetrated  into 
Ethiopia,  and  from  this  time  forward  there  seems  always  to  have 
been  a  considerable  body  of  Jews  in  the  eastern  side  of  Egypt, 
speaking  their  own  language,  practising  their  own  religious  rites, 
and  exciting  the  bigotry  of  the  native  Egyptians*.  The  prophet 
Isaiah8  anticipates  the  time  when  the  remnant  of  the  people  should 
be  recalled  "  from  Assyria,  and  from  Egypt,  and  from  Pathros  (the 
Thebaid),  and  from  Cush,"  and  in  glowing  language  describes 
Jehovah  as  drying  up  the  gulf  of  the  Red  Sea,  tmiting  the  seven 
channels  of  the  Nile,  and  making  a  highway  through  the  Desert, 
that  they  might  return  without  danger  or  delay. 

TiRHAKAn,  the  Tarcus  or  Taracus  of  Manetho,  the  Tearco  of 
Strabo4,  succeeded  Sevechus.  His  name,  written  Tarhak  or  Tar- 
haka,  is  found  on  the  internal  face  of  the  pylon  of  a  building 

»  fcfciO  which  without  the  points  may  be  read  Seva. 

•  Iwuali  xix.  18,  foil  1  xill  4  B.  1,  p.  61. 


T£IF,  TWENTY -FIFTH  DYNASTY. 


311 


erected  at  Medinet  Aboo  by  ThotLmes  IV.'  and  at  Gebel-el-Birkel, 
with  the  date  of  his  twentieth  year,  which,  according  to  Eusebius, 
must  have  been  the  last  of  his  sovereignty  over  Egypt.  Other 
inscriptions  remain  in  which  he  is  mentioned,  but  they  give  us  no 
other  knowledge  concerning  him  than  the  name  of  his  queen  and 
of  the  nurse  of  his  daughter.  The  Egypto-Ethiopian  monarchy 
must  have  been  very  powerful,  though  Memphis  had  been  given 
up  to  Sethos.  Strabo  speaks  of  him  as  rivalling  Sesostris  in  the 
extent  of  his  foreign  expeditions,  and  as  having  reached  the  Pillars 
of  Hercules2.  These  are  evident  exaggerations,  but  they  prove  the 
historical  fame  of  Tirhakah,  and  may  have  had  their  foundation  in 
an  expedition  into  Western  Africa,  of  which  the  Phoenician  colo- 
nies were  the  object  and  limit.  The  narrative  of  the  expedition  of 
Sennacherib  against  Judaea  and  Egypt  indicates  the  opinion  enter- 
tained of  his  power.  The  king  of  Assyria  was  dissatisfied  with  the 
conduct  of  Hezekiah,  who,  after  having  paid  him  a  heavy  contri- 
bution in  gold  and  silver,  was  meditating  defection  in  hope  of  aid 
from  Egypt.  He  had  taken  all  the  strong  places  of  Judah,  and 
from  Lachish,  a  town  in  the  plain  of  Sephela,  on  the  road  to 
Egypt,  which  he  was  besieging,  he  sent  a  powerful  detachment 
with  a  threatening  message  to  Hezekiah3.  The  king  himself  and 
the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  were  filled  with  alarm  ;  but  Isaiah 
encouraged  them  by  a  prediction,  that  Sennacherib  "  should  hear 
a  rumor  and  return  to  his  own  land4."  This  rumor  was  evidently 
of  the  march  of  Tirhakah  to  the  relief  of  Judaaa,  the  expectation ^of 
which  had  emboldened  Hezekiah  to  withdraw  the  submission 

1  Rosellini,  1£  Stor.  2,  109.  1  B.  1,  p.  61 ;  15,  p.  687. 

*  Isaiah  xxxvi.  xxxvii. ;  2  Kings  xviii.  xix. 

4  The  common  Translation  has,  "  I  will  send  a  blast  upon  him,  and  lie 
shall  hear  a  rumor  and  return  to  his  own  land,"  in  which  there  appears  to 
be  a  reference  to  the  miraculous  destruction  of  his  army.  But  this  is  an 
error.  Archbishop  Seeker  and  Bishop  Lowth  translate  the  passage,  "I  will 
infuse  a  spirit  into  him,"  and  explain  it,  "a  spirit  of  cowardice  " 


312 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


which  he  had  recently  made.  The  narrative,  however,  implies 
that  there  was  another  power  in  Egypt  on  which  Hezekiah  relied ; 
for  Sennacherib  in  his  taunting  message  says,  "  On  whom  dost  thou 
trust,  that  thou  rebeilest  against  me  ?  Lo,  thou  trustest  in  the  stafl 
of  this  broken  reed,  on  Egypt ;  whereon,  if  a  man  lean  it  will  go 
into  his  hand  and  pierce  it;  so  is  Pharaoh  king  of  Egypt  to  all 
who  trust  in  him."  Now  we  learn  from  Herodotus  that  after  the 
retirement  of  "  the  Ethiopian  "  from  Egypt,  and  the  resumption 
of  power  by  the  king  who  had  fled  into  the  marshes,  Sethos,  a 
priest  of  Hephaistos,  made  himself  king,  probably  only  of  part  of 
Lower  Egypt.  He  treated  the  warrior  caste,  not  only  with  contempt, 
but  with  injustice,  endeavoring  to  deprive  them  of  the  lands  which 
preceding  kings  had  allotted  to  them.  The  consequence  was  that 
when  Sennacherib,  whom  Herodotus  calls  king  of  the  Assyrians 
and  Arabians,  invaded  Egypt,  the  military  refused  to  march 
against  him.  The  priest,  reduced  to  despair,  went  into  the  sanc- 
tuary of  his  god,  and  lamented  to  him  his  condition.  In  the  midst 
of  his  lamentations  he  fell  asleep,  and  a  dream  came  over  him,  in 
which  the  god  appeared  to  stand  beside  him  and  exhort  him  to 
fear  nothing  from  an  encounter  with  the  Arabians,  for  that  he 
would  send  him  defenders.  Relying  on  the  dream,  Sethos  marched 
to  meet  the  enemy,  attended  by  those  of  the  Egyptians  who  chose 
to  go.  But  none  of  the  military  joined  him  ;  his  forces  were  com- 
posed of  men  altogether  unused  to  warfare,  tradesmen  and  artifi- 
cers, and  the  loose  population  of  a  great  city1.  With  such  troops 
Sennacherib  might  well  describe  him  as  a  broken  reed,  and  warn 
Hezekiah  of  the  folly  of  trusting  to  his  succor.  Similar  warnings 
not  to  trust  in  the  power  of  Egypt  are  given  by  the  prophet  him- 
self in  the  thirtieth  and  thirty-first  chapters,  which  notwithstanding 
the  place  in  which  they  now  stand,  appear  to  refer  to  this  alliance, 
and  indicate  that  Lower  Egypt  was  the  seat  of  the  power  with 

1  "Encadat  ol  rue  /xa^tpwf  piv  oiiiva  dvSpuv,  Kinrfaovs  Js  xai  ^tifxavanrai  ton 
ayopatovi  dvOpuiruvs.     (Her.  2,  141.) 


THE  TWENTY-FIFTH  DYNASTY. 


313 


whom  it  was  made.  Sethos  encamped,  however,  nea>  Pelusium, 
to  defend  the  entrance  of  Egypt  The  narrative  of  Scripture  does 
not  speak  of  Sennacherib's  advancing  so  far  as  Pelusium  ;  but  boih 
Libna  and  Lachish  were  on  the  way  from  Jerusalem  to  Egypt,  and 
it  was  natural  that  if  he  apprehended  an  attack  from  that  quarter, 
he  should  send  a  portion  of  his  troops  to  seize  Pelusium,  which 
was  equally  the  key  of  Egypt  and  of  Palestine.  He  could  do  it 
the  more  safely  as  he  had  already  reduced  the  Arabians,  who  had 
possession  of  the  south-western  coast  of  Palestine  and  the  Desert, 
through  which  an  army  must  pass1.  Xo  battle,  however,  ensued  ; 
during  the  night  an  immense  multitude  of  lield  mice  covered  the 
encampment  of  the  Assyrians  and  gnawed  the  strings  of  their 
bows  and  the  straps  of  their  shields.  Finding  themselves  thus  left 
defenceless,  in  the  morning  they  betook  themselves  to  Might,  and 
many  were  slain  by  the  Egyptians.  A  statue  of  Sethos  was  set  up 
in  the  temple  of  Ilephaistos,  holding  a  mouse  in  his  hand,  with 
this  inscription,  u  Whosoever  looks  on  me,  let  him  be  pious."  We 
can  have  no  doubt  from  whom  Herodotus  derived  his  tale — the 
priests  of  the  temple  of  Ptah  at  Memphis.  The  mouse  was  an 
emblem  of  destruction2,  and  it  may  be  that  the  narrative  of  the 
defeat  of  Sennacherib's  army  owed  its  specific  form  to  this  circum- 
stance. We  must  believe  that  in  the  time  of  Herodotus  the  tem- 
ple of  Memphis  contained  such  a  statue  as  he  describes 3 ;  but  that 
it  was  the  statue  of  Sethos,  or  that  the  inscription  meant  what  his 
guides  told  him,  is  not  equally  certain.    The  Jewish  account  is 

1  Comp.  Herod.  3.  4-10. 

1  'A.<pavi7tiiiy  CrjAoviTCS  fiv  $',}yo*povrriv  bzciii]  -cavra  icQiuv  fuairtt  Kill  i-^o^at'r., 

(Horap.  Hierog.  1,  50.)  The  mouse  is  produced  in  sudden  and  extrnordi- 
*  nary  numbers  in  Egypt,  and  causes  grea\  destruction.  * /E\.  Hist  Anim. 
6,  41.)  The  ancients  were  not  satisfied  without  exaggerating  thoir  destruc- 
tive powers,  and  the  story  of  their  gnawing  bowstrings  is  told  of  other 
places.    (Strabo,  13,  \\  604.) 

1  Kat  ¥  v  »  ovroi  h  Ba<n\ti>s  I  c  r  n  k  t  iv  r<L  lout  tjv  'IL*>  jit- >v  ^2  NlV 

VOL.   IJ.  14 


3U 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


more  faithful  than  the  Egyptian,  inasmuch  as  it  notices  the  rurno? 
of  Tirhakah's  expedition,  while  the  Egyptian  makes  the  cause  of 
the  Assyrians'  retreat  wholly  supernatural.  Pestilence  and  panic 
appear  to  have  combined  in  bringing  it  about1.  The  flight  of 
Sennacherib  probably  put  a  stop  to  the  march  of  Tirhakah. 
Whether  he  ended  his  days  -as  sovereign  of  the  Thebais,  or  retired 
into  Ethiopia  and  continued  to  reign  there,  we  do  not  know ;  but 
it  is  evident  that  the  seat  of  his  power  must  have  been  in  Upper 
Egypt,  when  the  rumor  of  his  coming  could  produce  such  a  sudden 
retreat  of  the  Assyrians. 

The  two  circumstances  which  characterize  the  reign  of  Sethos, 
the  usurpation  of  supreme  power  by  a  priest,  and  the  degradation 
of  the  military  caste,  indicate  a  decay  of  the  ancient  constitution  of 
Egypt.  That  the  increase  of  population  in  the  great  towns  of 
Lower  Egypt,  the  consequence  of  the  fertility  of  the  soil  and  the 
growth  of  commerce,  should  have  made  the  civil  element  much 
more  important  than  it  had  been  in  the  flourishing  days  of  the 
monarchy,  was  natural.  It  was  not  less  natural  that  this  rise  of 
the  commercial  and  working  class  should  be  attended  with  a  change 
in  the  military  system.  Widely  different  as  the  Calasirians  and 
Hermotybians  were  in  many  respects  from  the  Geomori  of  Athens 
before  the  time  of  Solon,  and  the  Hippeis  and  Zeugitae  of  his  con- 
stitution, from  the  original  Plebs  of  Rome  and  the  Feudal  army  of 
the  Middle  Ages — in  one  respect  they  all  agreed  ;  landed  property 
and  military  service  were  conjoined.  And  all  these,  in  process  of 
time,  yielded  up  their  exclusive  right  to  bear  arms,  and  admitted 
into  partnership  with  them  in  this  function,  the  mixed  multitude 
whom  the  progress  of  society  engenders  in  flourishing  towns.  At 
Athens  the  change  was  brought  about  by  the  rise  of  its  naval  . 

"The  Assyrian  shall  fall  by  a  sword,  not  of  man; 
Yea,  a  sword,  not  of  mortal,  shall  devour  him: 
And  he  shall  betake  himself  to  flight  from  the  face  of  the  sword, 
And  the  courage  of  his  chosen  men  shall  fail. ' — Is.  xxxi.  8. 


THE  TWENTY-FIFTH  DYNASTY. 


315 


power,  which  transferred  the  chief  strength  of  the  state  from  the 
land  to  the  sea.  At  Rome  the  cultivators  of  the  soil  were  not  suf- 
ficient to  supply  the  demand  of  a  military  republic,  and  employ- 
ment and  pay  were  needed  for  the  city  population.  In  modern 
Europe  the  rise  of  the  cities  was  everywhere  accompanied  with  a 
more  promiscuous  constitution  of  the  military  force,  anpl  at  no  long 
interval  with  the  establishment  of  mercenary  troops.  We  know 
not  how  the  elevation  of  Sethos  took  place;  but  it  is  evident  that 
he  relied  on  the  town  population  as  the  instruments  of  his  design 
of  depressing  the  ancient  military  body.  His  power  appears  to 
have  been  exercised  tyrannically;  for  Herodotus  speaks  of  the 
Egyptians  as  being  set  free  after  his  reign1.  He  notices  no  anar- 
chy as  supervening  upon  his  death,  but  his  usurpation  and  his 
encroachments  on  the  military  order  render  it  abundantly  proba- 
ble; and  Diodorus  informs  us  that  it  actually  took  place2,  and 
assigns  two  years  as  its  duration.  The  nineteenth  chapter  of  Isaiah, 
written  about  this  time,  perhaps  towards  the  close  of  Sethos'  usur- 
pation, foretells  a  state  of  complete  anarchy  and  the  consequent 
depopulation  and  impoverishment  of  the  country,  to  be  succeeded, 
as  anarchy  usually  is,  by  the  reign  of  a  despotic  monarch.  "  I  will 
set  the  Egyptians  against  the  Egyptians,  and  they  shall  fight  every 
one  against  his  brother,  and  every  one  against  his  neighbor,  city 
against  city,  and  kingdom  against  kingdom.  And  the  Egyptians 
will  I  give  over  into  the  hand  of  a '  cruel  lord,  and  a  fierce  king 
shall  rule  over  them.  In  that  day  shall  Egypt  be  like  unto  women ; 
and  it  shall  be  afraid  and  fear,  because  of  the  shaking  of  the  hand 
of  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  which  he  hath  determined  against  it.  And 
the  land  of  Judah  shall  be  a  terror  unto  Egypt ;  every  one  that 

1  2,  147.  'E  ^tvdepudevrss  A.iyvTtTitJt  jitra  tov  ipta  rov  'YLj>h(<ttuv  /3acn\ev- 
travra  (oi6zva  yap  %p6vov  otol  re  rtaav  avev  (Saai^eo;  StalTaadat}  iarfiaavro  dvuceKa 

•  1,  66.  He  places  it  immed;ately  after  the  retirement  of  the  Ethiopian, 
and  does  not  mention  Sethos. 


316  HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 

maketh  mention  thereof  shall  be  afraid  in  himself."    We  know  of 

no  period  in  Egyptian  history  to  which  this  description  is  at  all 
applicable,  except  that  which  Diodorus  designates  as  the  anarchy1. 
The  effects  which  it  is  described  as  producing  on  the  condition  of 
Egypt,  however,  seem  to  indicate  a  longer  duration  than  two  years, 
and  Diodorus  is  never  a  safe  guide  in  chronology. 

The  invasion  of  Judaea  by  Sennacherib  took  place  713  b.  c,  and 
this  fixes  a  date  for  the  reigns  of  Sethos  at  Memphis  and  Tirhakah 
in  the  Thebaid  and  Ethiopia.  The  chronology  of  the  two  centuries 
and  a  half  between  the  invasion  of  Sheshonk  and  that  of  Senna- 
cherib, cannot  be  settled  in  detail,  from  the  variations  in  the  lists 
and  the  chasms  in  the  series  of  the  monuments.  Supposing  Shes- 
honk to  have  invaded  Judaea  in  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  the  21st 
dvnasty  to  have  lasted  116  years,  according  to  Manetho,  the  22nd, 
89  years,  the  24th,  6  years,  and  the  25th,  40,  these  numbers  (116 
-|-89  +  6  +  40)  amount  to  251,  a  coincidence  sufficiently  close  to 
show  that  Manetho  is  substantially  correct.  Eusebius  makes  them 
(494-44  +  44  +  44)  181  years. 

Twenty-sixth  Dyjiasty.    Nine  Saite  kings. 
AFRICANU3. 

Years. 


1.  Stkpotnates,  reigned   7 

2.  Nechepsos   • 

3.  Nectiao   8 

4.  PsAMMrncmjs   64 

5.  Nechao  IL   • 

He  took  Jerusalem  and  carried  Jehoash  the 
king  captive  into  Egypt 

6.  Psammutiiis  IL     .    .    .    6 


1  Gesenius  on  Is.  xix.  refers  the  delivery  of  the  prophecy  to  the  time  oi 
PBammitichus;  but  Isaiah  began  to  prophesy  in  the  reign  of  Uzziah,  who  died 
757  b.  a,  and  cannot,  have  been  contemporary  with  Psammitichus. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH   DYNASTY.  317 

Years. 

1.  Uaphris  19 

To  him  the  remnant  of  the  Jews  fled  when  the 
Assyrians  took  Jerusalem. 

8.  Amosh    44 

9.  Psammeciierites   6  months. 

150  6  m. 


EUSEBIUS. 

Years. 


L  Ammeris,  the  Ethiopian,  reigned    .....  12  (Arm.  18) 

2.  Stephin  ATH1S  7 

8.  Xechepsos   6 

4.  Neciiao  8 

5.  Psammitichus  .45  (Arm.  44j 

6.  Xechao  IL  6 

7.  Psammtthis  IL  who  is  also  Psammitichus    .    .  17 

8.  Uaphris   25 

9.  Amosls   42 


168 

We  find  the  list  of  Manetho  beginning  with  three  names  before 
that  of  Psammitichus,  whom  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  represent  as 
raising  himself  to  the  throne  when  he  had  put  down  the  Dodecar- 
chia.  It  seems  to  have  been  his  principle  to  admit  of  no  interreg- 
num ;  he  takes  cognizance  neither  of  the  anarchy  of  which  Dio- 
dorus speaks,  nor  of  the  subsequent  agreement  among  the  chiefs 
of  the  principal  cities,  but  makes  Stephinates  found  the  26th 
dynasty  immediately  on  the  cessation  of  the  25th  or  Ethiopian. 
The  list  of  Eusebius  gives  a  fourth  Ethiopian  king,  Ammeris,  who 
is  certainly  misplaced  at  the  head  of  the  Saitic  dynasty,  but  may 
have  been  transposed  from  the  close  of  the  Ethiopian.  In  this  case 
we  must  regard  the  Ethiopian  power  as  continuing  to  maintain 
itself  at  Thebes,  while  Sethos  called  himself  king  at  Memphis,  and 
another  power,  seated  at  Sais,  claimed  to  be  the  depositary  of  legi- 


318 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


timate  authority.    No  such  king  as  Ammeres  has  been  found  in 
the  monuments  of  Thebes1. 

We  are  not  informed  in  what  relation  this  new  dynasty  of  Sake 
kings  stood  to  Bocchoris  the  Saite,  whom*  Sabaco  deposed  and  put 
to  death  ;  but  in  the  statement  of  Herodotus2,  that  the  blind  king 
who  had  fled  into  the  island  of  Elbo  in  the  marshes,  when  the 
Ethiopians  invaded  Egypt,  returned  when  they  retired,  we  may 
probably  trace  the  fact,  that  Sais  still  claimed  the  sovereignty  over 
tiie  district  of  Lower  Egypt  in  which  it  stood,  during  the  whole 
time  of  the  Ethiopian  dominion.  Thus  Egypt  was  truly  divided, 
"  every  one  against  his  neighbor,  city  against  city,  kingdom  against 
kingdom,"  the  upper  country  being  under  the  dominion  of  the 
Ethiopians,  Sethos  ruling  at  Memphis,  and  over  'Jie  country 
towards  the  frontiers  of  Palestine,  and  the  Saitic  nome  and  western 
mouths  of  the  Nile,  near  one  of  which  Elbo  stood,  being  under 
the  sway  of  the  princes  from  whom  Psammitichus  descended. 
That  hostile  relations  existed  between  them  and  the  Ethiopian-,  is 
evident  from  the  account  of  Herodotus,  that  Necho  the  father  of 
rsammitichus  had  been  put  to  death  by  Sabaco8.  This  cannot 
have  been  literally  true ;  but  we  have  seen  that  to  Herodotus  the 
name  of  Sabaco  represented  the  whole  Ethiopic  dynasty,  which,  as 
enlarged  by  the  addition  of  Ammeres,  will  occupy  the  space  from 
Sabaco  to  Necho.  The  first  act  recorded  of  this  dynasty  was  the  m 
putting  of  Bocchoris  the  Saite  to  death  ;  the  last,  a  similar  act  of 
violence  towards  the  Saite  Necho.  This  is  a  reasonable  presump- 
tion that  during  this  whole  time  Sais  maintained  at  least  a  claim 
of  independence,  and  will  explain  its  subsequent  elevation  to  the 
supremacy  over  all  Egypt. 

The  ruins  of  Ssa,  the  ancient  Sais,  attest  its  former  grandeur , 
the  wall  of  crude  brick  which  surrounded  the  principal  buildings 

1  Bunsen,  B.  %  139.    Lepsius  has  discovered  at  Thebes  a  queen  AmHerith^ 
whose  name,  he  thinks,  might  give  rise  to  that  of  Ammeres. 
8  2,  140.  8  2,  152. 


THE  TVEXTT-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


319 


of  the  city  was  seventy  feet  thick,  and  therefore  probably  not  less 
than  100  feet  in  height.  It  encloses  an  area  2325  feet  in  length, 
by  1960  in  breath,  and  traces  appear  in  it  of  the  lake  in  which 
according  to  Herodotus  the  mysteries  of  Osiris  were  performed  ; 
of  the  temple  of  Minerva,  and  the  tombs  of  the  Saitic  kings. 
There  are  also  beyond  this  enclosure  two  large  cemeteries,  one  for 
the  interment  of  the  privileged  classes,  the  other  of  the  common 
people1.  The  site,  however,  has  been  very  imperfectly  explored  by 
modern  travellers,  and  much  may  remain  undiscovered  which  will 
throw  light  on  the  history  of  the  last  dynasty  of  the  independent 
Pharaohs.  The  names  of  Stephinates,  Necepsos  and  Xechao  I. 
have  not  yet  been  found  on  any  monument. 

Herodotus,  when  he  resumes  the  history  of  Egypt  after  the 
reififn  of  Sethos,  remarks  that  from  this  time  forward  he  shall 
relate  that  in  which  the  Egyptians  and  other  nations  agree2. 
Previously  to  this  time  there  was  no  other  testimony  to  control  the 
accounts  which  the  "  Egyptians  and  the  priests  "  gave  of  their  own 
history3 :  no  Greek  had  advanced  beyond  Naucratis,  and  no  recoru 
was  left  even  of  the  imperfect  knowledge  of  Egypt  which  they 
might  thus  have  gamed.  The  effect  is  immediately  visible,  and 
we  have  henceforth  a  definite  chronology,  an  authentic  succession 
of  kings  conformable  to  the  monuments,  and  a  history  composed 
of  credible  facts.  He  thus  relates  the  circumstances  which  led  to 
the  establishment  of  the  monarchy  of  Psammiticlius  : — "Being 
freed  after  the  government  of  Sethos  the  priest  of  Hephaistos,  the 
Egyptians,  who  never  could  live  without  a  king,  set  up  for  them- 
selves twelve  kings,  dividing  all  Egypt  into  twelve  parts.  These 
kings  gave  one  another  mutual  rights  of  intermarriage"1,' and  entered 
into  an  agreement  to  abstain  from  all  acts  of  agression  and  live  in 
entire  friendship.    The  reason  of  their  binding  themselves  so  strictly 

1  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  A  Thebes,  1,  183.  Champollion,  Lettres,  50-68, 
1  2,  147.  "  2,  142. 

4  Probably  agreeing  not  to  marry  out  of  the  twelve  familie*. 


320 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


was,  that  when  they  entered  on  their  several  sovereignties,  an  oracle 
had  declared  that  whichever  of  them  should  offer  a  libation  to 
Hephaistos  with  a  brazen  helmet1  would  be  the  king  of  all  Egypt. 
It  was  to  this  temple  that  they  all  repaired  in  a  body.  For  a  long 
time  all  observed  faithfully  the  terms  of  their  alliance.  But  it 
happened  one  day  that  as  they  were  sacrificing,  the  chief  priest 
brought  out  only  eleven  vessels  of  libation  instead  of  twelve,  and 
that  Psammitichus,  who  stood  last  in  the  row,  took  off  his  brazen 
helmet,  received  the  sacred  wine  in  it,  and  poured  it  out  in  libation. 
He  had  no  sinister  design — all  the  other  kings  had  helmets  and 
were  wearing:  them  at  the  time.  But  the  oracle  was  brought  to 
their  mind,  and  though  upon  examining  Psammitichus  they  found 
that  he  was  innocent  of  any  evil  purpose  and  therefore  could  not 
put  him  to  death,  they  determined  to  strip  him  of  the  chief  part 
of  his  power,  and  confine  him  to  the  marshes  on  the  coast2,  from 
which  he  was  not  to  go  out  into  any  other  part  of  Egypt.  In  the 
former  part  of  his  life  Psammitichus  had  been  an  exile  in  Syria, 
his  father  Necho  having  been  put  to  death  by  Sabaco  ;  and  the 
people  of  the  Saitic  norae  had  brought  him  back  and  replaced 
him  in  the  sovereignty.  Feeling  himself  to  have  been  treated 
with  great  injustice  by  the  eleven  kings,  he  sought  the  means  of 
being  avenged,  and  sent  from  his  retreat  to  consult  the  oracle  of 
Latona  at  Buto,  which  had  the  reputation  of  being  the  most  truth- 
ful in  all  Egypt.  He  received  in  answer  from  the  oracle  a  predic- 
tion 'that  he  should  have  retribution  on  his  enemies  by  means  of 
brazen  men  appearing  from  the  sea.'  That  brazen  men  should 
come  to  his  aid  appeared  to  him  a  thing  utterly  incredible  ;  but 
not  long  after,  some  Ionians  and  Carians  who  had  sailed  on  a 
piratical  expedition  were  driven  by  stress  of  weather  to  the  coast 

1  This  is  only  another  form  of  the  same  impression  on  the  mind  of  the 
Egyptians,  produced  by  subsequent  events,  that  the  brazen-armed  foreigner* 
were  to  be  the  means  of  overthrowing  the  Dodecarehia. 

8  Diod.  1,  66.     Trpoara£ai  Smrptfisiv  iv  roii  cXsji  ro?$  xapa  daXarrav. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


of  Egypt,  md  landing  in  their  complete  suits  of  brazen  armor  begau 
to  plunder  the  country.  An  Egyptian  who  had  never  before  seen 
men  in  a  panoply  of  brass,  hastened  into  the  marshes  to  Psammi- 
tichus  with  the  intelligence  that  brazen  men  had  come  from  the 
sea.  He  at  once  recognized  the  fulfilment  of  the  oracle,  engaged 
the  Ionians  and  Carians  in  his  service  by  magnificent  promises, 
and  with  the  assistance  of  the  Egyptians  who  favored  his  cause, 
he  defeated  the  other  dodecarchs1."  It  was  natural  that  the  author- 
ity of  an  oracle  should  be  pleaded  for  a  proceeding  so  repugnant 
to  Egyptian  feeling  as  the  engagement  of  a  body  of  foreign  merce- 
naries to  fight  against  native  Egyptians,  but  we  can  hardly  believe 
that  their  appearance  was  accidental  as  the  story  represents.  It  is 
evident,  from  the  account  of  Diodorus,  that  Psammitichus,  who, 
by  his  possession  of  Sais  and  of  course  Naucratis,  had  the  readiest 
access  to  the  sea,  had  encouraged  the  visits  of  Phoenicians  and 
Greeks2,  and  had  excited  the  jealousy  of  his  colleagues  not  only 
by  the  wealth  he  thus  acquired,  but  by  the  friendly  relations  which 
he  had  established  with  foreigners.  In  regard  to  mythic  times, 
the  tendency  of  Diodorus  and  the  authors  of  his  age  to  find  his- 
torical explanations  for  everything  makes  their  accounts  suspicious. 
But  on  the  other  hand,  Herodotus  is  disposed  to  attribute  to  dreams, 
oracles  and  prodigies  what  had  its  origin  in  political  causes.  The 
mention  of  Carians  renders  it  probable  that  the  Ionians  here 
spoken  of  were  Milesiaas,  whose  territory  was  surrounded  by  that 
of  the  Carians,  pirates  and  rovers  from  the  earliest  times.  The 
Milesians  had  visited  Egypt  for  half  a  century  before  the  Dode- 
carchia,  and  nothing  could  be  more  natural  than  that  Psammi- 

1  There  was  another  version  of  the  oracle,  that  Tementhas,  one  of  the 
dodecarchs,  had  been  warned  to  beware  of  cocks,  and  that  Psammitichus, 
understanding  this  of  the  crests  of  the  Carian  helmets  (Her.  1,  171),  imme- 
diately engaged  them.    (Polyjen.  Strat.  7,  3.) 

8  'E*  Tt  rifi  'Apaffias  Kai  rr}j  K.apias  xai  rrjs  'IwWaj  fiia6o(p6povf  p  t  r  a  w  t  fx  4>  a  ft  tv  o  ( 

(Diod,  1,  66.) 

14* 


322 


HISTORY    OF  KGYi'l. 


tichus,  a  native  of  Sais.  should  engage  their  services,  when  he  had 
been  deprived  of  his  share  of  the  government  by  the  injustice  of 
his  colleagues.  He  had  not  trusted  to  Greek  mercenaries  alone  ; 
during  his  exile  under  tiie  Ethiopian  sway  he  had  formed  connexions 
with  the  Arabians  who  border  on  Egypt  and  Palestine,  and  Dio- 
dorus  tells  us  that  he  had  sent  for  them,  and  that  they  composed 
a  part  of  the  forces  with  which  he  overthrew  the  Dodecarchs. 
The  battle  was  fought  at  Momemphis1  near  the  Canopic  branch  of 
the  Nile,  and  on  the  shore  of  the  Lake  Mareotis.  Some  of  the 
dodecarchs  were  slain  ;  the  rest  escaped  into  Libya,  near  the  bor- 
ders of  which  the  battle  took  place. 

According  to  Herodotus,  the  dodecarchs  while  they  lived 
together  in  peace  conceived  the  wish  to  leave  a  joint  memorial  of 
themselves,  and  in  fulfilment  of  this  design  built  a  labyrinth2  near 
the  Lake  Moeris,  and  not  far  from  the  town  of  Crocodilopolis.  It 
is  evident  from  other  passages  of  his  history3  that  he  did  not  pos- 
sess an  aptitude  for  measuring  the  proportion  between  causes  and 
effects,  otherwise  he  would  not  have  attributed  such  a  work  to  a 
period  of  divided  power  and  no  very  long  duration.  We  know 
that  Ammenemes  was  the  founder  of  the  Labyrinth  ;  its  different 
parts  had  their  several  uses — sepulchres  of  the  sacred  crocodiles — 
halls  of  assembly  for  the  different  nomes — temples  in  which  the 
tutelary  gods  of  each  might  be  worshipped.  It  is  more  probable 
that  the  story  of  its  having  been  built  by  the  Dodecarchs  origi- 
nated in  the  number  of  the  principal  courts  being  twelve,  answer- 
ing either  to  the  months  of  the  year  or  the  chief  gods  of  the  Pan- 

1  Called  Panouf  by  the  Copts,  and  Menouf  by  the  Arabs  (Champollion, 
Egypte  sous  les  Pharaons,  2,  252.) 

a  In  the  time  of  Herodotus  it  was  a  common  name  for  a  building  or  exca- 
vation of  a  great  variety  of  passages.  He  does  not  call  it  The  Labyrinth, 
but  "a  labyiluh,"  "this  labyrinth." 

'For  instance,  hi*  believing  that  the  Lake  Moeris  had  been  excavated 
and  the  earth  thrown  into  the  Nile.    (2,  150.) 


THE   T  WE  NTT-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


323 


theon,  or  to  the  original  number  of  the  nomes1.  Diodorus,  who 
ascribes  the  building  of  the  Labyrinth  to  Mendes  01  Marrus,  before 
the  Trojan  war2,  makes  the  building  begur  by  the  Dodecarchs  to 
be  distinct  from  it,  yet  apparently  on  the  same  site.  The  Laby- 
rinth was  remarkable  for  the  multiplicity  of  its  rooms  and  passages  ; 
the  mausoleum  of  the  Dodecarchs  for  a  large  peristyle  hall,  and 
apartments  adorned  with  pictures,  representing  the  religious  rites  of 
the  district  to  which  the  chiefs  severally  belonged.  The  work  was 
left  unfinished  at  the  dissolution  of  the  Dodecarchy.  Perhaps 
antiquarian  research  may  show  that  the  remains  are  of  two  differ- 
ent ages,  and  thus  justify  Diodorus. 

Psammitichus  I.  (670  b.  c),  having  established  himself  in 
power  by  means  of  his  foreign  allies  and  a  portion  of  the  Egyp- 
tian people,  fulfilled  the  promises  by  which  he  had  engaged  them 
to  assist  him.  He  allotted  them  a  district  on  the  Pelusiac  branch 
of  the  Nile,  a  little  nearer  to  the  sea  than  the  city  of  Bubastis,  and 
allowed  them  to  construct  fortifications.  His  foreign  mercenaries 
and  the  native  Egyptians  who  had  joined  him3  were  stationed  on 
opposite  sides  of  the  river — a  necessary  precaution,  as  even  their 
engagement  in  the  same  service  could  hardly  have  prevented  hos- 
tilities between  them  ;  such  was  the  contempt  of  the  Greeks  for 
Egyptian  superstition,  and  the  horror  of  the  Egyptians  for  Grecian 
usages4.  As  the  Phoenicians  had  borne  a  part  in  establishing  him 
on  the  throne,  it  is  probable  that  their  settlement  at  Memphis,  in 
what  was  called  the  Tynan  Camp,  dates  from  the  same  time5.  It 
was  in  great  measure  commercial,  or  if  meant  for  warlike  purposes 
was  a  naval  station  ;  but  that  of  the  Greeks  and  Egyptians  was 

1  Strabo,  17,  p.  787,  811.  ■  1,  61. 

'  ToTci  "Iwffi  Kai  roia  i  avyKartpyaaafLSvoi-i  airu>  h  "^a^^frt^o. 
6ii(i)(Tt  ^wpovj  ivoncrjcrai  dvriavi  aX.V/Xon-,  rod  NeiXov  to  ptoov  It^ovtqs'  roiai  nindfiara 
ire6ri  T,Tpar6-e6n.  (Her.  2,  154.)  Compare  toToi  pir*  Iwvtov  0ov)*j¥Oim 
kiyvTtrimn  (2,  152). 

4  Her.  2,  41.  Her.  2,  112. 


324 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


evidently  designed  to  form  a  body  of  troops  on  whom  ho  might 
rely  for  the  maintenance  of  his  throne,  to  which  the  aneiont  militia 
of  the  country,  the  Calasirians  and  Hermotybians,  were  made  to 
give  way.  The  Ionians  and  Carians  would  no  doubt  receive  acces- 
sions by  fresh  immigration ;  in  the  reign  of  Apries  they  amounted 
to  30,000  men1.  Amasis  subsequently  removed  them  to  Memphis, 
that  they  might  aid  him  more  effectually  against  the  Egyptians ; 
but  their  docks,  and  the  foundations  of  their  houses,  were  still  to 
be  seen  at  their  original  settlement  in  the  time  of  Herodotus2. 

Psammitichus  also  caused  Egyptian  children  to  be  placed  under 
the  instruction  of  the  Greeks,  that  they  might  become  masters  of 
the  language,  and  they  and  their  descendants  became,  after  the 
model  of  Egyptian  life,  a  yivog  or  hereditary  caste  of  Interpreters. 
It  is  important  to  remark  that  the  Greeks  never  appear  to  have 
acquired  the  Egyptian  language,  but  to  have  depended  entirely 
upon  native  interpreters.  Their  knowledge  might  have  been  much 
more  comprehensive  and  accurate,  had  they  been  able  to  converse 
with  the  inhabitants,  to  check  the  accounts  which  they  received 
from  their  dragoman  by  their  own  inquiry,  to  test  the  correctness 
of  the  popular  explanations  of  names,  and  cross-question  an 
informant  who  might  be  inclined  to  impose  on  the  ignorance  of  a 
stranger.  Unfortunately  the  Greeks  in  all  ages  disdained  the 
acquirement  of  barbarous  tongues.  Herodotus,  with  all  his  zeal 
for  knowledge,  does  not  appear  in  his  wide  journeyings  to  have 
learned  more  than  a  chance  word  or  two  of  the  languages  of  the 
countries  which  he  visited.  For  commercial  and  political  purposes 
they  used  interpreters,  who  were  commonly  not  Greeks,  but  barba- 
rians speaking  Greek8.  No  Greek  philosopher  ever  condescended 
to  study  another  language  than  his  own  for  ethnographical  or 


Her.  2,  163.  8  2,  154. 

*  Timesitheus,  the  Trapezuntian,  addresses  the  Mosynoeci  in  their  own 
language  (Xen.  Anab.  6,  4),  but  he  was  the  Proxenus  of  their  nation. 


THE   TWENTY-SIXTH    DYNASTT.  325 

philological  purposes1.  The  versatile  Greek  intellect  cannot  have 
wanted  aptitude  for  such  attainments  ;  but  the  perfection  of  theit 
own  language  in  sound  and  structure  would  make  those  of  Asia 
and  Egypt  seem  harsh  and  clumsy.  The  caste  of  interpreters  in 
Egypt  was  probably  formed  from  the  lowest  people  ;  Herodotus 
piaces  them  last  but  one  in  his  enumeration2,  immediately  before 
the  pilots,  with  whom  Egyptians  would  hold  no  intercourse3 ;  they 
possessed  no  knowledge  of  the  character  with  which  the  monu- 
ments of  Egypt  were  covered  ;  but  being  compelled  to  satisfy  the 
•curiosity  of  the  Greeks,  they  gave  such  superficial  explanations  as 
might  correspond  with  their  moU  obvious  features.  Before  the 
Persian  conquest,  very  few  Greeks  penetrated  into  Upper  Egypt. 
Those  who  came  for  commercial  purposes  would  be  attracted  to 
Sais;  those  who,  like  Thales,  or  Pythagoras,  or  Solon,  sought 
scientific  knowledge,  would  find  it  it  Sais,  Heliopolis  and  Mem- 
phis*. The  old  national  feeling  of  the  Egyptians,  which  had 
been  weakened  in  Lower  Egypt  by  commercial  intercourse,  sub- 
sisted in  all  its  intensity  in  the  Upper  country,  where,  except  the 
kindred  Ethiopian,  the  face  of  a  stranger  was  rarely  seen. 

No  monument  of  any  magnitude,  bearing  the  name  of  Psani- 
mitichus,  remains  in  Egypt,  but  it  is  evident  that  the  whole  of  that 
country  was  subject  to  him,  as  his  shield  is  found  in  the  palace  at 
Karnak  and  in  a  little  island  of  granite  in  the  Nile  near  Philae. 
In  the  quarry  of  Tourah5,  the  design  of  a  monolithal  shrine 

1  Pythagoras  is  said  (Diog.  Laert.  8,  3)  to  have  learnt  the  Egyptian  lan- 
guage. 1  2,  164. 
Pint  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  863.  Kvfcpvtras 

4  The  account  of  Pythagoras  having  been  recommended  by  Amasis  to  the 
priests  of  Heliopolis,  and  by  them  put  off  with  a  reference  to  the  priests  of 
Memphis,  and  again  by  them  to  those  of  Thebes,  rests  on  the  authority  of 
Antipho,  recorded  by  Porphyry. 

*  See  voL  L  p.  118.    Champ'  ^ion-Figpae,  l'Univers,  p,  867 


326  HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 

intended  to  be  excavated  is  traced  on  the  rock  in  red  paint,  and 
the  cornice  bears  the  shield  of  Psamraitichus.  Works  of  his  reign 
are  found  in  several  of  the  European  museums,  but  by  far  the  most 
remarkable  record  of  the  state  of  the  arts  is  the  obelisk  whidi 
stands  in  the  Monte  Citorio  at  Rome.  It  was  brought  by  Augus- 
tus from  Egypt  as  a  memorial  of  its  reduction  under  the  Roman 
power,  and  set  up  in  the  Campus  Martius  to  serve  as  a  gnomon, 
the  length  of  the  shadow  on  the  pavement  which  surrounded  it 
marking  the  longest  and  shortest  and  all  intermediate  days  of  the 
year1.  It  bears  the  phonetic  and  titular  shields  of  Psammitichus  I, 
It  is  about  seventy  feet  in  height ;  the  sculpture,  if  compared  with 
the.  work  of  Thothmes  III.  at  St.  John  Lateran,  or  Menephthah  and 
Rameses  in  the  Piazza  del  Popolo,  appears  inferior  in  execution, 
the  figures  being  less  deeply  and  finely  cut.  Yet  when  we  con- 
sider that  nearly  700  years  had  elapsed  between  the  latest  of  these 
sovereigns  and  Psammitichus,  we  shall  be  astonished  that  art  haa 
declined  so  little.  About  an  equal  length  of  time  intervenes 
between  the  execution  of  the  obelisk  of  Psammitichus  and  those 
of  Vespasian  and  Titus  in  the  Piazza  Navona ;  but  in  these  the 
inferiority  of  execution  is  obvious;  the  characters  are  rather 
scratched  than  cut  upon  the  granite,  and  the  design  is  cumbrous 
and  incorrect.  The  obelisk  appears  to  have  been  brought  from 
Heliopolis,  but  Psammitichus'  principal  wyorks  were  intended  for 
the  embellishment  of  Memphis.  It  is  probable  that  an  epiphaneia 
or  manifestation  of  Apis  took  place  about  the  time  of  his  obtaining 
the  sovereignty,  and  to  gratify  the  people  of  Memphis  he  built  a 
splendid  court  in  which  he  might  be  shown  to  his  worshippers.  It 
was  in  front  of  the  propylaea  of  the  temple  of  Ptah*,  which  Psam- 
mitichus also  built,  and  was  surrounded  with  a  colonnade,  in  which 
colossal  figures,  twelve  cubits  in  height,  supplied  the  place  of  pil- 

1  Plin.  N.  EL  86,  10.    Zoega,  p.  612. 
•  Strabo,  17  807. 


THE   TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY 


32T 


Jars1.  The  priests  who  had  the  charge  of  Apis  brought  him  forth 
into  this  court,  that  he  might  be  offered  food  by  his  votaries,  and 
an  omen  be  drawn  from  his  favorable  or  unfavorable  reception 
of  it. 

As  Psammitichus  had  obtained  the  throne  by  means  of  foreign 
mercenaries,  he  trusted  to  them  for  its  support,  increased  their 
numbers,  and  gave  them  precedence  in  honor  above  the  native 
troops.  This  produced  discontent  and  ultimately  revolt  on  the  part 
of  the  Calasirians  and  Hermotybians.  Its  immediate  occasion  is 
variously  reported.  One  of  his  military  enterprises  was  the  siege 
of  Azotus  or  Ashdod.  This  town,  one  of  the  five  called  in  Scrip- 
ture "  cities  of  the  Philistines,"  appears  to  have  been  a  place  of 
great  size  and  importance5,  and  the  key  of  Palestine  to  an  invading 
force  from  the  side  of  Egypt.  It  included  a  harbor  and  an  inland 
fortress3  like  Gaza,  which  lay  a  little  nearer  to  Egypt,  and  in  the 
age  of  Psammitichus  appears  to  have  had  the  same  place  in  mili- 
tary importance  for  the  attack  of  Palestine  from  Egypt,  or  Egypt 
from  Palestine,  as  Gaza  in  the  age  of  Alexander  the  Great,  who 
did  not  venture  to  pass  on  to  Egypt  till  he  had  taken  it4.  Azotus 
belonged  to  the  Philistines,  but  it  was  not  their  power  which  ena- 
bled it  to  resist  so  long  the  arms  of  Psammitichus.  We  find  from 
the  prophecies  of  Isaiah6  that  it  had  been  besieged  and  taken  by 
Tartan,  the  general  of  Sargon  king  of  Assyria.  This  king  is  not 
elsewhere  named  in  history,  and  it  is  therefore  difficult  to  say 
whether  he  preceded  or  followed  Sennacherib  ;  but  as  we  know  the 

1  Sir  G.  "Wilkinson  has  given  a  drawing  illustrative  of  it.  (Manners  and 
Customs,  1,  Frontispiece.) 

2  T»?s  Hvpirii  ii£yai\T)v  n6\iv.    (Her.  2,  157.) 

*  A£ojto?  irapa\o$,  "A^wroy.  (Excerpta  ex  Not.  Patriarchat  in  Relaml. 
PalaesL  215.) 

*  Arrian,  2,  ad  Jin  The  strength  of  Gaza  was  bo  great  that  Alexander^ 
engineers  pronounced  it  to  be  impregnable. 

6  Isaiah  xx.  / 


328 


HTSTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


succession  of  Assyrian  kings  pretty  accurately  after  Sennacherib, 
the  probability  is  that  he  \tas  his  immediate  predecessor,  reigning 
only  for  a  short  time.  Tartan  was  in  the  service  of  Sennacherib, 
and  was  one  of  the  envoys  sent  by  him  to  Hezekiah  when  he 
invaded  Judaea  and  meditated  the  conquest  of  Egypt1.  Probably 
the  Assyrians  had  ever  since  kept  a  garrison  in  Azotus,  and  hence 
the  obstinate  defence  which  it  made.  Herodotus  says  it  lasted 
twenty-nine  years2,  but  we  can  only  understand  by  this,  that  from 
the  commencement  of  the  siege  to  the  capture  twenty-nine  years 
elapsed,  and  it  would  be  suspended  during  the  invasion  of  the 
Scythians.  It  was  in  these  operations  in  Syria  that,  according  to 
Diodorus,  who  however  does  not  specifically  mention  the  siege  of 
Azotus,  Psammitichus  offended  his  Egyptian  troops,  by  allotting  to 
the  mercenaries  the  post  of  honor  in  the  right  wing.  Herodotus 
gives  a  different  account.  He  says  that  in  the  reign  of  this  king 
garrisons  were  stationed  in  Elephantine  against  the  Ethiopians,  in 
Daphne  near  Pelusium  against  the  Arabians  and  Syrians,  and  in 
Marea  against  the  Libyans,  to  the  number  in  all  of  240,000  men. 
For  three  years  these  garrisons  were  not  relieved,  and  the  soldiers 
having  communicated  with  one  another,  all  revolted  from  Psammi- 
tichus £nd  marched  away  into  Ethiopia.  Diodorus  calculates  their 
numbers  at  200,000.  Both  authors  agree  in  representing  the  king 
as  hastening  after  them  and  endeavoring  to  prevail  on  them  to 
return.  But  he  was  unsuccessful.  When  he  implored  them  not 
to  forsake  their  country  and  the  temples  of  their  gods,  their  wives 
and  their  children,  they  all  raised  a  shout,  and  clattering  with  their 
spears  upon  their  shields,  declared  that  while  they  were  men  and 
had  arms  in  their  hands,  they  should  never  want  a  country,  nor 
wives  and  children8.  According  to  Herodotus,  on  reaching  Ethi- 
opia they  gave  themselves  up  to  the  king,  and  he  being  in  hostility 
1  2  Kings  xviii.  17. 

8  *A$iorov  tyds  itovra  rpifiKovra  IriJ.  rpooKaTfifavoi  ixoXtdputt  if  to  t^eilt.  (2,  167.) 
•  Diod.  2,  t>7 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


329 


rith  a  portion  of  the  inhabitants,  assigned  their  territory  to  the 
Egyptians  who  conquered  and  took  possession  of  it.    "  And  by 
.heir  settlement,"  says  the  historian,  "the  Ethiopians  became 
humanized,  learning  Egyptian  manners1." 

As  the  Romans  garrisoned  Elephantine  with  three  cohorts  only2, 
we  cannot  readily  believe  that  240,000  or  200,000  men  should 
have  been  distributed  through  three  frontier  towns  of  the  kingdom 
of  Psammitichus.  Nehher  is  it  very  credible,  that,  separated  by 
600  miles,  as  those  at  Elephantine  were  from  their  comrades  at 
"Marea  and  Pelusium,  they  should  have  concerted  a  revolt  which 
took  Psammitichus  so  much  by  surprise,  that  he  could  not  come 
up  with  the  deserters  till  they  had  passed  the  frontier  of  Ethiopia. 
Two  hundred  thousand  men  with  arms  in  their  hands,  aggrieved 
by  spoliation  and  indignity,  would  not  surely  have  withdrawn  so 
peaceably  from  their  country.  It  is  evident  that  Herodotus  and 
Diodorus  have  taken  some  old  traditionary  numbers  of  the  Egyp- 
tian militia  as  representing  their  force  in  the  reign  of  Psammitichus. 
The  fact  of  the  dissatisfaction  and  revolt  is  unquestionable,  but  we 
shall  probably  be  near  the  truth  if  we  suppose  that  it  was  only  the 
troops  in  garrison  on  the  Ethiopian  frontier  who  migrated.  The 
unobstructed  march  of  60,000  or  80,000  men  from  Marea  and 
Pelusium  to  Xubia  is  incredible ;  but  if  the  garrison  of  Elephantine 
mutinied  and  deserted,  owing  to  their  being  left  so  long  without 
reiief,  it  might  well  happen  that  Psammitichus  could  not  overtake 
them  till  they  had  proceeded  far  on  their  way.  lie  may  not  have 
been  much  displeased  that  the  most  turbulent  of  his  ancient  sol- 
diery had  withdrawn  so  quietly.  Peter  the  Great  and  Sultan 
Mahmoud  were  not  able  to  emancipate  themselves  from  the  tyranny 
of  the  Strelitzes  and  the  Janissaries,  except  by  their  extermi- 
nation. 

1  Tovrcjv  Si  iooiKicQtiTwv  £j  roOj  Aifleorraj  hutpurtpoi  yty6va<n  A.i9to^efi  ffQta 
tadovrei  Aiyvrrta,    (Her.  2,  30.) 

1  Sharpe,  Egypt  under  the  Romans,  p.  14. 


330 


IirSTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


The  place  in  which  the  deserters  (Automoli)  settled  is  said  by 
Herodotus  to  be  as  remote  from  Meroe,  as  Meroe  from  Elephantine, 
and  along  the  course  of  the  Nile1.  Now  fifty-six  days'  navigation 
up  the  Nile  from  Meroe  would  carry  us  very  far  beyond  every 
trace  of  that  Egyptian  civilization  which  Herodotus  declares  that 
the  Ethiopians  received  from  the  Egyptian  deserters.  In  fact  iig 
such  traces  are  found  further  south  than  lat.  16°,  which  is  within 
the  limits  of  the  island  of  Meroe  itself.  The  king  of  the  Ethiopians 
by  whom  they  were  received,  and  who  gave  them  permission  to 
conquer  themselves  a  settlement  within  his  dominions,  was  proba- 
bly a  successor  of  Sabaco  and  Tirhakah,  having  his  capital,  not  at 
the  Meroe  of  later  geography,  but  at  Napata ;  nor  does  it  necessa- 
rily follow  that  they  proceeded  so  far  as  Napata  before  they 
received  his  commands.  Diodorus  says  they  took  possession  of 
some  of  the  best  land  in  Ethiopia  and  divided  it  among  them. 
Eratosthenes,  Strabo,  Pliny2,  all  mention  them,  but  with  such  vari- 
ations as  to  their  position,  that  it  is  evident  they  wrote  from  no 
certain  knowledge.  Herodotus  tells  us  that  the  Automoli  bore  the 
name  of  Asmach,  which  signifies  "  those  who  stand  on  the  left  hand 
of  the  king Diodorus  attributes  their  emigration  to  their  displea- 
sure at  being  posted  on  the  left  wing  in  an  expedition  into  Syria3 ; 
both  accounts  being  probably  etymological  conjectures,  founded  on 
the  circumstance  that  a  people  called  Euonymitse  (left),  of  Egyptian 
origin,  dwelt  between  Ethiopia  and  Egypt.  We  cannot  avoid  the 
suspicion  that  the  distance  of  the  country  to  which  they  emigrated, 
as  well  as  their  numbers,  has  been  greatly  exaggerated,  that  their 
real  settlement  was  near  the  Second  Cataract4,  and  that  they  were 

1  'Ato  tcivttk  rrg  it6\ios  it  X  e  a)  v ,  iv  lout  XQ°VV  "XX<o  l^cis  li  roig  Airo^JXovj,  it 
btTMirep  c£  'EXt^ai/n'vijj  fjXflcs  £f  rfjv  \ir]Tp6no\iv  rwv  A.l6i6no)v. 

a  Strab.  17,  786.  Plin.  6,  30.  »  Her.  2,  30.  Diod.  1,  67. 

4  Pliny,  on  the  authority  of  Nero's  exploratores,  places  the  Euonymitai  on 
the  frontier  of  Ethiopia  towards  Egypt,  between  the  Second  Cataract  and 
the  island  Gagaudes,  probably  Argo.    Agathemerus  places  them  on  the  west 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


331 


referred  to  a  region  far  south  of  Meroe,  not  because  any  trace*  of 
Egyptian  civilization  were  found  there,  but  in  deference  to  the 
authority  of  Herodotus.  Those  from  whom  he  received  his  account 
had  made  no  better  estimate  of  the  difficulties  of  a  march  to  a 
country  fifty-six  days'  sail  south  of  Meroe,  than  those  who  repre- 
'.ented  Darius  as  having  marched  from  the  Danube  to  the  Wolga ; 
<nd  the  historian  was  not  the  man  to  correct  such  tales  by  applying 
.he  tests  of  time  and  space. 

Psammitichus,  relieved  by  the  departure  of  his  discontented 
troops,  applied  himself  more  diligently  to  the  internal  arrange- 
ments of  his  kingdom,  the  collection  of  taxes,  and  the  cultivation 
of  friendly  relations  with  the  Greeks,  especially  the  Athenians. 
Egypt,  formerly  the  most  inhospitable  of  all  countries  towards 
strangers,  now  opened  all  her  harbors  to  them1.  The  king  caused 
his  own  sons  to  be  instructed  in  Greek  learning.  The  intercourse 
of  Sais  and  Athens  would  be  promoted  by  their  worship  of  the 
same  deity,  and  the  opinion  ultimately  sprung  up,  though  in  a 
much  later  age,  that  Cecrops  had  led  a  colony  from  Sais  to 
Athens2.  It  is  characteristic  of  a  time  when  there  was  a  great 
increase  of  intercourse  with  foreign  nations,  that  a  rivalry  in  anti- 
quity should  have  existed,  which  led  Psammitichus  to  make  his 
experiment  of  educating  two  new-born  children  apart  from  men, 
and  watching  to  what  language  their  first  vocal  utterance  would 

or  left  bank  of  the  Nile,  above  the  Second  Cataract,  adding  the  name 
Sebridce  as  coming  next  to  them.  Stephanus  Byzantinus  says  they  are  an 
Egyptian  nation  on  the  borders  of  Ethiopia.  (Pliny,  6,  35.  Stephu  Byz.  s.  v. 
Eici)it>p?ri!t.  Agath.  Geog.  Min.  %  5.  Msrd  tov  ptyav  KarappaKTriv  and  fiiv 
Svaftoiv  tov  NeiAov  EvanvniTai,  ^lefiplSn,  ]\dronroi'  Kai  irpdj  tt)  Mtp<5j/  i>f,aa>  MipytPft 
fieti'  ovf  'EXfpavro<pdyoi  Aifltoscj.)  The  Greeks  used  the  names  right  and  lejl 
as  we  dc,  in  reference  to  the  course  of  a  river.  (See  Herod.  1,  7  2.  Eust. 
ad  Dion.  Perieg.  251.) 
1  Diod.  J,  67. 

1  Muller  Hellenische  Stimmt  und  St&dte,  1,  106. 


832 


HISTORV   OF  EGYPT. 


J>elong'.  Having  been  suckled  by  she-goats,  the  fir>t  sound  they 
uttered  was  becos,  and  this  being  found  to  signify  bread  in  the 
Phrygian  language,  the  Egyptians  conceded  to  the  Phrygians  the 
lienor  of  priority2.  Such  was  the  account  given  to  Herodotus  by 
the  priests  of  Memphis  of  the  first  attempt  made  to  apply  the 
evidence  of  language  to  decide  the  antiquity  of  nations.  We  may 
smile  at  the  experiment  and  the  inference  deduced  from  it,  but  till 
lately  philological  arguments  have  been  applied  to  historical  ques- 
tions with  not  much  more  discretion.  To  obtain  a  better  know- 
ledge of  Africa,  he  trained  youths  of  the  Ichthyophagi  to  explore 
the  fountains  of  the  Nile,  and  others  to  examine  the  Deserts  of 
Libya.  They  were  taught  to  endure  the  extremity  of  thirst,  but 
few  survived3. 

It  was  towards  the  latter  part  of  his  reign  that  Egypt  was 
threatened  by  an  invasion  of  the  Scythians.  Cyaxares,  king  of 
the  Medes,  having  defeated  the  Assyrians  in  a  great  battle,  was 
besieging  Nineveh,  when  his  own  kingdom  was  overrun  by  a 
norde  of  Scythians.  They  had  driven  the  Cimmerians  before 
them  and  entered  Media.  Cyaxares  encountered  them,  but  suffered 
an  entire  defeat,  and  for  twenty-eight  years  they  kept  possession 
of  western  Asia.  They  had  advanced  to  the  south  of  Ascalon  on 
the  coast  of  Palestine,  on  their  way  to  attack  Egypt,  when  Psam- 
mitichus  met  them,  and  by  entreaties  and  presents  prevailed  on 
them  to  proceed  no  further.  Some  of  them  on  their  return 
plundered  the  temple  of  Venus  Urania  at  Ascalon,  and  were 
punished  by  the  infliction  of  a  disease4,  which,  according  to  Hero- 

1  Her.  2,  4.  Schol.  Apoll.  Rhod.  4,  262.  Aristoph.  Nub.  897.  u  fidpc  <ri 
Kdl  Kpoviuw  Sgt.ii>  icai  0 1  k  k  c  a  i  X  n  v  t .  The  Scholiast  there  refers  the  story 
(o  Sesonchosis,  meaning  apparently  Sesostris,  the  world-conqueror.  (See 
p.  180  of  this  vol.) 

a  Her.  1,  104.  8  Athen.  8,  p.  345. 

*  The  existence  of  a  peculiar  flf?.v«ia  i/ofiros  among  the  Scythians  is  certain, 
as  it  is  described  by  Hippocrates  de  Aer.  ifrc.  p.  293.    Evvovxiat  y'novrm,  * 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


333 


dolus,  accompanied  them  to  their  native  land,  and  even  cleaved 
to  their  descendants  in  his  own  time.  The  invasion  of  the  Scy- 
thians took  place  in  634  b.c.  ;  their  occupation  of  Palestine 
(according  to  Eusebius)  in  632  ;  their  march  towards  Egypt  some- 
where about  630  b.c.  They  must  have  passed  Azotus  on  their 
way,  and  interrupted  the  siege  of  that  place.  The  town  of  Beth- 
shan,  in  the  north  of  Palestine,  is  said  to  have  received  the  name 
of  Scythopolis1  from  their  having  made  it  their  head-quarters 
during  their  occupation  of  the  country.  The  prophet  Zephaniah 
(i.  14),  who  lived  in  the  reign  of  Josiah  (630  b.c),  appears  to 
describe  them  under  the  appellation  of  "  a  people  without  fear2." 
The  desolation  which  they  would  cause  throughout  Palestine  is 
set  forth  by  the  prophet  in  very  forcible  language3 : — 

"  That  day  is  a  day  of  wrath ; 
A  day  of  distress  and  of  anguish ; 
A  day  of  desolation  and  of  destruction  ; 
A  day  of  darkness  and  of  gloom  ; 
A  day  of  clouds  and  of  thick  darkness  ; 
A  d&y  of  the  trumpet  and  of  shouting 
Against  the  fenced  cities  and  against  the  high  towers." 

The  invasion  of  the  cities  of  the  Philistines  is  specifically  men- 
tioned : — 

"Surely  Gaza  shall  be  forsaken  and  Ascalon  a  desolation  ; 
Ashdod  shall  be  driveu  out  at  noonday  and  Ekron  shall  be  rooted  up. 

yvvaiiceia  ipyagovrai  Kal  o)j  al  ;  vvhTkes  AiaMyTurai  re  fcpotcdS,  kuXcvuthi  re  ol  roioiroi 

avavlpnU.  They  were  nevertheless  looked  on  with  reverence,  because  their 
disease  was  referred  to  the  immediate  power  of  the  divinity.  It  appears 
to  have  been  a  species  of  imbecility  allied  to  cretinism. 

1  Judges  i.  27,  in  the  Septuagint    BaiOo-dv  %  fan  T,<vOwv  wdXtj 

8  Literally,  "the  people  that  turns  not  pale,"  C]DD5  fcO  "H^tT 

•  'E»i  ftiv  vvv  6ktu>  uai  u<uat  erca  r)p^nv  rijj  'Avitk  ol  Srfflbi  xai  ra  itavra  ffi 
ir6  »£  vftpios  Kal  t'i)iywpitis  fc<un*ra   r)v'   rtp-agov  wtptikaivovrti  tovto  S't  l%otcv 

Iwro*.    (Herod.  1,  106.) 


334 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


The  sea-coast  shall  be  dwellings  for  shepherds  and  folds  for  flocks." 
(v.  6,  6.) 

The  prophet  anticipates  that  the  flood  of  invasion  would  roll 
forward  even  to  Ethiopia  (v.  12),  as  no  doubt  it  would  have  done, 
but  for  the  gifts  and  supplications  by  which  Psaminitichus  induced 
the  Scythians  to  return.  Yet  it  is  intimated  also  that  their  suc- 
cess should  be  short-lived  and  be  followed  by  a  great  reverse : — 

"  Gather  yourselves  together  and  assemble,  0  nation  that  feareth  not ; 
Before  the  decree  bring  forth,  that  your  day  pass  away  as  chaff; 
Before  the  hot  anger  of  Jehovah  come  upon  you."    (ii.  1.) 

This  also  corresponds  with  history.  The  Scythians  were  enervated 
by  a  residence  in  a  southern  climate,  and  overpowered  by  Cyaxares 
and  the  Medes.  The  capture  of  Nineveh,  foretold  by  the  prophet 
(Zeph.  ii.  13),  speedily  followed  the  recovery  of  Median  ascen- 
dency1. A  few  years  later  the  northern  nomad  tribes2  appear  to 
have  meditated  another  and  combined  invasion  of  the  South,  in 
which  they  were  to  have  been  joined  by  Persia,  Ethiopia  and 
Libya8 ;  its  defeat  was  foretold,  but  from  some  cause  which  history 
lias  not  explained,  it  never  took  place.  The  prophecy  stands 
.insulated  among  the  oracles  of  Ezekiel,  and  may  have  been  delivered 
when  the  great  power  of  Nebuchadnezzar  had  alarmed  the  neigh- 
boring nations  both  north  and  south. 

The  lists  represent  Psammitichus  as  reigning  fifty-four  years, 
and  Herodotus  tigrees  with  them  :  among  the  papyri  of  Turin, 

1  Herod.  1,  106. 

2  Ezek.  xxxviii.  "  Gog,  of  the  land  of  Magog,  Rhos"  (the  nations  dwell- 
in  -  on  the  Araxes),  " Mesech  and  Tubal"  (the  Moschi  and  Tibareni), 
"  Gomer"  (the  Cimmerians),  "Togarmah"  (the  Armenians). 

*  Ez.  xxxviii.  5.  xxxix.  1.  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  Behold  I  am  against 
thee,  0  Gog,  the  chief  prince  of  Meshecli  and  Tubal,  and  I  will  turn  thee 
back  and  leave  but  the  sixth  part  of  thee." 


THE   TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


335 


Lepsius  has  found  the  date  of  his  forty-fifth  year1.  lie  was  suc- 
ceeded (616  b.c)  by  his  son  Neco  or  NECHAO,the  Pharaoh  Necho  of 
the  Second  Book  of  Kings.  His  first  undertakings,  according  to 
Herodotus,  were  peaceful.  To  construct  a  canal  which  should  join 
the  Nile  with  the  Red  Sea,  and  save  the  troublesome  transport  by 
land  across  the  Desert,  was  a  project  which  would  naturally  suggest 
itself  to  the  mind  of  a  king  of  Egypt,  where  stupendous  works  of 
the  same  kind  existed  in  the  Fyoum  and  the  Delta".  We  have 
noticed  the  tradition  that  it  had  been  begun  by  Sesostris9.  During 
the  French  occupation  of  Egypt  this  district  was  carefully  explored 
and  the  ancient  line  of  the  canal  traced.  It  went  off  from  the 
Nile  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  modern  town  of  Belbeis,  sup- 
posed to  represent  the  Bubastis  Agria  of  the  Greeks*,  and  ran 
eastward  through  a  natural  valley,  the  Goshen  of  Jewish  history, 
till  it  reached  the  Bitter  Lakes,  which  derive  their  quality  from  the 
saline  impregnations  of  the  Desert.  The  influx  of  the  water  of  the 
Nile  rendered  them  sweet,  and  they  abounded  in  fish  and  aquatic 
birds5.  Issuing  from  these  it  pursued  a  southerly  course  to  Suez. 
Towards  the  western  end  its  traces  are  very  visible,  notwithstand- 
ing the  deposit  of  the  Nile,  which  has  partly  filled  it  up ;  towards 
the  East,  where  the  influence  of  the  Desert  is  more  powerful,  it  has 
nearly  disappeared.  At  the  junction  of  the  Red  Sea,  remains  of 
masonry  are  visible,  but  they  are  probably  no  older  than  the  time 
of  Ptolemy  II.  Neco  is  said  to  have  sacrificed  the  lives  of  120,000 
men6  in  the  attempt  to  excavate  this  canal,  which  after  all  lie  left- 
imperfect,  being  warned,  it  is  said,  by  an  oracle,  that  he  was  only 

1  Bun  sen,  JSgyptens  Stella,  B.  3,  p.  144. 

'  Diodorus  (1,  68)  omits  the  reigns  of  Neco  and  Psammis,  and  passes 
(vvtcoqv  TtTTupai  ycveais)  to  that  of  Apries.  He  mentions  Neco,  h«wevtt; 
incidentally  (1,  33)  as  the  author  of  the  canal. 

•  See  page  245  of  this  vol. 

•  Ohampollion,  L'Egypte  sous  lee  Pharaons,  2,  56. 

•  Strabo,  17,  p  804.  9  Her.  2,  153. 


336 


UI8TORY   OF  EGYPT. 


iaboring  beforehand  for  the  benefit  of  the  barbarian1.  Darius 

resumed  the  work,  and  according  to  the  description  of  Herodotus, 
made  it  of  sufficient  width  to  admit  two  triremes  rowed  abreast2. 
His  language  leaves  no  doubt  that  in  his  time  it  reached  the  sea3, 
though  Diodorus4  sa)Ts  that  Darius  left  it  unfinished,  because  he 
was  informed  that  it  would  inundate  Egypt  with  the  water  of  the 
Red  Sea.  Since  the  French  occupation  of  Egypt  it  has  been  taken 
for  granted,  on  the  authority  of  their  engineers,  that  the  average 
height  of  the  sea  at  Suez  exceeds  by  twenty-seven  feet  that  of  the 
Mediterranean.  Subsequent  levellings  have  thrown  doubt  on  this 
fact,  which  contradicts  the  laws  of  hydrostatics.  The  fear  seems 
to  have  been,  that  the  water  of  the  canal  and  the  Bitter  Lakes, 
which  the  Nile  had  freshened,  should  be  made  salt  by  the  tides6 
Ptolemy  completed  the  canal  and  constructed  a  flood-gate,  which 
excluded  the  sea-water,  except  during  the  time  of  the  passage  of  a 
vessel0.  The  object  of  Neco  in  attempting  to  establish  a  communi- 
cation with  the  Red  Sea,  was  to  facilitate  his  design  of  creating  a 
fleet  there :  and  this  he  accomplished,  although  his  canal  was 
never  completed.  His  alliance  with  the  Phoenicians,  who  were  at 
this  time  at  the  height  of  their  naval  power,  would  furnish  him 
with  materials  for  ship-building,  which  being  brought  up  the  Nile, 
and  along  the  canal,  as  far  as  it  was  finished,  might  then  be  trans- 
ported to  the  sea.  The  docks  which  he  constructed  for  the  recep- 
tion of  his  ships  were  still  to  be  seen  in  the  days  of  Herodotus. 

1  Herodotus  (4,  42)  repeats  his  assertion  of  Neco's  having  left  the  canal 
unfinished  ;  a  similar  motive  is  said  to  have  rendered  Mohammed  AH 
averse  from  the  re-establishment  of  this  canal.  The  Caliphs  had  closed  it 
for  this  reason. 

2  Pliny,  describing  it  after  its  completion  by  Ptolemj  says  100  feet  wide, 
40  deep  (X.  II.  6,  33).    The  whole  length  is  about  90  miles. 

*  'Ras^ci  tg  riiv  'KpvOpfiv  diXnaaav  (2,  158).  *  1,  38. 

c  The  rise  of  the  tide  at  Sue*  is  six  or  seven  feet.  Report  on  Steam  Navi- 
gation to  India,  App.  p.  23  6  Diod.  1,  33. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


337 


From  this  point  began  the  voyage  which,  at  the  command  of  Neco, 
the  Phoenicians  undertook  for  the  circumnavigation  of  Africa. 
Herodotus  gives  the  following  account  of  it1  : 

1 '  I  am  astonished  at  those  who  divided  and  fixed  the  boundaries 
of  Libya,  Asia  and  Europe,  seeing  they  differ  in  no  small  degree. 
For  Europe  stretches  in  length  far  beyond  them  both,  and  as  to 
yidth  it  does  not  appear  to  deserve  a  comparison2.  For  as  to  Libya 
it  shows  itself  to  be  circumnavigable,  except  where  it  borders  on 
Asia  ;  this  was  first  proved,  as  far  as  I  know,  by  Neco,  king  of 
Egypt.  When  he  gave  up  excavating  the  canal  that  runs  from  the 
Nile  to  the  Arabian  Gulf,  he  sent  out  some  Phoenicians  in  ships, 
giving  them  orders  on  their  way  back  to  sail  through  the  Pillars 
of  Hercules  into  the  Northern  Sea,  and  thus  return  to  Egypt. 
Setting  out  then  from  the  Red  Sea, they  sailed  on  the  Southern  Sea. 
As  often  as  autumn  returned  they  landed  and  sowed  the  ground 
in  the  part  of  Libya  where  they  chanced  to  be,  and  awaited  the 
harvest  ;  and  then  sailed  again  when  they  had  reaped  it.  So  two 
years  having  elapsed,in  the  third, doubling  the  PiJlars  of  Hercules, 
they  came  back  to  Egypt.  And  they  said,  what  to  me  is  not 
credible,  but  may  be  to  some  one  else,  that  in  sailing  round  Libya 
they  had  the  sun  on  the  right  hand.  In  this  way  Libya  was  first 
known.  The- Carthaginians  are  the  next  who  affirm  it  \to  be  cir- 
cumnavigable] ;  for  Sataspes,  the  son  of  Teaspis,  did  not  circum- 
navigate Libya,  though  sent  out  for  this  very  purpose,  but  turned 
back,  fearing  the  length  and  the  dreariness  of  the  navigation." 

It  is  remarkable  that  Herodotus  does  not  express  the  smallest 
doubt  respecting  the  reality  of  this  circumnavigation  ;  that  the 

1  4,  42. 

3  Herodotus  reckoned  as  a  prolongation  of  Europe  what  we  call  Northern 
Asia,  and  as  it  had  never  been  circumnavigated,  its  breadth  from  south  to 
north  was  unknown,  but  was  evidently  supposed  by  him  to  surpass  that  of 
Asia,  as  he  was  not  aware  of  the  great  extension  of  the  peninsula  of  India. 
See  3,  45. 

vol.  II.  1§ 


338 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Carthaginians  confirmed  the  testimony  of  the  Phoenicians,  all 
whose  naval  and  geographical  knowledge  they  would  share  ;  and 
that  in  the  age  of  Xerxes,  Setaspes  was  sent  out,  not  to  try  if 
Africa  could  be  circumnavigated,  but  to  perform  its  circumnaviga- 
tion, as  an  admitted  possibility.  Whether  the  Ophir  of  the  Book 
of  Kings  were  a  port  in  India,  or  Sofala  on  the  S.  E.  coast  of 
Africa, it  is  evident  that  the  ships  of  the  Phoenicians  had  for  several 
centuries  been  accustomed  to  distant  voyages — voyages  even  of 
three  years'  duration,  according  to  the  Book  of  Chronicles1.  Their 
ships  were  large,  and  so  arranged  internally  as  to  give  the  greatest 
stowage  in  the  smallest  space2.  Major  Rennell's  researches  have 
shown,  that  the  circumnavigation  might  be  much  more  easily 
accomplished  from  the  eastern  side  of  Africa  than  the  western3, 
and  that  consequently  the  failure  of  Setaspes,  who  tried  it  from  the 
west,  and  the  slow  progress  of  the  Portuguese  in  reaching  the 
Cape,  afford  no  ground  for  calling  in  question  the  truth  of  Hero- 
dotus' account.  The  time  of  three  years,  however,  must  appear 
inadequate,  when  we  consider  that  Scylax  occupied  two  years  and 
ten  months  in  his  voyage  from  Caspatyrus  on  the  Indus  to  Suez4. 

It  may  appear  extraordinary,  that  if  the  fact  that  Africa  was  a 
peninsula  had  once  been  ascertained,  it  should  have  been  virtually 
denied  by  Plato5,  and  expressly  by  Ephorus6,  and  doubted  by 

1  2  Chron.  ix.  21,  which  may  be  admitted  as  an  evidence  for  the  age  in 
which  this  book  was  written,  if  not  for  the  age  of  Solomon. 

2  TlAELOTa  cuevrj  tv  fitKpoTuTO)  ayyeiu  6Lanexupicu.eva  eQeaaa/uqv.  Xen. 
tEcon.  c.  8,  speaking  of  the  Phoenician  vessels  that  resorted  to  the  Piraeus. 

3  Geog.  of  Herod.  Sect.  xxiv.  4  Her.  4,  44. 

5  In  the  age  of  Plato,  the  Atlantic  was  believed  to  be  incapable  of  navi- 
gation, owing  to  the  mud  produced  by  the  sunk  island  Atlantis.  (Tim.  §  6, 
iii.  25.)  If  the  Atlantic  was  not  navigable,  Africa  of  course  could  not  be 
circumnavigable. 

6  Plin.  X.  H.  6,  31.  Ephorus  auctor  est  a  Rubro  mari  navigantes  in  insu- 
lam  Cernen  non  posse  provehi. 


THE  TWENTY- SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


339 


Poly biiis1,  who  had  himself  visited  the  western  coast,  in  a  fleet 
fitted  out  to  explore  the  traces  of  the  Carthaginian  settlements. 
The  art  of  navigation,  however,  had  greatly  declined  among  the 
nations  bordering  on  the  Mediterranean,  between  the  times  of 
Ephorus  and  Polybius,and  that  in  which  Phoenicia  flourished  :  the 
voyages  made  from  Egypt  under  the  Ptolemies  were  directed  in 
the  profitable  channel  of  Indian  commerce.  He  might  therefore 
well  speak  of  that  as  doubtful,  of  which  the  evidence  was  four  cen- 
turies and  a  half  old,  and  which  had  not  been  confirmed  by  subse- 
quent voyages.  Strabo  appears  to  have  entertained  no  doubt  that 
Africa  terminated  in  a  southern  cape,  though  he  conceived  most 
erroneously  of  its  form,  believing  the  eastern  coast  to  form  a  right 
angle  with  the  northern,  and  the  western  to  be  the  hypothenuse  of 
the  triangle2.  He  did  not,  however,  believe  in  the  circumnaviga- 
tion. In  speaking  of  the  eastern  coast  of  Africa,  he  says  that 
no  one  had  advanced  more  than  5000  stadia  beyond  the  entrance  of 
the  Red  Sea3 ;  and, having  perhaps  Ephorus  in  his  mind,  that  those 
who  had  coasted  Libya  where  it  is  washed  by  the  ocean,  whether 
they  had  set  out  from  the  Pillars  or  from  the  Red  Sea,  had  turned 
back  after  proceeding  a  certain  distance,  whence  many  thought  that 
an  isthmus  interposed*.  Such  an  isthmus  Ptolemy  lays  down, 
stretching  away  from  the  coast  of  Africa  south  of  the  Equator,  to 
the  eastern  verge  of  the  world.  It  is  impossible  to  arrive  at  any 
decisive  conclusion  respecting  this  celebrated  voyage5,  the  reality 

1  OvdeiS  I  %zi  /.iyeiv  d-petcuS,  Icjf  ruv  /ca5'  r/udS  Kaipuv,  rrorepov  fjTreipuS 
iari  Kara  rd  ovvextS  rd  rrpoS  rfjv  fiear/fiSpiau  f/  Ba?MTrij  rrepiexerai.  (3,  38. 
Plin.  N.  H.  5,  I.) 

2  17,  p.  825.  3  16,  p.  769,  from  Eratosthenes.  4  Strabo,  1,  p.  32. 
•The  Phoenicians  alleged  that  in  their  voyage  round  Africa  they  had  the 

sun  on  their  right  hand,  that  is  in  the  North  (Plut.  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  363),  which 
only  proves  at  most  that  they  had  passed  the  Equator.  Long  indeed  before 
reaching  the  Equator,  navigators,  whose  home  was  to  the  North  of  the 
tropic  of  Cancer,  must  have  been  struck  with  seeing  the  sun  in  the  summer 
far  to  the  north  of  them  at  noon. 


340 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


of  which  rests  on  the  strong  conviction  of  Herodotus,  an  author,  in 
such  matters  at  least,  not  prone  to  credulity  ;  and  as  at  all  events 
it  was  not  repeated,  if  real  it  had  no  influence,  like  the  voyages  of 
De  Gama  and  Columbus,  on  the  subsequent  history  of  the  world. 

l'  When  Neco  abandoned  his  plan  of  joining  the  Nile  and  the 
Red  Sea  by  a  canal,  he  engaged,"  says  Herodotus,  "  in  military 
expeditions,  and  encountering  the  Syrians  with  a  land  force,  he 
conquered  them  at  Magdolus,  and  after  the  battle  took  Cadytis, 
which  is  a  large  city  of  Syria1. "  Since  the  death  of  Sennacherib, 
Assyria  and  Babylon  had  existed  as  two  independent  kingdoms,  of 
which  Assyria  was  manifestly  on  the  decline,  while  Babylon  was  in 
the  ascendant.  The  fate  of  Assyria,  threatened  by  the  Medes,  had 
been  delayed  by  the  invasion  of  the  Scythians,  who  had  still  kept 
possession  of  their  conquests  in  Asia,  in  the  early  part  of  the  reign 
of  Neco.  On  their  expulsion  (608  b.c.)  Cyaxares  resumed  his 
enterprise  against  Nineveh;  and  about  the  same  time  Neco  left  this 
kingdom  to  march  to  the  Euphrates2.  He  seems  to  have  employed 
his  fleet  on  the  Mediterranean  to  transport  his  army  to  some  harbor 
in  the  north  of  Palestine,  and  was  thence  proceeding  inland 
towards  Carchemish.  Josiah,  who  was  king  of  Judah,  and  held 
also  the  ancient  territories  of  Israel3,  induced  perhaps  by  the  Assy- 
rians, endeavored  to  stop  the  march  of  Neco,  with  the  whole  force 
of  his  kingdom.  He  would  gladly  have  passed  on  to  the  Euphra- 
tes unmolested,  and  earnestly  entreated  Josiah  to  abstain  from 
interrupting  him  ;  but  Josiah  was  not  to  be  dissuaded,  and  they 
met  in  battle  at  Megiddo4  in  the  plain  of  Esdraelon  near  the  foot 

1  2,  159. 

2  2  Kings  xxiii.  29.  "  In  the  days  of  Josiah,  Pharaoh  Necho,  king  of 
Egypt,  went  up  against  the  king  of  Assyria  to  the  river  Euphrates."  Jose- 
phus  says  (Ant.  10,  5),  "  against  the  Medes  and  Babylonians,  who  had  over- 
thrown the  power  of  Assyria." 

3  2  Kings  xxiii.  19.    2  Chron.  xxxiv.  6. 

4  2  v  p  u  la  i  6  NevcwS  av/ipaldv  kv  Muydo/uj  tviKTjae  (Her.  2,  159).  Aprd 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


341 


of  Carmel1.  Josiah  had  disguised  himself  before  the  battle2,  that 
the  royal  insignia  might  not  make  him  a  mark  for  the  enemy  ; 
but  an  arrow  reached  him  ;  he  was  brought  back  to  J erusalem  and 
died  there.  This  battle  delayed  the  march  of  Neco  ;  he  took  pos- 
session of  Jerusalem,  the  Cadytis  of  Herodotus3,  and  advanced  as 
far  as  Riblah  in  Hamath  on  his  way  to  the  Euphrates.  The  people 
of  Judaea,  however,  made  Jehoahaz,  the  son  of  Josiah, king.  Neco 
sent  for  him  to  Hamath,  deposed  and  imprisoned  him  after  he  had 
reigned  three  months,  and  sent  him  to  Egypt,  where  he  ended  his 
days4.  At  the  same  time  he  made  his  younger  brother  Eliakim 
king,  changed  his  name  to  Jehoiakim,  and  imposed  a  tribute  of  a 
hundred  talents  of  silver  and  a  talent  of  gold  upon  the  land3. 
Whether  Neco  himself  returned  to  Egypt,  or  remained  in  Palestine 
to  secure  his  power  there, we  are  not  informed  ;  but  four  years  later 
he  marched  to  the  Euphrates  with  an  army,  comprehending, accord- 
ing to  the  prophet  Jeremiah6,  Ethiopians  and  Libyans  as  well  as 
Egyptians7.  Carchemish,  or  Circesium,  where  the  battle  took  place 

-rravdg  (prjoi  tovS  'lovdaiovg  ovo/zd&oQai  'Ep  fiiovQ.  (Euseb.  Praep.  Ev.  9, 
18.)    This  is  probably  rniFT^EJHtf  -Arami  Jehudeh,  Syrians  of  Judah. 

Deut.  xxvi.  5,  "  A  Syrian  ready  to  perish  was  my  father."    Her.  2,  104. 
1  Reland,  Palaest.  893.  2  2  Chron.  xxxv.  22. 

3  The  name  seems  to  mean  "the  Holy"  city.  From  a  comparison  of  the 
passages  in  Herodotus,  2,  159  ;  3,  5,  it  appears  that  no  other  place  than 
Jerusalem  can  be  meant.  Herodotus  would  not  have  compared  Gaza  or 
Kadesh-Barnea  with  Sardis.  Jerusalem  had  been  known  as  the  seat  of  a 
magnificent  temple  for  several  centuries,  and  had  enjoyed  a  reputation  for 
sanctity  in  much  earlier  times.    See  Gen.  xiv.  18. 

4  He  is  the  same  who,  in  Jer.  xxii.  11,  is  called  Shallum,  and  of  whom  the 
prophet  declares  that  he  should  never  return  to  his  own  land.  Comp. 
Ezek.  xix.  4. 

5  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  3.  6  Jer.  xlvi. 

7  Such  was  the  tediousness  of  ancient  sieges,  that  he  might  have  been 
engaged  in  operations  before  Circesium  during  the  interval,  but  the  lan- 
guage of  the  prophet  seems  to  indicate  a  recent  invasion.    Jer.  xlvi.  8  : — 


342 


HISTORY  OP  EGYPT. 


in  which  he  was  defeated  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  stood  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  Euphrates,  in  the  angle,  or  as  the  ancients  said,  the 
island,  formed  by  its  confluence  with  the  Chaboras,  which  gathers 
the  waters  of  northern  Mesopotamia  and  discharges  them  into  the 
Euphrates  nearly  in  X.  lat.  35°.  It  lies  in  the  line  of  march  of  an 
army  proceeding  from  the  north  of  Palestine  to  northern  Mesopo- 
tamia, and  Neco  was  on  his  march  to  occupy  it,  when  intercepted 
by  Josiah1.  If  Nineveh  still  held  out  against  the  forces  of  Cyax- 
ares  and  the  Babylonians,  the  object  of  Neco's  march  might  be  to 
relieve  that  city  ;  if,  as  seems  more  probable,  it  had  already 
fallen2,  he  may  have  deemed  it  politic  to  anticipate  the  hostilities 
which  he  could  not  but  foresee,  on  the  part  of  the  power  which 
had  thus  become  predominant  in  Asia.  Carchemish  was  an 
important  military  position.  The  Euphrates,  in  this  part  of  its 
course,  is  fordable  both  above  and  below  the  influx  of  the  Cha- 
boras3, and  by  the  possession  of  Carchemish  its  passage  might  be 
impeded.  When  Diocletian  was  strengthening  the  frontier  posts 
of  the  Empire  in  the  East,  against  the  inroads  of  the  Parthians 
into  Syria,  he  erected  a  strong  fortress  at  Carchemish,  which  Pro- 
copius  calls  the  most  remote  garrison  of  the  Romans4.    In  the 

*  Egypt  riseth  up  like  a  flood, 

And  his  waters  are  moved  like  the  rivers ; 
And  he  saith,  I  will  go  up  and  cover  the  earth ; 
I  will  destroy  the  city  and  the  inhabitants  thereof." 

1  2  Chron.  xxxv.  20. 

2  The  capture  of  Nineveh  is  usually  placed,  but  not  on  very  certain 
grounds,  in  606  B.C. ;  the  first  year  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  which  was  that  of 
the  battle  of  Carchemish  (Jer.  xlvi.  1),  on  the  authority  of  Ptolemy's  Canon, 
in  604. 

3  See  Col.  Chesney's  Map  in  Pari.  Report  on  Steam  Navigation  to  India. 

4  Cercusium  munimentum  tutissimum  et  fabre  politum :  cujus  mcenia 
Abora  et  Euphrates  ambiunt  flumina,  velut  spatium  insulare  fingentes. 
Quod  Diocletianus  exiguum  antehac  et  suspectum  muris  turribusque  circum- 
dedit  celsis.    (Ammian.  Marc.  23,  5.) 


THE  TWENTY- SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


343 


times  of  Grecian  and  Roman  power  it  appears  to  have  been  a  place 
of  little  strength,  but  it  would  be  otherwise  when  Egypt  and  Assy- 
ria contended  on  the  Euphrates.  This  is  implied  in  the  boast  of 
the  king  of  Assyria  (Is.  x.  9),  "  Is  not  Calno  as  Carchemish — is 
not  Samaria  as  Damascus  ?"  and  the  name  itself  indicates  the  ex- 
istence of  a  fortification1. 

We  have  no  further  account  of  the  battle  of  Carchemish  than 
that  of  the  prophet,  that  Nebuchadnezzar.'4  smote  the  army  of 
Neco  ;"  Herodotus  makes  no  mention  of  it.  It  is  evident,  how- 
ever, that  its  effect  was  to  strip  Neco  of  nearly  the  whole  of  his 
Asiatic  possessions.  "  The  king  of  Egypt  came  not  again  any 
more  out  of  his  land  ;  for  the  king  of  Babylon  had  taken  from  the 
river  of  Egypt  unto  the  river  Euphrates  all  that  pertained  to  the 
king  of  Egypt2. "  An  immediate  invasion  by  Nebuchadnezzar 
seemed  impending  over  Egypt  as  the  result  of  this  defeat3.  Accord- 
ing to  Berosus4,  Neco  himself,  whom  he  calls  the  revolted  satrap 
of  Egypt  and  Syria,  fell  into  the  hands  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  who 
was  not  at  this  time  king  of  Babylon,  but  viceroy  of  his  father 
Nabopolassar.  But  it  would  neither  accord  with  Scriptural  nor 
Egyptian  history  to  suppose  that  Babylon  had  previously  to  this 
time  conquered  Egypt  and  reduced  its  king  to  the  condition  of  a 
satrap.  Doubtless  Neco  returned  to  his  kingdom  as  Herodotus 
implies.  It  marks  the  ascendency  of  Greek  ideas,  that  on  his 
return  from  Syria,  either  now  or  after  the  battle  of  Megiddo,  he 
dedicated  the  dress  which  he  had  worn  to  Apollo  of  Branchida3,  a 
celebrated  oracle  in  the  territory  of  his  Milesian  allies5.  Herodotus 

1  Karaka  in  Syriac  is  a  castle.    See  Cleric,  ad  2  Chron.  35. 
*  2  Kings  xxiv.  1. 

3  That  Jer.  xlvi.  13  belongs  to  this  time,  not  to  the  period  following  the 
captivity  of  Zedekiah,  is  evident  from  v.  15,  16,  which  speaks  of  a  recent 
great  defeat. 

4  Joseph,  contra  Apion.  1,19. 

8  Herod.  2,  159.    Strabo,  634.    A  lion  is  still  found,  among  the  ruins  of 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


says,  he  reigned  sixteen  years  ;  the  lists  only  six,  a  term  evidently 
too  short  for  the  undertakings  recorded  of  him.  That  the  numbei 
in  Herodotus  is  correct  is  proved  by  a  remarkable  monument  in 
the  Museum  at  Florence,  published  by  Rosellini1.  It  records  that 
Psammitichus,  a  priest  of  Sokari,  was  born  on  the  first  of  the 
_  month  PaoiiP,  in  the  reign  of  Neco — that  he  lived  seventy-one 
years,  four  months,  six  days,  and  died  on  the  sixth  day  of  the 
month  Paopi3,  in  the  thirty-fifth  year  of  Amasis.  If  we  allow 
that  the  authors  of  the  lists  in  extracting  from  Manetho  have 
given  us  round  numbers,  instead  of  the  exact  sum  in  months  and 
days  which  they  found  in  the  original,  the  correspondence  will 
be  complete4. 

Neco  was  succeeded  (600  b.c.)  by  his  son  Psammitichus  II., 
whom  Herodotus  calls  Psammis.  The  record  of  Manetho  in  Af  ri- 
canus  is  evidently  imperfect  ;  Psammuthis  is  called  the  Second, 
though  no  other  of  the  name  has  been  mentioned,  and  therefore 
we  should  read,  with  the  aid  of  Eusebius,  "  Psammuthis,  who  is 
also  Psammitichus  the  Second. ' '   His  phonetic  name  is  spelt  with 

Palet  (the  ancient  Miletus),  which  is  said  to  be  of  Egyptian  style,  and  may 
be  the  record  of  the  connexion  between  Miletus  and  Egypt.  (Chandler's 
Travels,  p.  1*70.    Miiller's  Dorier,  1,  225.) 

1  Mon.  Stor.  2,  151;  more  accurately  4,  197. 

2  The  tenth  month  of  the  Egyptian  year.    See  vol.  i.  p.  277. 

3  The  second  month. 

4  The  reckoning  will  stand  thus,  supposing  Neco  to  have  reigned  sixteen 
years,  and  the  priest  to  have  been  born  when  he  had  reigned  2  years 
9  months  and  1  day  : — 

Residue  of  his  reign  13  years  3  months. 

Psammis  or  Psammitichtfs  II.  .    .     6  years. 

Apries  19  years. 

Amasis,  to  the  death  of  the  priest    34  years  1  month  6  days. 

72  years  4  months  6  days. 
The  excess  of  one  year  is  accounted  for  by  Bunsen  (B.  3,  p.  143)  by  the 
supposition  that  the  fractions  of  years  have  been  reckoned  as  full  years. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY.  345 

precisely  the  same  characters  as  those  of  his  grandfather,  but  the 
titular  shield  has  a  difference  in  the  middle  character.  No  public 
building  remains  erected  by  him,  nor  is  any  large  work  of  art 
extant  of  his  reign.  Fragments  of  sculpture,  however,  bearing  his 
name,  exist  in  the  citadel  at  Cairo,  and  under  the  base  of  the 
column  called  Pompey's  Pillar  at  Alexandria.  The  former  of 
these  appears  to  have  made  a  part  of  some  erection  in  honor  of  the 
god  Ptah  at  Memphis  ;  the  latter  probably  belonged  to  some 
building  at  Sais.  His  titular  shield  is  also  found  on  the  obelisk 
of  the  Piazza  Minerva  at  Rome,  which  was  executed  under  his  son 
and  successor  Apries1.  The  British  Museum  contains  a  portion  of 
an  intercolumnial  plinth  inscribed  with  his  name  and  titular 
shield,  in  which  he  appears  offering  to  the  gods,  who  give  him  all 
power  and  victory,  and  put  all  lands  under  his  sandals2.  He  had 
a  daughter,  whose  name  was  Nitocris,  the  same  as  that  of  the 
queen  of  Psammitichus  the  First,  and  derived  from  Neith,  the 
tutelary  goddess  of  Sais. 

Herodotus  mentions  a  single  anecdote  of  the  reign  of  Psammis, 
which  is  not  otherwise  important  than  as  indicating  the  reputation 
which  Egypt  enjoyed  among  the  Greeks  for  wisdom  and  equity. 
The  inhabitants  of  Elis,  to  whom  the  administration  of  the  Olym- 
pic games  belonged,  were  accustomed  to  consult  the  oracle  of 
Jupiter  at  Ammonium  :  inscriptions  remained  there  recording  the 
names  of  the  delegates  and  the  answers  which  thev  had  received^ 
and  libations  were  offered  at  Elis  to  the  Ammonian  gods,  Jupiter 
and  Juno,  and  Mercury  who  presided  over  games3.  Exercising 
the  delicate  function  of  judges  between  Greek  competitors,  thev 
would  naturally  seek  to  arm  themselves  with  the  authority  which 
this  ancient  and  venerated  oracle  conferred.    To  ascend  the  Nile 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4,  198.    2,  138. 

8  Birch,  Gall,  of  Brit.  Mus.  P.  2,  p.  100. 

*  Pausan.  Eliaca,  5,  15.    Mercury  was  surnamcl  Tlapapfiuv. 


346 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


to  Terenuthis  on  the  Canopic  branch  below  Memphis  and  cross 
the  valley  of  the  Natron  Lakes,  was  an  easier  way  of  reaching 
Ammonium  than  from  the  sea-coast,  provided  Ervpt  were 
friendly1.  In  going  or  returning,  the  delegates  from  Elis  had  an 
audience  of  Psammitichus,  and  boasted  to  him  of  the  perfect 
equity  with  which  they  made  their  decisions.  If  we  may  believe 
Herodotus,  they  had  come  for  the  sole  purpose  of  inquiring  if  the 
Egyptians,  the  wisest  of  men,  could  devise  any  better  method  of 
securing  impartiality.  The  king  summoned  those  who  were 
reputed  wisest  among  them,  and  they  having  heard  their  state- 
ment, asked  if  Eleans  were  allowed  to  contend  in  the  games  as 
well  as  other  Greeks.  The  Eleans  replied  that  they  were.  Then 
said  the  Egyptians,  ' '  Your  method  is  entirely  unjust  ;  it  is  impos- 
sible that  you  should  not  be  biassed  in  favor  of  one  of  your  own 
people  ;  and  if  you  have  really  come  to  Egypt  desirous  of  attain- 
ing to  perfect  equity,  yon  must  henceforth  exclude  every  Elean 
from  the  contest."  Diodorus  with  more  probability  refers  the 
story  to  the  reign  of  Amasis,  and  attributes  the  advice  (which  was 
not  followed)  to  the  king  himself2. 

Towards  the  end  of  his  reign,  Psammitichus  II.  made  an  expe- 
dition into  Ethopia,  of  which  Herodotus3  does  not  mention  either 
the  purpose  or  the  result.  His  shield  is  found  at  the  island  of 
Snem,  near  the  Cataracts  of  Syene.  The  Greek  inscription  on  the 
statue  of  Aboosimbel,  which  mentions  a  visit  of  Psammitichus  to 
Elephantine,  may  be  of  this  date.    It  is  in  the  Doric  dialect4, 

1  Alexander  went  by  Parnetonium  and  the  coast,  but  found  the  difficulties 
so  great  that  he  returned  by  the  Natron  Lakes.  Arrian,  3,  4.  See  also 
Minutoli's  Travels. 

2  Diod.  1,  95.  3  2,  161. 

4  The  inscription  is  as  follows: — Baoueos  cMovtoc  er  FAetyavTivav  i'oyza- 
tixo  ravTa  eyocrpav  tol  nvv  ^a^arixoL  toi  QsokXoc;  eirlieov  rjWov  Kep/tioc 
KCtdoirtpOev  n  o  (etS  ov)  Tnra/j.rn;  avnj-  aXoyXooog  (a/iAoyXuooos)  ***** 
AiyvTTTios  <h  Afiaau  eypacDe  Aa//£ap*oS  Xfioipixoc  nai  UeXetyoc  Ov&afio. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


347 


which  we  should  hardly  expect  to  be  in  use  among  the  Ionian 
mercenaries  of  the  first  Psammitichus  ;  but  as  Egypt  had  now 
been  fully  opened  to  the  Greeks  for  half  a  century,  every 'variety 
of  dialect  might  be  found  among  them,  though  Ionians  formed 
the  great  body  of  the  mercenary  troops1.  If  it  should  still  be 
thought  improbable  that  a  Greek  inscription  should  be  found  in 
Egypt  exceeding  in  age  any  in  Ionia  or  Greece  itself,  there  was  a 
third  Psammitichus2,  who  lived  about  400  B.C.,  a  descendant  of 
the  ancient  kings  of  that  name,  to  whose  reign  it  may  be  re- 
ferred. 

Psammitichus  II.  died  almost  immediately  after  his  expedition 
to  Ethiopia,  and  was  succeeded  (594  b.c.)  by  Uaphris,  as  the 
lists  write  his  name,  the  Apries  of  the  Greeks  and  the  Hophraof 
Scripture.  After  the  great  defeat  which  Neco  suffered  on  the 
Euphrates,  no  attempt  had  been  made  by  Egypt  to  recover  her 
ascendency  in  Palestine  and  Syria,  which  appear  to  have  been 
entirely  dependant  on  Babylon.  Jehoiakim,  whom  Neco  had 
placed  on  the  throne  of  Judaea,  had  been  compelled  to  submit 
himself  to  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  for  three  years  remained  faithful  ; 
but  at  the  end  of  that  time,  perhaps  in  hope  of  assistance  from 
Egypt,  lie  '  'turned  and  rebelled  against  him. ' '  The  weakness  to 
which  Judaea  had  been  reduced,  exposed  it  to  invasions  from  all 
the  neighboring  tribes, Mohabites,  Ammonites  and  Syrians,as  well 
as  the  Chaldees3.  The  king  of  Babylon  himself,  it  should  seem, 
was  engaged  elsewhere,  probably  in  establishing  his  dominion  at 
home.  Jehoiakim  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Coniah  or  Jehoiakin 
in  598  b.c.    He  had  either  made  himself  king  on  his  father's 

(Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit.  1,  223.)  As  the  king  bad  only  come  to  Elephantine, 
while  the  Greeks  and  the  a'AAoyXuaooS  had  gone  to  the  Second  Cataract,  it 
is  evident  that  it  cannot  be  the  expedition  of  Psammitichus  I.  (Herod.  2, 
151)  to  overtake  his  fugitive  soldiery.  Xor  in  his  reign  is  it  probable  that  the 
son  of  a  Greek  should  have  been  named  Psammitichus. 

1  Her.  2,  163.  2  Diod.  Sic.  14,  35.  3  2  Kings  xxiv.  1,  2. 


348 


HISTORY  OP  EGYPT. 


death,  or  had  been  placed  on  the  throne  by  the  people  without 
the  approbation  of  the  king  of  Babylon.  An  army  was  imme- 
diately sent  against  him,  and  the  siege  of  Jerusalem  was  formed 
by  the  lieutenants  of  Nebuchadnezzar  ;  but  it  appears  to  have  pro- 
ceeded slowly,  till  the  king  himself  came,  to  take  the  command  of 
the  besieging  army ,  when  the  city  specdilysurrendered 1 ;  Jehoiakin 
was  carried  captive  to  Babylon  within  twelve  months  from  his 
accession, and  his  uncle  Zedekiah  placed  on  the  throne  in  his  stead. 
Apries  had  succeeded  to  his  father  about  four  years  previously, 
and  the  earliest  undertakings  of  his  reign  were  directed  to  the 
recovery  of  that  ascendency  in  Syria  and  Palestine  which  Neco 
had  possessed.  But  Jerusalem  being  virtually  in  the  power  of 
Nebuchadnezzar,  he  did  not  venture  at  first  to  attempt  an  in- , 
vasion  by  land.  We  find  that  the  hopes  of  the  people  of  Judrea 
were  strongly  excited  ;  the  prophet  Hananiah  foretold,  that  with- 
in two  years  the  yoke  of  the  king  of  Babylon  should  be  broken, 
and  the  captive  king  be  restored  to  his  throne.  This  was  the  effect 
of  the  success  which  attended  the  first  undertakings  of  Apries, 
and  a  truer  prophet  warned  them  that  they  would  prove  fallacious. 
All  the  nations  of  Palestine  appear  to  have  been  alarmed  at  the 
growing  power  of  Babylon,  and  sent  emissaries  to  Zedekiah, 
tempting  him  to  throw  off  his  allegiance  to  Nebuchadnezzar.  They 
were  also  warned  by  Jeremiah  of  the  f  ruitlessness  of  their  attempts, 
by  the  symbolical  act  of  sending  a  yoke  to  the  sovereigns  when 
their  emissaries  returned2.  Their  more  immediate  danger, however, 
was  from  Egypt.  Herodotus  speaks  only  of  Apries'  expedition 
against  Sidon  and  his  sea-fight  with  the  king  of  Tyre  ;  but,  accord- 
ing to  Diodorus,  he  took  Sidon  by  storm,  reduced  the  whole  sea- 
coast  of  Phoenicia  and  defeated  the  Cyprians,  who  appear  to  have 

1  2  Kings  xxiv.  10-16. 

2  Jer.  x.wii.  In  the  first  verse  of  this  chapter  Zedekiah  should  certainly 
be  read  for  Jehoiakim  (comp.  v.  3),  if  indeed  the  whole  verse,  which  ia 
wanting  in  the  Septuagint,  be  not  an  interpolation. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


349 


been  allies,  if  not  subjects,1  of  the  Phoenicians.  Although  Gaza 
and  the  other  towns  of  South  Palestine  are  not  expressly  mentioned 
by  either  of  the  Greek  historians,  it  is  probably  to  this  time  that 
the  prophecy  in  the  47th  chapter  of  Jeremiah2  is  to  be  referred  ; 
and  as  the  destruction  is  said  to  come  from  the  north,  it  must  have 
been  attacked  on  the  return  of  Apries  from  his  campaign  against 
Cyprus  and  Sidon.  After  these  successes,  Apries  dispatched  an 
army  into  Judaea.  Zedekiah  having  violated  the  oath  of  allegiance 
which  he  had  sworn  to  Nebuchadnezzar3,  and  sent  ambassadors 
into  Egypt  to  ask  for  an  auxiliary  force  of  cavalry  and  infantry4, 
the  Chaldeans  had  invested  Jerusalem.  The  tidings  of  the  march 
of  the  Egyptian  army  caused  them  to  raise  the  siege5,  but  they 
returned,  as  Jeremiah  had  foretold,  in  greater  strength,  the  king 
himself  commanding  them6  ;  and  the  troops  of  Apries,  it  is  pro- 
bable, retired  without  a  contest.  The  prophecy  of  EzekieF,  in 
which  the  arm  of  Pharaoh  is  described  as  being  broken,  so  that  it 
could  never  be  bound  up  again  to  hold  the  sword,  was  delivered 
on  occasion  of  this  retreat,  when  Egypt  renounced  for  ever  its  at- 
tempts to  occupy  Palestine.  Nebuchadnezzar,  after  a  siege  of 
eighteen  months,  took  Jerusalem  by  storm,  and  Zedekiah  being 
made  prisoner, as  he  was  attempting  to  escape  in  disguise  by  a  con- 
cealed breach  in  the  wall8,  was  deprived  of  his  eyesight,  and  carried 

1  Virg.  .En.  1,  621 :—  •  ( 

 Genitor  turn  Belus  opimam 

Yastabat  Cyprum  et  victor  ditione  tenebat. 
Menander  (Jos.  Ant.  9,  14,  2)  represents  Elulaeus,  in  the  time  of  Shalmane- 
ser,  as  reducing  the  revolted  people  of  Citium  into  obedience. 

2  "  The  word  of  the  Lord  that  came  to  Jeremiah  the  prophet  against  the 
Philistines,  before  that  Pharaoh  smote  Gaza." 

3  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  13. 

4  Ezek.  xvii.  15.  The  embassy  to  Egypt  must  have  taken  place  towards 
the  end  of  the  sixth  year  of  Zedekiah,  in  592  or  591  B.C. 

6  Jer.  xxxvii.  6  Ezek.  xxiv.  2. 

7  Ezek.  xxx.  21.  6  Ezek.  xii.  12. 


350 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


in  chains  to  Babylon.  This  took  place  in  the  eleventh  year  of 
Zedekiah's  reign,  and  the  seventh  of  the  reign  of  Apries  (587 
B.C.).  In  consequence  of  the  murder  of  Gedaliah,  to  whom  the 
government  of  Judrea  had  been  entrusted  by  Nebuchadnezzar, 
many  of  the  Jewish  chiefs  who  had  escaped  the  execution  of 
Riblah1  fled  into  Egypt,  carrying  with  them  the  prophet  Jeremiah. 
He  jDrobably  finished  his  days  at  Daphnie  near  Pelusium,  fore- 
telling in  the  last  of  his  prophecies  the  fate  of  Apries2. 

After  the  occupation  of  Jerusalem  the  efforts  of  Nebuchadnezzar 
would  naturally  be  directed  to  the  reduction  of  the  sea-coast  of 
Palestine  and  Syria,  without  securing  which  it  would  have  been 
unsafe  for  him  to  have  attacked  Egypt.  Tyre  was  at  this  time  in 
the  height  of  her  commercial  prosperity  and  naval  power3.  Whe- 
ther in  subjection  to  Egypt  in  consequence  of  the  victory  of  Apries, 
or  not,  she  was  evidently  hostile  to  Babylon  from  a  natural  jealousy 
of  any  power,  Egyptian,  Jewish,  or  Chaldaean,  by  whose  ascendency  v 
her  commerce  might  suffer,  and  Nebuchadnezzar  almost  immediate- 
ly undertook  the  siege.  Even  before  Jerusalem  was  actually 
taken,  but  when  that  event  was  clearly  to  be  anticipated,  the  pro- 
phet Ezekiel  describes  Tyre  as  exulting  in  the  prospect  of  the  in- 
crease of  her  own  power  by  the  sufferings  of  her  rival4,  and  fore- 
tells her  destruction.  The  siege  must  have  begun  soon  after  the 
capture  of  Jerusalem  ;  the  insular  position  of  Tyre  (for  the  orig- 
inal city  on  the  mainland  had  been  taken  by  Shalmaneser),  the 
strength  of  its  fortifications,  and  the  command  of  the  sea,  enabled 
^  it  to  hold  out  for  thirteen  years,  as  we  learn  from  the  Tyrian  his- 
torians quoted  by  Josephus5.    It  is  clear  that  the  results  were  not 

1  2  Kings  xxv.  21. 

2  They  appear  to  close  with  the  44th  chapter.  The  Fathers  (Hieron.  adv. 
Jov.  lib.  2.  Tertull.  Scorpiace  viiL)  say  that  Jeremiah  was  stoned  by  the 
people. 

8  See  the  description  in  Ezek.  xxvi.-xxviii. 

4  Ezek.  xxvi.  2.  6  Cont.  Apion.  1,  21. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


351 


such  as  the  besieging  army  had  expected  from  success.  1 '  Neb- 
uchadnezzar and  his  troops  had  served  a  great  service  their 
heads  had  grown  bald  with  the  pressure  of  the  helmet,  and  their 
shoulders  had  been  galled  by  the  weight  of  the  cuirass  ;  expres- 
sions which  indicate  a  protracted  warfare;  ' 1  yet  had  they  no 
wages  for  Tyre  for  the  service  that  they  had  served  against  it1 
and  the  spoil  of  Egypt  is  promised  to  them  as  a  compensation 
for  this  disappointment,  which  probably  arose  from  the  city  hav- 
ing surrendered  on  terms  which  saved  it  from  being  given  up  to 
plunder2.  That  an  invasion  of  Egypt  actually  took  place  is  proba- 
ble. Megasthenes  asserted  that  Nauocodrosorus  (Nebuchadnezzar) 
had  Jed  his  army  as  far  as  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  and  con- 
quered great  part  of  Libya3.  Unless  this  is  a  pure  fiction,  he 
must  have  made  conquests  to  the  westward  of  Egypt,  which  he 
could  not  do  without  passing  through  the  northern  border  of  that 
country. 

Now  the  prophecy  of  Jeremiah4  implies  no  more  than  such  a 
passage,  accompanied  by  the  usual  outrages  of  a  victorious  army. 
It  does  not  describe  a  permanent  occupation.  The  prophet 
declares  that ' '  he  would  spread  his  pavilion  in  Tahpenes  (Daphnas  , 
break  the  images  of  Bethshemesh  (Heliopolis)and  lay  waste  Noph 
(Memphis)  ;  that  he  should  array  himself  with  the  land  of  Egypt 
as  a  shepherd  putteth  on  his  garment,  and  go  forth  thence  in 
peace."    He  might  be  deterred  from  attempting  the  conquest  of 

1  St.  Jerome  on  Ezek.  xxix.  18,  relates  that  when  Nebuchadnezzar  had 
nearly  completed  his  mole  to  attack  the  island,  the  Tyrians  put  their  wealth 
on  shipboard  and  carried  it  off :  but  it  is  difficult  to  know  whether  he  is 
relating  a  certified  fact  or  expounding  the  prophecy. 

3  The  reign  of  Ithobalus,  the  king  under  whom  the  siege  took  place,  was 
followed  by  that  of  Baal,  which  lasted  ten  years ;  then  followed  a  period 
of  mixed  government  of  mffttc.s,  high  priest  and  king,  for  eight  years,  after 
which  two  princes  in  succession  were  sent  for  to  Tyre  from  Babylon,  to  be 
invested  with  royalty,  which  seems  to  imply  some  kind  of  dependence  at 
that  time.    (Jos.  Ant.  9,  14,  2.J 

3Strabo,  15,  687.  *  Jer.  xliii.  12  :  xlvi.  13-26. 


352 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Middle  and  Upper  Egypt  by  the  power  of  A  pries,  or  dissuaded  by 
his  submission.  This  explanation,  however,  will  not  apply  to  the 
prophecy  of  Ezekiel1,  according  to  which  man  and  beast  were  to  be 
cut  oS.  from  the  land,  from  Migdol  to  Syene,  and  Egypt  to  1  e 
desolate  for  forty  years.  The  remark  is  often  forced  upon  one 
who  compares  prophecy  with  history,  that  the  prophet,  in  en- 
larging upon  his  theme  and  carrying  it  out  into  details,  indulges 
his  own  peculiar  genius,  and  obeys  in  some  measure  the  impulse 
of  his  own  feeling.  The  genius  of  Ezekiel  was  exaggerative2  and 
vehement,  whereas  the  style  of  Jeremiah  is  more  simple  and  pro- 
saic. It  would  be  pushing  a  negative  argument  too  far  to  deny 
any  invasion  of  Egypt  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  because  it  is  not  men- 
tioned in  Herodotus  ;  but  to  relate  its  desolation  for  a  long  series 
of  years  as  a  fact,  would  be  a  violation  of  all  principles  of  histo- 
rical criticism.  It  is  certain  that  from  this  time  there  was  no 
hostility  between  Egypt  and  Babylon,  and  there  is  even  reason  to 
think  that  Nebuchadnezzar  married  an  Egyptian  princess. 

There  is  a  striking  correspondence  between  the  language  in  which 
Ezekiel  describes  the  pride  of  Pharaoh  and  its  humiliation,  and  the 
contrast  which  Herodotus  draws  between  the  commencement  and 
the  close  of  his  reign.  Next  to  Psammitichus  he  had  been  the  most 
prosperous  of  Egyptian  kings  ;  but  the  time  had  arrived  when 
he  was  destined  to  misfortune,  and  according  to  the  historian's 
philosophy,  great  prosperity,  especially  if  accompanied  with  any 
elevation  of  mind,  was  provocative  of  a  reverse3.  Both  the  pros- 
perity and  the  pride  of  Apries4  are  set  forth  in  strong  poetic 

1  Ezek.  xxix. 

2  "  Ezekiel — est  atrox,  vekemens,  tragicus,  totus  in  6etv6aei,  frequens  in 
repetitionibus,  non  decoris  aut  gratia3  causa,  sed  ex  indignatione  et  violen- 
tia."    (Lowth,  de  Sacra  Poesi  Hebraeorum,  Pral.  xxi.) 

3  1,  34.  Mera  6e  So/iwva  oixo/ievov,  e?ia(3e  e/c  Oeov  ve/teatS  jueyuXi]  Kpolanv" 
ljS  eitcaoai,  on  evofttoe  ec^vrov  elvat  dvOpurruv  uttuvtuv  oA/3 turarov. 

4  'ATrpieu  6e  Xeyirai  elvat  ?/6e  t/  didvoia,  jut]^  av  Oeov  fitv  firjdeva  dvvaaOa 
navaai  tt/  (3aot.2.T]lT]-'  ovtu  aa6a\Fu<i  kw»ry  IdovoQai  idonee.    (2,  169.) 


THE  TWENTY- SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


353 


imagery  by  Ezekiel  :  lie  is  likened  to  a  crocodile  lying  in  the  midst 
of  the  Nile,  saying  of  the  river,  "  It  is  mine  own,  I  have  made  it 
for  myself,"  troubling  the  waters  with  his  feet,  when  he  rushed 
forth  to  seize  his  prey1.  It  was  not,  however,  from  the  rival  power 
of  Babylon  that  he  was  destined  to  meet  with  destruction. 

The  Greek  colony  of  Cyrene  had  been  founded  about  half  a  cen- 
tury before  this  time.  The  history  of  its  establishment  is  curiously 
illustrative  of  the  state  of  geographical  knowledge  among  the 
Greeks  in  the  seventh  century  before  Christ.  The  king  of  Thera, 
a  small  island  of  the  Sporades,  had  gone  to  Delphi,  probably  to 
consult  the  oracle  respecting  the  drought  under  which  the  island 
had  suffered2.  The  Pythia  replied,  "  that  they  should  go  and 
found  a  city  in  Libya. "  The  Theraeans  were  descended  partly  from 
the  Minyae,  the  earliest  navigators  of  Greece3,  partly  from  the 
Phoenician  companions  of  Cadmus,  yet  they  knew  not  in  what 
part  of  the  world  Libya  was.  Not  daring,  even  in  obedience  to 
an  oracle, to  go  forth  on  such  a  blind  expedition,  they  continued  to 
endure  the  drought,  till  every  tree  on  the  island,  save  one,  had 
perished.  They  had  again  recourse  to  the  oracle,  but  received  for 
answer  only  a  renewal  of  the  command  to  colonize  Libya,  accom- 
panied by  a  reproach  for  their  neglect  of  the  previous  oracle. 
They  knew,  however,  that  Crete  lay  between  it  and  their  own 
island,  and  sent  thither  to  inquire*  whether  any  Cretan  or  stranger 
settled  there  had  ever  been  in  Libya.  After  wandering  through 
the  island  they  came  to  the  town  of  Itanus  at  its  eastern  extremity, 
and  there  found  a  manufacturer  of  purple  of  the  name  of  Corobius. 
He  had  been  driven,  probably  while  seeking  for  the  shell-fish  from 
which  the  purple  is  derived4,  to  the  island  of  Platea,  now  Bomba, 

1  Ezek.  xxix.  1,  3 ;  xxxii.  2. 

*  Her.  4,  151,  represents  the  drought  as  following  the  first  visit  to 
Delphi.  3  Miiller,  Orchoinenos  und  die  Minyer,  258. 

4  Zuchis,  on  the  coast  of  North  Africa,  near  the  Syrtis,  is  mentioned  by 
""Hrabo  as  a  great  seat  of  the  manufacture  of  purple  (17,  835). 


354 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


between  Paraetonium  and  Cyrene.  The  promise  of  a  reward  in- 
duced him  to  return  with  them  to  Thera,  and  thence  to  sail, accom- 
panied by  an  exploring  party,  to  Platea.  The  Therans  left  him 
on  the  island  with  such  a  supply  of  provisions  as  they  calculated 
would  suffice,  and  returned  to  Thera  to  fetch  their  countrymen. 
The  time  fixed  for  their  coming  had  expired  ;  and  Corobius  would 
have  perished  from  want,  had  not  some  Samians  on  their  voyage 
to  Egypt  been  driven  to  the  same  island,  who,  on  hearing  his 
story,  left  him  provisions  for  a  year1.  A  colony  after  some  lime 
arrived  from  Thera,  but  their  first  settlement  was  not  prosperous, 
and  when  two  years  had  elapsed,  leaving  one  of  their  number 
on  the  island,  they  again  visited  Delphi,  and  complained  to  the 
Pythia  that  though  they  had  colonized  Libya,  they  had  fared 
no  better.  The  answer  of  the  Pythia  implied  that  they  were 
mistaken  in  supposing  that  the  island  was  Libya2,  and  they  accord- 
ittgly  removed  to  a  place  named  Aziris,  opposite  to  it  on  the 
mainland,  at  the  opening  of  the  valley  which  is  now  called  Wadi 
el  Temmineh.  Herodotus  says,  that  after  remaining  here  six  years 
they  were  induced  by  the  promises  of  a  better  settlement  to  let 
themselves  be  conducted  by  the  Libyans  to  Cyrene,  and  that  their 
guides  contrived  to  lead  them  by  night  through  the  finest  part  of 
the  country.  But  it  is  evident  from  the  exclamation  of  one  of  the 
guides  when  they  arrived  at  Gyrene,  "  Greeks,  here  it  is  best  for 
you  to  d  well  ;  for  here  the  skies  are  pierced3, ' '  that  they  had  been 
pining  for  a  land  watered  by  rain,  having  found  that  the  evil  of 
drought  had  followed  them  to  their  new  settlement.  Such  a  land  is 

1  These  Samians,  when  they  left  Platea,  made  for  Egypt,  but  the  violence 
and  long  continuance  of  the  east  wind  drove  them  through  the  Pillars  of 
Hercules  to  Tartcssus,  a  mart  till  then  unvisited  by  Greeks  (Herod.  4,  152). 

2  Xl  rv  tfiev  Atftwfv  [irjXoTpo^ov  oldai  u/j.£ipou 

T/)  f/9(jf  iXObvTo^,  ayav  aya/uai  o(xpir/v  aev. — Her.  4,  157. 
"  Tn  the  language  of  Scripture,  "  the  windows  of  heaven  are  opened." 
'Gen.  vii.  11.    Mai.  iii.  10.) 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


355 


the  Cyrenaica1  :  as  the  traveller  ascends  trom  the  Gulf  of  Bomba 
towards  the  elevated  plateau  on  which  the  city  stands,  the  sandy 
soil  changes  to  a  rich  loam  ;  a  fine  vegetation  clothes  the  hills  (the 
Arabs  now  call  it  the  Green  Mountain)  ;  herds  of  cattle  are  seen, 
which  the  lands  on  the  sea-coast  are  unable  to  support  ;  the  olive, 
the  citron,  the  juniper,  the  cypress,  the  pine,  grow  luxuriantly2, 
and  there  is  an  abundant  supply  of  water.  The  whole  district  pro- 
duced the  Silphium3,  which  was  so  highly  prized  in  ancient  phar- 
macy that  it  sometimes  sold  for  its  weight  in  silver4.  The  differ- 
ent elevation  of  the  coast,  the  mountains  and  the  intermediate 
region,  gave  the  Cyrenians  three  harvests  in  the  year,  one  becom- 
ing ripe  while  the  other  was  gathered  in5.  The  site  of  Cyrene  was 
well  adapted  for  the  settlement  of  a  flourishing  colony.  The  pro- 
montory on  which  it  stands,  between  the  Syrtis  and  the  Bay  of 
Bomba,  is  the  nearest  point  to  Greece  of  the  whole  line  of  the 
African  coast  ;  and  there  is  an  excellent  harbor  at  the  distance  of 
80  stadia  or  10  miles  from  the  town6.  .The  gardens  of  the  Hes- 
perides,  as  far  as  they  had  a  prototype  in  nature,  appear  to  have 
been  hollows  in  the  limestone  hills  on  the  western  side  of  the  prom- 
ontory, where  orchards  of  extraordinary  productiveness  are  found. 

The  establishment  of  the  colony  of  Cyrene  was  indirectly  fatal 
to  the  Saitic  dynasty.    Under  Battus  I.  its  founder,  who  reigned 

1  The  name  was  probably  Phoenician,  and  derived  from  j-^p  cornu,  like 
Cerne  on  the  coast  of  Mauritania.  Compare  Isaiah,  v.  1,  where"  a  very 
fruitful  hill "  is  literally  "  a  horn,  the  son  of  fatness ;"  iv  depart,  tv  tot<^ 
iriovi.  (Sept.) 

2  Pacho,  Voyage  dans  la  Marmorique,  p.  83. 

3  It  is  supposed  to  be  the  Laserpitium  Derias  which  Pacho  observed  to 
grow  plentifully  in  the  Cyrenaica,  though  he  nowhere  met  with  it  between 
Egypt  and  the  Bay  of  Bomba.  It  was  not  found  westward  of  the  Syrtis 
(Her.  4,  169).  Pliny,  X.  H.  22,  49,  enumerates  its  virtues,  which  extended 
from  the  dispersion  of  a  dropsy  to  the  cure  of  corns. 

*  Aristoph.  Plut  925.    Plin.  X.  H.  19,  15. 

*  Herod.  4,  199.  '  Scylax,  10T,  p.  234,  ed.  Klausen. 


356 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


40  years,  and  his  son  Arcesilaus,  who  reigned  16,  the  numbers  of 
the  original  settlers  were  not  increased  by  any  new  immigration. 
But  in  the  reign  of  Battus,  surnamed  the  Prosperous,  an  invitation 
was  sent  to  all  the  Greeks  to  come  and  aid  the  Cyrenians  in  colo- 
nizing Libya,  with  the  promise  of  an  allotment  of  land.  The 
Pythia  lent  her  aid,  as  before,  by  an  oracle  which  warned  against 
delay1,  and  a  great  multitude  soon  assembled  at  Cyrene  from  Crete, 
Peloponnesus,  and  the  Cyclades  and  Sporades2.  They  could  not 
be  provided  with  the  land  which  had  been  promised  them,  but  at 
the  expense  of  the  native  Libyans,  who  were  not  only  stripped  of 
their  territories,  but  treated  with  great  insolence,  according  to  the 
common  fate  of  barbarians  who  presume  to  defend  their  rights 
against  the  intrusion  of  a  civilized  people.  They  were  probably 
the  same  Libyan  tribe,  the  Giligammae,  in  whose  territory  the 
first  Thersean  settlers  had  landed.  Egypt  was  interested  in  pre- 
venting the  further  growth  of  a  power  which  threatened  to  en- 
croach on  all  its  neighbors3.  Adicran,  the  king  of  the  Liby- 
ans, sent  to  implore  aid  from  Apries,  and  place  himself  under  his 
authority.  Apries  accepted  the  offer  of  the  Libyans,  and  sent  a 
large  army  to  their  aid  ;  but  as  he  could  not  venture  to  employ 
his  Greek  mercenaries  against  their  countrymen,  it  was  composed 
entirely  of  Egyptian  troops.  The  Cyrenians  marched  out,  and  a 
battle  took  place  at  Irasa,now  Ain  Ersen\  between  the  Bay  of 
Bomba  and  Cyrene.   The  Egyptians  had  never  before  encountered 

1       "O;  Si  kev  ki  Acftvijv  irolvrjpaTov  vorepov 

Td;  uvaSaio/j-evag,  fiera  ol  ttoko.  <}>a/j.t  fieljoeiv. — Her.  4,  159. 

3  Her.  4,  1G1. 

3  Her.  4,  168.  Scylax  (106,  p.  233  Klausen)  extends  the  Egyptian  terri- 
tory as  far  as  Apis  (Boun  Ajoubah) ;  but  his  work  was  hardly  written 
before  the  middle  of  the  4th  century  b.c. 

4  'Eb  'Ipaac  xtipov  na.i  k~l  k  pijvrjv  Qkcmjv.  (Her.  4,  159.)  Ain  means 
fountain,  and  in  these  countries  fountains  are  more  permanent  than  towns. 
The  name  is  probably  also  Phoenician  fiT>  ur^St  ^ee  Gesenius,  Ling 
PLoen.  1,  424 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


357 


Greek  arms  and  tactics  ;  the  disproportion  in  numbers  must  have 
been  great,  but  the  negligence  0f  their  adversaries  enabled  the 
Greeks  to  gain  a  complete  victory,  and  few  of  the  Egyptian  army 
returned  to  their  own  country.  It  was  the  first  occasion  on  which 
the  valor  and  skiil  of  the  free  Hellenes  was  matched  in  a  pitched 
battle  against  the  forces  of  the  great  despotic  monarchies  which 
had  previously  ruled  the  world  ;  the  first  of  a  series  of  victories, 
which  in  the  course  of  two  centuries  and  a  half  made  them  masters 
of  the  ancient  territories  of  Assyria,  Babylonia  and  Egypt. 

The  ne\^s  of  this  defeat  and  the  almost  entire  extermination  of 
the  army  produced  a  revolt  in  Egypt.  Apries,  who  had  probably 
imagined  that  he  should  easily  conquer  a  handful  of  Greeks,  was 
accused  of  having  sent  his  troops  on  an  enterprise  in  which  he 
knew  that  they  must  perish,  in  the  hope  of  governing  his  kingdom 
more  securely  by  means  of  the  foreigners.  Those  who  returned, 
being  joined  by  the  relatives  of  those  who  had  perished,  imme- 
diately revolted.  Apries,  on  the  receipt  of  this  intelligence,  sent 
to  them  Amasis,  one  of  his  officers,  who  had  gained  the  favor  of 
the  king,  and  been  advanced  to  high  office,  though  of  humble 
origin,  by  the  beauty  of  a  chaplet  which  he  presented  to  him  on 
his  birth-day.  AVhile  he  was  haranguing  them  in  order  to  bring 
them  back  to  their  allegiance,  a  soldier  came  behind  him,  and 
placed  a  crown  upon  his  head.  He  accepted  it  without  reluctance, 
and  prepared  to  march  against  Apries.  On  hearing  this,  Apries 
dispatched  Patarbemis1,  an  officer  of  high  rank,  with  orders  to 
bring  Arnasis  alive  into  his  presence.  Amasis  bade  him  return 
with  a  contemptuous  refusal,  and  when  he  appeared  before  Apries, 
the  king  ordered  his  ears  and  nose  to  be  cut  off.  The  Egyptians 
who  had  hitherto  adhered  to  the  royal  cause,  seeing  the  outrage 
offered  to  a  man  who  was  highlv  esteemed  among  them,  imme- 

1  Hellanicus  (Athen.  15,  p.  680)  called  the  king  himself  Partamis,  app» 
rently  from  confusion  with  Patarbemis. 


358 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


diately  joined  Amasis  and  the  revolters.  Apries  was  thus  left 
alone  with  his  Carian  and  Ionian  auxiliaries,  whose  numbers 
amounted  to  30,000.  He  marched  from  Sais,  where  his  royal 
residence  was,  to  meet  Amasis,  who  was  advancing  from  Libya, 
and  the  armies  encountered  at  Momemphis,  near  the  borders  of 
the  Lake  Mareotis.  The  digression  which  Herodotus  makes  at 
this  moment  of  his  narrative1,  to  give  an  account  of  the  castes  of 
Egypt,  and  especially  of  the  numbers  and  privileges  of  the  mili- 
tary caste,  proves  that  in  his  mind  this  revolt  was  closely  connected 
with  the  attempt  which  the  Saitic  princes  had  carried  on  for  three- 
quarters  of  a  century,  to  raise  up  a  body  of  Greek  troops,  by 
whose  means  they  might  make  themselves  independent  of  the 
ancient  soldiery.  Their  dissatisfaction  first  manifested  itself  in  the 
emigration  of  the  Automoli,  and  most  effectually  in  the  revolt 
under  Amasis.  That  they  were  still  so  powerful  is  a  proof  that 
the  numbers  of  the  Automoli  must  have  been  greatly  exaggerated. 
The  auxiliaries  were  defeated,  owing  to  the  superiority  in  num- 
bers of  the  Egyptians,  and  Apries  being  taken  prisoner,  was  car- 
ried back  to  Sais  to  the  palace,  now  become  the  property  of  Ama- 
sis. For  a  time  he  was  treated  with  kindness  by  his  conqueror ;  but 
the  Egyptians  murmured  at  the  indulgence  shown  to  one  wrho  had 
made  himself  so  odious  to  them.  Amasis  therefore  delivered  him 
into  the  hands  of  the  people,  by  whom  he  was  strangled2,  but 
allowed  to  be  buried  with  his  ancestors  in  the  splendid  temple  of 
Minerva  at  Sais.  To  the  modes  of  interment  in  pyramids  practised 
under  the  Old  Monarchy  and  in  grotto  sepulchres  by  the  The- 
ban  dynasties,  another  had  been  added  by  the  Pharaohs  of  Sais. 
The  level  and  alluvial  Delta  afforded  neither  hills  on  which  pyra- 
mids could  be  set  up,  as  objects  conspicuous  from  afar,  nor  rocks 

1  2,  164. 

5  Jer.  xliv.  30.  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Behold  I  will  give  Pharaoh  Hophra 
into  the  hand  of  his  enemies,  and  into  the  hand  of  them  that  seek  his  life." 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


359 


in  which  sepulchres  could  be  hewn.  They  therefore  constructed 
for  their  remains  vaults  within  the  precincts  of  the  temples,  sur< 
rounded  with  pilasters  and  columns,  and  opening  with  folding- 
doors.  The  interments  of  the  common  people  of  Sais  were  made 
in  a  large  necropolis,  of  which  the  remains  may  still  be  traced3. 
Apries  had  reigned,  according  to  Herodotus  and  Manetho  as  re- 
ported by  Eusebius,  twenty-five  years,  and  died  569  b.c. 

Amasis  or  Amosis,  was  a  native  of  Siouph,  a  small  town  in  the 
Saitic  nome,  and  of  plebeian  birth2.  Thus  another  great  principle 
of  the  ancient  constitution  of  Egypt  was  infringed,  according  to 
which  the  king  must  be  chosen  from  the  priests  or  the  soldiery. 
Being  a,  man  of  the  people,  he  was  no  doubt  supported  by  them,  « 
and  at  first  despised  by  the  higher  castes  for  the  meanness  of  his 
birth.  He  admonished  them,  by  a  truly  oriental  mode,  a  sym- 
bolical action,  of  the  folly  of  valuing  men  according  to  their  origin, 
instead  of  their  actual  place  and  use  in  society.  He  had  a  golden 
foot-bath,  in  which  he  and  his  guests  were  accustomed  to  wash 
their  feet  before  the  banquet.  This  he  broke  up,  and  out  of  the 
material  fashioned  a  statue  of  a  god,  which  was  erected  in  a  pub- 
lic place,  and  received  the  homage  of  the  citizens.  Sending  for 
the  Egyptians,  he  pointed  out  to  them  to  what  honor  this  vessel 
had  been  raised,  which  had  formerly  served  for  humble  and  even 
dishonorable  uses3.  u  My  lot,"  said  he,  "  has  been  the  same  : 
I  was  once  a  plebeian  ;  I  am  now  your  king  ;  and  you  must  honor 
and  respect  me  accordingly  and  in  this  way  he  gently  recon- 
ciled them  to  his  yoke.    In  another  respect  he  innovated  upon 

1  Champollion,  Lettres,  p.  50,  52. 

3  ArjfioTijv  to  nplv  tovra  nal  olk'itjS  ovk  tin<pavEOQ.    (Her.  2,  172.) 

""The  lively  description  of  Herodotus  gives  no  high  idea  of  the  refine- 
ment of  Egyptian  manners.    4><25  en  rov  irodavnTTr/poS  ruya/i/ua  yeyoiEvai, 

*~6v  npoTepov  filv  tovS  AiyvTrriovS  hvejielv  te  k  a\  kvovpieiv  icai 
no&aS  tvairov^eaSat,  (2,  172.)  In  a  picture  at  Thebes  (Wilkinson,  M.  and 
C,  167)  is  a  representation  of  the  effects  of  wine  on  ladies  at  a  feast. 


300 


HISTORY  OF  EfJYPT 


ancient  customs.  The  court  ceremonial  of  Eg  pt,  arranged  by 
the  priests,  regulated  for  the  sovereign  the  employment  of  all  his 
hours,  and  when  he  had  given  the  morning  to  the  dispatch  of 
business,  prescribed  to  him  religious  duties  and  moral  reading. 
Amasis  did  not  neglect  the  duties  of  sovereignty  ;  on  the  contrary 
he  established  a  strict  administration  throughout  Egypt, and  raised 
it  to  a  high  degree  of  prosperity.  But  having  given  the  early 
hours  of  the  day  to  business,  he  devoted  the  rest  to  pleasure,* 
drank  freely,  and  unbent  his  mind  in  pleasantry  with  his  boon 
companions.  His  friends  were  scandalized  at  his  levities,  and 
thus  addressed  him  :  "  You  do  wrong,  0  king,  in  making  your- 
self so  cheap  ;  you  ought  to  sit  gravely  in  a  throne  of  state,  and 
give  the  whole  day  to  business  ;  the  Egyptians  would  then  know 
by  how  great  a  personage  they  are  governed,  and  you  would  be 
in  better  repute  with  them.  Your  present  conduct  is  quite  un- 
kingly."  But  Amasis  replied  :  "  Those  who  have  bows,  string 
them  when  they  want  to  use  them,  and  unstring  them  when  they 
have  done  ;  for  if  they  were  kept  always  strung  they  would  break, 
and  be  useless  when  they  were  wanted.  And  such  is  the  case  with 
man  :  if  he  were  to  attempt  to  be  always  serious,  and  never  to  re- 
lax with  mirth,  he  would  insensibly  become  mad,  or  lose  his  fac- 
ulties. Aware  of  this,  I  give  part  of  my  day  to  business  and  part 
to  amusement1."  Amasis  is  the  first  king  of  Egypt  of  whose  per- 
sonal character  we  have  any  knowledge  ;  the  older  Pharaohs 
have  been  distinguished  by  their  names,  their  public  acts,  and  the 
length  of  their  reigns  ;  but  we  have  known  nothing  of  the  men. 
We  readily  recognize  the  qualities  which  made  him  the  favorite  of 
the  people  and  the  common  soldiers  ;  Julius  Csesar,  Henry  V., 
are  examples  of  a  youth  spent  in  licentious  and  even  lawless  courses, 
succeeded  by  a  manhood  of  vigorous  activity  and  equitable  and 

1  Herod.  2,  172.  See  vol.  i.  p.  382,  the  .account  of  the  treatment  which 
the  different  oracles  underwent  from  Amasis  after  his  accession. 


THE  TWENTY  -SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


301 


sagacious  administration1  ;  and  the  union  of  severe  application  to 
"business,  with  the  love  of  pleasure  and  a  playful  humor  in  the 
hours  of  relaxation,  has  a  parallel  in  Philip  of  Macedon. 

His  reign  was  favored  by  external  circumstances.  The  Nile 
was  regular  in  its  rise,  and  the  land  yielded  abundance  to  the  peo- 
ple ;  the  number  of  inhabited  places  exceeded  twenty  thousand2. 
A  friendly  alliance  was  made  with  Cyrene,  and  Egyptian  preju- 
dice so  far  set  at  nought,  that  Amasis  married  Ladike,  the  daugh- 
ter either  of  the  king  of  that  city,  or  of  an  eminent  citizen.  No 
danger  threatened  on  the  side  of  Babylon  ;  on  the  contrary,  their 
relations  were  friendly,  and  Amasis,  after  the  power  of  Cyrus 
became  formidable,  entered  into  an  alliance  with  Nabonadius  or 
Labynetus,  the  last  king  of  Babylon,  for  the  defence  of  Croesus 
against  the  Medes3.  The  rapid  movements  of  Cyrus  defeated  their 
purpose,  and  Sardis  was  taken  before  the  allies  of  Croesus  could 
muster.  This  was  in  the  year  546  b.c.  The  naval  power  of  the 
Phoenicians  was  so  much  reduced  by  the  war  of  Nebuchadnezzar 
against  Tyre,  that  Amasis  dispossessed  them  of  Cyprus4,  and  made 
it  tributary,  which  would  facilitate  his  intercourse  with  AsiaMinor. 
His  internal  regulations  were  so  judicious,  that  he  is  reckoned  with 
Menes,  Sasychis,  Sesostris  and  Bocchoris,as  one  of  the  great  legis- 
lators of  Egypt.  They  extended,  according  to  Diodorus,  to  tho 
whole  administration5,  but  only  one  of  them  is  specified6.  It 
obliged  every  man  to  declare  every  year  to  the  chief  magistrate  of 
his  nome,  by  what  means  he  lived,  and  if  he  could  show  no  honest 
livelihood,  he  was  to  be  put  to  death.  It  is  probably  more  cor- 
rectly stated  by  Diodorus7  that  he  who  gave  a  false  account  of 

1  Uapadedorai  crvveroS  re  yeyovevat  naff  inepfiohjjv  ndl  tov  Tpoitov  k-xuLK^c, 
nal  filnaioS.    (Diod.  1,  95.) 

2  Herod.  2,  177.  '  Herod.  1,  77. 

4  Herodotus  says,  elle  61  Kvxpov  irpuTog  avbpu-uv,  but  this  is  evidently  a 
mistake. 

5  1,  95.  8  Herod.  1,  IT 7.  7  1,  77. 
VOL.  it.  1(! 


362 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


himself,  or  followed  an  unlawful  calling,  was  punishable  with 

death.  From  the  general  character  of  the  administration  of 
Amasis,  we  should  expect  to  find  him  moderating  the  severity  of 
a  penal  law.  Herodotus  says  that  the  law  of  Solon  which  was  in 
force  in  his  time  and  was  an  excellent  law,  was  borrowed  from 
Egypt  ;  but  Solon's  law  only  punished  idleness  with  the  loss  of 
civic  rights,  and  that  perhaps  only  if  a  man  had  for  three  succes- 
sive years  been  without  an  honest  calling1. 

Amasis  at  first  was  not  favorably  disposed  towards  the  Greeks2, 
by  whose  defeat  he  had  been  advanced  to  the  throne,  but  he  con- 
tinued them  in  his  service,  and  afterwards  removed  their  quarters 
to  Memphis,  that  they  might  be  available  against  the  population 
of  the  capital.  lie  showed  himself  also  very  friendly  towards  the 
whole  Greek  nation.  He  allowed  all  who  pleased  to  inhabit  the 
city  of  Naucratis,  and  to  those  who  came  only  for  commercial  pur- 
poses, he  gave  sites  on  which  they  might  build  altars  to  their 
gods.  The  largest  and  most  illustrious  of  these  factories  was 
that  which  was  called  Ilellenion,  founded  by  the  principal  states  of 
Asiatic  Greece  ;  Chios,  Teos,  PhocaBa  and  Clazomenae  in  Ionia  ; 
Rhodes,  Cnidus,  Ilalicarnassus  and  Phaselis  in  Doris  ;  and  the 
single  city  of  Mitylene  in  ^ojis.  These  cities  enjoyed  exclu- 
sively the  privilege  of  appointing  the  magistrates  or  consuls  who 
regulated  the  commercial  concerns  of  the  Ilellenion ;  others  claimed 
a  share,  but  Herodotus  emphatically  declares  that  it  did  not 
belong  to  them.  ^Egina,  however,  had  independently  founded  a 
temenos  of  Jupiter,  the  Samians  of  Juno  and  the  Milesians  of 
Apollo,  their  respective  chief  divinities  ;  and  these  were  probably 
older  than  the  Ilellenion,  as  the  states  which  f  otmded  them  were 
distinguished  in  navigation  earlier  than  the  others.    Amasis  sent 

1  Petit,  Leges  Atticae,  p.  520,  ed.  Weasel.  Herodotus  himself  speaks  of 
Solon's  visiting  Egypt  after  he  had  given  laws  to  Athens  (1,  30). 

5  $ilel\r]v  yevopevoS  6  "kfnaoiS  is  the  expression  of  Herodotus  (2, 177). 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


363 


presents  to  several  of  the  Grecian  temples  ;  a  gilded  image  of 
Minerva  with  his  own  picture,  to  Cyrene  ;  to  Lindus,  two  statues 
of  Minerva  in  stone,  and  a  linen  corslet  of  wonderful  workmanship. 
According  to  the  description  which  Herodotus  gives1  of  a  similar 
present  made  to  the  Lacedaemonians,  each  thread  consisted  of  360 
filaments  clearly  to  be  distinguished.  Figures  were  woven  in  the 
pattern  of  the  linen,  and  it  was  adorned  with  gold  and  cotton7. 
Cotton,  being  used  as  a  costly  material  along  with  gold  for  the  en- 
richment of  the  linen,  was  probably  of  recent  introduction  from 
Ethiopia  or  India  ;  for  it  seems  not  to  have  been  known  in  Egypt 
in  earlier  times3.  The  corslet  sent  to  Lindas  remained  to  the  time 
of  Pliny,  though  nearly  destroyed  by  the  curiosity  of  travellers, 
ana1  the  examination  of  it  verified  the  account  of  Herodotus4.  An- 
other occasion  for  displaying  his  liberality  towards  the  Greeks 
was  offered  by  the  conflagration  of  the  temple  at  Delphi,  which 
took  place  548  b.c.  Its  restoration  was  undertaken  for  the  sum 
of  300  talents  by  the  wealthy  family  of  the  Alcmseonidae,  and 
was  to  be  paid  for  by  a  general  contribution  of  the  members  of  the 
Amphictyonic  confederacy.  Of  this  sum  one-fourth  part  was  al- 
lotted to  the  Delphians,  who  being  unable  to  raise  it  themselves, 
wandered  throughout  Greece  and  the  Grecian  settlements,  begging 
for  contributions,  and  visited  among  the  rest  their  countrymen 
settled  in  Egypt.  From  them  they  received  20  mime  ;  from  Ama- 
sis  1000  talents,  about  50,000  pounds  weight  of  alum.    It  is  ob- 

1  Her.  3,  47. 

2  'Eovra  ?uveov  nai  £6uv  tvv(pac/j.evcjv,  ovxytiv,  KeK0C{i7]fievov  6k  XPvaV 
Kai  tipioiai  and  tjvXov.    (Her.  u.  s.) 

3  Jul.  Toll.  7,  75.    Plin.  X.  H.  19,  fc 

4  Mirentur  hsee  (the  fact  that  there  were  150  threads  in  one  rope  of  a 
hunting-net)  iguorantes  in  iEgyptii  quondam  regis,  quem  Amasim  voeant, 
thorace,  in  Rhodioruni  insula  ostendi  in  templo  Minervae  ccclxv.  filis  singula 
fila  constare ;  quod  se  expcrtum  nuper  Roma;  prodidit  Mutianus  ter  Consul, 
parvasque  jam  reliquiasejus  superes.  c,  ha:  expericntiuin  injuria.  (X.  H.  19, 1.) 


3G4 


HISTORY  OF  EGFPT. 


tained  in  great  quantities  from  the  Oases  of  the  Libyan  Desert, 
and  this  was  reckoned  the  purest  of  any.  It  was  of  extensive 
use,  especially  in  dyeing,  and  very  costly  ;  in  later  times  the  Lipari 
Islands  enjoyed  the  monopoly  of  it, and  acquired  incredible  riches, 
says  Diodorus,  from  this  source1.  More  recently  it  has  been  a 
source  of  great  wealth,  first  to  the  Turks,  and  afterwards  to  the 
Popes,  who  for  a  long  time  possessed  the  monopoly2. 

The  alliance  and  friendship  of  Amasis  with  Poly  crates  of  Samos 
is  very  celebrated,  and  must  belong  to  the  latest  part  of  Amasis' 
reign.  Polycrates  (532  B.C.)  had  made  himself  master  of  the 
whole  of  that  island,  having  killed  one  of  his  brothers  and  expelled 
the  other,  and  acquired  a  degree  of  power  and  splendor  which  no 
Grecian  tyrant  ever  equalled,  except  Gelon  and  Iliero  of  Syracuse3. 
The  Samians,  as  we  have  seen,  were  commercially  connected  with 
Egypt,  and  Polycrates  cultivated  the  friendship  of  Amasis.  For 
a  time  uninterrupted  success  attended  his  schemes  ;  but  they  were 
carried  on  with  little  regard  for  the  rights  of  his  neighbors4,  whom 
he  invaded  and  plundered  without  scruple.  Amasis  had  marked 
his  prosperity,  and  on  occasion  of  some  new  success  was  so  con- 
vinced that  a  dreadful  reverse  must  be  preparing  for  him,  that  he 
addressed  to  him, says  Herodotus,  the  following  letter  : — "Amasis 
to  Polycrates.  It  is  pleasant  to  hear  of  the  prosperity  of  one  with 
whom  we  are  connected  in  friendship  and  hospitality.  But  thy 
great  successes  displease  me,  knowing  how  envious  the  divinity  is, 

1  Diod.  5,  10.  Murray's  Africa  (2,  p.  67),  of  the  alum  found  in  the  Oa-is 
of  Shelima.  Hamilton's  yEgyptiaca,  428;  Russegger,  Reise  (2,  1,  342),  of 
the  Oases  Chardscheh,  El-Dachel  and  El-Bacharieh.  A  Frenchman  in  part- 
nership with  the  Viceroy  was  carrying  on  the  manufacture  there  on  a  large 
scale  at  the  time  of  Russegger's  visit,  1836  (Reise,  w.  s.  p.  53). 

2  Beckmann's  Hist,  of  Inventions,  London,  1846,  1,  196.  The  ancient 
alumen  appears  not  to  have  been  so  well  purified  as  our  alum  from  the  sut 
phate  of  iron  which  is  mixed  with  it  in  nature. 

8  Herod.  3,  125.  4  Herod.  3,  39,  40. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


365 


and  it  is  my  wish  for  those  in  whom  I  am  interested,  that  they 
should  succeed  in  some  things  and  fail  in  others,  and  thus  experi- 
ence an  alternation  of  fortune  through  life,  rather  than  be  always 
prosperous.  For  I  have  never  yet  heard  of  any  one  who  had  been 
successful  in  everything,  who  did  not  suffer  entire  ruin  before  he 
died.  Take  my  advice,  then,  and  counteract  your  prosperity  in 
this  way  ;  consider  what  is  the  thing  you  value  most  and  would 
be  most  grieved  to  lose,  and  throw  that  away  in  such  a  manner 
that  it  shall  never  come  back  again  among  men.  And  if  in  future 
good  and  ill  fortune  should  not  alternate  with  you,  adopt  the 
remedy  that  I  suggest."  The  moral  of  this  letter  is  that  with 
which  Herodotus  himself  philosophized  on  history  and  human  life, 
and  it  coincides  so  exactly  with  the  address  of  Solon  to  Croesus, 
in  another  part  of  his  work,  even  to  the  phraseology1,  as  to  leave 
no  doubt  that  he  has  held  the  pen  for  Amasis,  as  he  made  himself 
the  spokesman  of  Solon.  Polycrates  weighed  the  advice,  and 
found  that  there  was  nothing  which  it  would  grieve  him  more  to 
lose  than  a  costly  emerald  ring,  engraved  by  Theodoras  of  Samos2. 
He  therefore  ordered  a  pentecontor  to  be  manned,  rowed  out  into 
the  deep  sea,  and  in  the  presence  of  all  drew  his  ring  from  his 
finger,  dropped  it  into  the  water,  and  returned  to  his  palace  with 
a  heavy  heart.  It  was  a  notion  of  the  ancient  religions  that  one 
who  was  threatened  with  an  overwhelming  calamity  by  the  anger 
or  envy  of  the  gods,  might  break  the,  force  of  the  blow  by  volun- 

1  1,  32.  'EirLOTafievov  /xe  to  Qeiov  ttuv  idv  <j>Qovepov  re  nal 
rapaxtideS,  tneipuTtjiS  uvSpuTrij'iuv  Trpay/idruv  irepi ;  3,  40.  'Eyol  al  aal 
fieydXai  evrvxiai  ovk  apeoKovoi,  r  6  0  elov  j&ir  laruftivtfi  e  a  r  i 
<b0ovep6v.  1,32.  Xp?)  iravrdS  xPVWToc  CKmreeiv  tt/v  Te?„evrr/v  kt]  dnoprj- 
S£Tac'-oA?.ol(Ji  yup  6/)  v-ode^a^  o  a.  j3  ov  odeoS  tt  q  o  /$  p  t  f  ov  ;  uvETgeifje. 
3,  40.  OviUva  olda  oaris  eis  r  /  A  o  f  ov  k  a  k  u>  5  eri2.evT7jae  it  po  p"- 
£f£oS,  tvTVxzuv  ru  ndvTa. 

2  Pliu.  E.  II.  37,  1,  2.  "  Sardonyekem  earn  gemmam  fuisse  constat; 
ostenduntque  Romae,  si  credimus,  Concordiae  delubro,  cornu  aureo  Augusti 
dono  inclusam." 


366 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


tarily  taking  on  himself  some  minor  evil,  and  thus  compound  his 
debt  to  Fate.  But  in  this  case  the  composition  was  refused. 
Five  or  six  days  after,  a  fisherman  who  had  caught  a  fish  of  unu- 
sual size  and  beauty,  carried  it  as  a  present  to  Polycrates. 
When  the  servants  opened  it  they  found  in  the  stomach  the  lost 
ring,  and  in  great  joy  brought  it  to  their  master,  who,  struck 
with  the  ominous  character  of  the  event,  wrote  a  full  description 
of  all  that  had  happened  to  Amasis  in  Egypt.  He  perceived  that 
the  god  was  bent  upon  the  ruin  of  Polycrates,  and  sent  a  herald 
to  Samos  to  renounce  his  friendship,  in  order,  says  Herodotus, 
that  when  some  terrible  calamity  should  befall  him,  he  might  not 
be  grieved  by  thinking  of  him  as  his  friend.  The  story  of  the 
ring  recovered  by  means  of  the  fish,  is  one  of  the  traditionary 
stock  of  fictions  whose  origin  is  not  to  be  traced.  Amasis  may 
have  had  reasons  of  policy  for  renouncing  the  friendship  of  Poly- 
crates. He  aspired  to  be  master  of  Ionia  and  the  islands1,  and 
voluntarily  offered  a  naval  armament  to  Cambyses,for  the  invasion 
of  Egypt,  which  was  on  the  point  of  taking  place  when  Amasis 
died3.  And  though  Herodotus  has  courteously  omitted  any  in- 
timation in  the  letter,  that  the  abuse  of  power  was  a  sure 
means  of  drawing  down  retribution,  Amasis  cannot  have  been  igno- 
rant that  Polycrates  was  guilty  of  acts  of  tyranny,  very  likely  to 
bring  about  his  ruin.  The  unromantic  account  of  Diodorus  is, that 
Amasis  renounced  the  friendship  of  Polycrates, m>n  finding  that  he 
paid  no  regard  to  an  embassy  which  he  sent,  exhorting  him  to 
abstain  from  his  outrages  on  his  own  fellow-citizens,  and  on  stran- 
gers who  resorted  to  Samos3.  The  fulfilment  of  the  augury  took 
place  a  few  years  later,  when  Polycrates  was  crucified  by  the  Per- 
sian Oroetes,  into  whose  power  lie  had  put  himself,  in  spite  of  the 
warning  of  dreams  and  oracles4. 

Like  others  whom  the  Greeks  classed  under  the  general  name 


1  Her.  3,  122. 
8  Diod.  1,  95. 


3  Her.  3,  44. 

4  Her.  3%  124.  a.  c.  523. 


THE  TWENTY- SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


367 


of  tyrants,  Polycrates  collected  poets  and  men  of  letters  around 
him,  and  is  said  to  have  formed  a  library1.  One  of  the  most  illus- 
trious of  these  was  Pythagoras,  a  native  of  Samos,  of  Phoenician 
parentage,  who  is  said  to  have  visited  Egypt,  recommended  by 
Polycrates  to  the  protection  of  Amasis.  Of  the  wide  peregrina- 
tions attributed  to  this  philosopher,  which  reached  even  to  India 
and  Gaul,  his  residence  in  Egypt  is  the  best-attested  portion.  The 
authors  on  whom  we  are  compelled  to  rely  for  his  history  lived  so 
long  after  his  own  time,  and  there  is  so  much  of  mystery  and 
exaggeration  in  their  accounts,  that  we  know  not  what  reliance  is 
to  be  placed  on  the  stories  of  the  severe  trials  which  the  priest- 
hood made  him  undergo,  and  his  final  success  in  obtaining  initia- 
tion into  all  their  secrets.  .But  that  he  had  resided  long  in  Egypt, 
and  become  acquainted  both  with  their  religion  and  their  science, 
we  learn  on  surer  evidence,  the  character  of  his  own  philosophy 
and  institutions.  Herodotus  all  but  names  him  as  having  derived 
from  Egypt  the  doctrine  of  the  Metempsychosis',  of  which  we  find 
no  trace  before  in  Greek  religion  or  philosophy2.  His  knowledge 
of  medicine,  and  strict  system  of  dietetic  rules, lead  us  to  conclude 
that  he  had  been  trained  in  Egypt,  where  medicine  had  attained 
the  highest  perfection,  and  dietary  rules  had  been  systematized 
with  the  greatest  success.  His  attainments  in  geometry  corre- 
spond with  the  ascertained  fact  that  Egypt  was  the  birthplace  of 
that  art.  He  is  distinguished  in  the  history  of  philosophy  for  an 
attempt,  happily  unsuccessful,  because  uncongenial  to  the  Gre- 
cian mind,  to  make  knowledge  a  mystery,  to  obstruct  the  ap- 
proach to  it  by  the  interposition  of  long  and  repulsive  discipline, 

1  Athen.  Epit.  lib.  1,  p.  3.  Wolf,  without  reason,  throws  doubt  on  this 
statement  (Proleg.  cxlv.  note  7). 

2  Herodotus  speaks  of  the  prohibition  to  bury  in  woollen  as  belonging  to 
the  orgies  which  were  called  Orphic  and  Bacchic,  but  were  really  Egyptian 
and  Pythagorean  rites  (2,  81) ;  but  this  does  not  necessarily  imply  a  belief 
in  the  transmigration  of  the  soul. 


3G8 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


by  investing  the  teacher  with  a  supernatural  character  to  exalt  his 
precepts  into  oracles,  and  to  place  the  governing  power  of  the  state 
in  the  hands  of  an  order  who  had  been  separated  from  their  fellow- 
citizens  and  inspired  with  an  esprit  de  corps  by  their  education. 
In  these  respects  the  Pythagorean  school  resembled  the  Egyptian 
priesthood  of  this  age,  as  far  as  the  different  circumstances  of 
Greece  and  Egypt  would  allow  imitation,  and  there  was  no  other 
model  in  the  ancient  world  that  he  could  have  copied1. 

Solon  must  have  come  to  Egypt"  before  the  reign  of  Amasis,  if 
his  visit  preceded  his  legislation  ;  a  supposition  not  necessary  to 
account  for  the  similarity  between  his  laws  and  those  of  Egypt. 
Tradition  related  that  he  had  been  the  companion  of  Psenophis,the 
priest  of  Heliopolis,  and  Sonchis,the  priest  of  Sais,two  of  the  most 
learned  of  their  order,  and  philosophized  with  them3.  His  object 
would  be  very  different  from  that  of  Pythagoras,  not  to  dive  into 
religious  mysteries, but  to  learn  practical  wisdom,  such  as  he  might 
have  applied  to  tho  benefit  of  his  country  on  his  return,  had  he  not 
found  its  liberties  overthrown  by  Pisistratus.  If  we  may  believe 
Plato,  however,  he  brought  home  thence  a  wondrous  tale  of  the 
ancient  glories  of  Athens,  in  times  some  thousand  years  prior  to 
Phoroneus  and  Xiobe  and  Deucalion's  flood,  when  she  had 

1  According  to  Pliny,  X  H.  36,  9,  Semenpserteus  was  the  name  of  the  king 
in  whose  reign  Pythagoras  came  to  Egypt.  The  Bamberg  MS.  reads  Spe- 
metnepscrphreo,  whence  Bunsen  elicits  Paameticho  Nepherphreo.  (Urkun- 
denbuch,  p.  85,  Germ.) 

-  Herodotus  (1,  29,  30)  represents  him  as  visiting  Egypt  after  his  legisla- 
tion (594  b.  a),  but  does  not  expressly  say  that  he  was  there  in  the  reign  of 
Amasis,  who  came  to  the  throne  in  570  r.  c.,  although  his  words  (2,  177) 
seem  to  imply  not  only  this,  but  that  Amasis  was  a  legislator  before  Solon. 
Grote  and  Xiebuhr  have  remarked  that  there  is  an  error  of  forty  years  in 
Herodotus'  chronology  of  this  period  (Grote,  3,  205).  There  is  a  similar 
variation  of  forty  years  in  the  assigned  age  of  Pythagoras.  See  Fynes  Clin- 
ton, F.  H.  vol.  2,  p.  9. 

a  TiUt.  Sol.  26.    AoyiuTaToi'i  ovai  t£)V  lepeov  cvve<t>i?.oou<p7]ae 


TTTE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


360 


repelled  an  invasion  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  since  submerged 
island  of  Atlantis,  who  had  overrun  the  whole  of  the  west,  as  far 
as  Egypt  and  Tvrrheniri1.  There  is  much  in  the  story  which 
betrays  the  desire  of  the  priests  of  Sais  at  once  to  ingratiate  them- 
selves with  the  Athenians,  by  rinding  parallels  between  Attic  and 
Egyptian  usages,  and  to  maintain  their  own  superiority  ;  and  no 
historical  inference  can  be  drawn  from  any  part  of  it.  Yet  the 
mention  of  the  impossibility  of  navigating  the  Atlantic,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  mud  produced  by  the  subsiderce  of  the  island, 
deserves  notice,  in  reference  rather  to  the  age  of  Plato  than  of 
Solon.  We  have  seen  that  after  the  time  of  Herodotus  it  became 
the  established  opinion  that  Africa  could  not  be  circumnavigated, 
owing  to  some  obstruction  vaguely  described.  The  modern  navi- 
gator finds  neither  mud  nor  shallows  nor  dead  calms,  but  the  sea- 
weed which  covers  the  ocean  south  of  the  Azores  really  does  impede 
navigation,  and  would  have  stopped  the  enterprise  of  Columbus, 
had  he  not  skilfully  turned  the  terror  of  his  crew  into  an  encourage- 
ment, by  representing  it  as  a  proof  that  land  was  near.  Should 
it  hereafter  be  ascertained  that  a  ridge  now  covered  by  the  Atlantic 
ocean  once  joined  the  two  worlds,  the  tale  of  the  priest  of  Sais,  or 
of  Plato,  will  only  be  an  example  of  a  guess  curiously  fulfilled,  like 
Seneca's  prophecy  of  the  discovery  of  a  new  world.  * 

Among  the  temples  enlarged  or  decorated  by  Amasis,  that  of 
Minerva  at  Sais  was  particularly  distinguished.  He  erected  there 
propykea,  which,  both  for  height  and  size  and  the  magnitude  and 
the  quality  of  the  stones  employed,  surpassed  all  others.  These 
he  brought  from  the  quarries  of  Memphis,  as  well  as  the  colossal 
figures  and  androsphinxes  with  which  the  dromos  was  adorned. 
A  monolithal  shrine  of  granite  from  the  quarries  of  Elephantine 
excited  the  especial  admiration  of  Herodotus.  Two  thousand  men 
were  appointed  to  bring  it  down  the  Nile  ;  from  Elephantine  to 


1  Tim.  iii.  25,  Stcph. 


3  See  Grote's  Greece,  3,  382,  note. 

1G* 


370 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Sais  was  an  ordinary  navigation  of  only  twenty  days,  but  in  this 
case  three  years  were  occupied,  probably  because  the  immense 
weight  made  it  impossible  to  float  it  except  during  the  season  of 
the  high  Nile.  Its  height  was  above  thirty  feet  ;  its  depth,  from 
front  to  bach,  twelve  feet  ;  its  breadth  twenty-one1.  After  all  the 
cost  and  labor  bestowed  on  its  extraction  and  conveyance,  it  was 
not  erected  in  the  temple  of  Minerva  :  as  they  were  drawing  it  in, 
the  superintendent  of  the  works  uttered  a  groan  through  weariness 
of  the  labor  and  the  thought  of  the  time  that  had  been  expended  ; 
and  Amasis,  either  because  he  deemed  this  ominous,  or  because  one 
of  the  workmen  had  been  killed  in  the  process  of  moving  it  on 
levers,  would  not  allow  it  to  be  drawn  any  further.  "When  Hero- 
dotus visited  Egypt,  it  remained  lying  on  the  ground  before  the 
temple.  There  remains  at  Tel-et-mai,  the  ancient  Thmuis  in  the 
Delta, a  monolitlial  shrine  of  the  granite  of  Syene,bearing  the  name 
of  Amasis,  of  similar  form  to  that  which  Herodotus  describes  ;  but 
its  length  is  only  twenty-one  feet  nine  inches,  and  its  breadth  thir- 
teen feet2.  Amasis  erected  also  a  colossus  seventy-five  feet  in 
height  at  Memphis,  before  the  temple  of  Ptah,  and  two  of  gran- 
ite, twenty  feet  in  height,  one  on  each  side  of  the  inner  sanctu- 
ary. One  of  the  same  size  at  Sais  was  prostrate  like  the  great 
colossus.  Judging  from  analogy,  we  may  suppose  that  these 
were  colossal  statues  of  himself,  which  the  Persian  conqueror  of 
Egypt  threw  down,  among  his  other  outrages  on  the  memory  of 
Amasis.  He  also  built  a  large  and  splendid  temple  to  Isis  at 
Memphis3.  Inscriptions  are  found  on  the  rocks  at  Syene  which 
confirm  the  accounts  of  Herodotus  respecting  the  extensive  ex- 
cavations made  there  by  this  king  for  his  various  public  works. 

f  See  note  on  Kenrick's  Herod.  2,  175.  He  gives  its  measures  as  it  lay 
on  the  ground  ;  consequently  what  he  calls  the  length  was  the  height,  and 
so  of  the  other  dimensions. 

2  Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  1,  191  ;  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  1,440. 
Champ.  Egypte  sous  les  Pharaons,  2,  114.  3  Her.  2,  176. 


THE  TWENTY- SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


371 


His  reign  lasted,  according  to  the  lists  and  Herodotus1,  forty- 
four  years  ;  and  Rosellini  lias  found  a  tablet  in  the  quarries  of 
Mokattam,  bearing  his  name  and  this  date2,  nis  death  took  place 
in  the  year  526  b.c,  when  his  kingdom  was  on  the  point  of  being 
invaded  by  Cambyses,  the  son  of  Cyrus. 

Cyrus,  the  grandson  of  Astyages,  the  son  of  the  Cyaxares  by 
whom  Xineveh  was  besieged,  had  united  the  empire  of  the  Medes 
with  that  of  the  Persians,  and  reduced  Asia  Minor,  Lydia,  and  the 
Grecian  colonies  into  subjection.  Babylon  alone  remained  in 
'Western  Asia  as  an  independent  state.  It  is  remarkable  that 
Herodotus  says  nothing  of  the  expansion  of  the  power  of  Babylon 
in  the  reign  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  but  represents  Xitocris,  queen  of 
the  Babylonians,  as  alarmed  at  the  growing  empire  of  the  Medes . 
after  their  capture  of  Xineveh3.  It  should  seem  that  immediately 
after  this  event,  accomplished  by  the  alliance  of  the  Medes  and 
Babylonians,  the  Medes  turned  their  arms  towards  Lydia,  and 
left  Babylon  in  possession  of  the'  greater  part  of  the  territories 
dependent  on  Xineveh  ;  for  the  king  against  whom  Cyrus  ad- 
vanced is  called,  not  king  of  Babylon,  but  king  of  Assyria4. 
The  name  of  the  queen  Xitocris  is  so  entirely  Egyptian,  that  we 
cannot  hesitate  to  consider  her  as  a  daughter  of  the  Pharaohs5. 

1  3,  10. 

3  Mon.  Stor.  2,  152.  It  has  been  said  by  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson  (M.  and 
C.  1,  170),  that  the  title  Mdek  is  given  to  Amasis  in  some  of  his  legends. 
Dr.  Wiseman  (Lectures  on  Science  and  Revealed  Religion,  page  301)  says, 
that  Amasis  on  his  monuments  never  receives  the  Egyptian  titles  of  royalty, 
but  instead  of  a  praenomen  the  Semitic  title  of  Jfclck.  This  is  a  mistake  ; 
Amasis  has  the  usual  titles,  "  Son  of  the  Sun,"  kc.  Jfalek  is  found  over 
some  shields  bearing  his  name,  but  they  may  belong  to  the  Amasis  men- 
tioned by  Herodotus  (1,  167),  who  lived  in  the  reign  of  Darius.  See  Sharpe, 
Hist,  of  Egypt,  plates  190,  191. 

3  Her.  I,  185.  T>;v  M;y<5(ji>  optica  apx^v  f^yakrfv  re  nal  ovk  uTpeut^ovaav 
a'/./.a  -£  apaiprjfitva  ucTea  airoloi,  iv  di  6)  nai  rrjv  Nlyov,  -poe<pv?^u$a.7o  oca 
idvvaro  /4u?.igtcl 

4  Her.  1,  188.  6  Philostr.  Vit.  Apoll.  1,  25,  calls  her  a  Median. 


372 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


The  wife  of  Psammitichus  L,  and  the  daughter  of  Psammis  or 
Psammitichus  II.  both  bear  this  name1.  Coupling  this  circum- 
stances with  the  absence  of  all  hostility  between  Egypt  and 
Babylon  after  the  invasion  of  Xebuchadnezzar2,  it  seems  proba- 
ble that  Xebuchadnezzar  had  married  an  Egyptian  princess. 
The  succession  of  the  Babylonian  kings  is  thus  given  by  Ptol- 
emv,  whose  authority  must  be  considered  as  the  highest  : — 

Years. 

1.  Nabocolassak  (Xebuchadnezzar)  43 

2.  Illoaradamus  2 

3.  NebIGASSOLASSAr  (Xeriglissar)  4 

4.  Xaboxadius  17 

TheXabonadius  of  Ptolemy  is  evidently  the  Labynetus  of  Hero- 
dotus, the  Belshazzar  of  Daniel,  and,  according  to  Herodotus,  the 
son  of  Xitocris.  Herodotus  calls  her  husband  also  Labynetus, 
which  does  not  agree  with  Ptolemy  ;  but  he  appears  to  have 
known  only  two  Babylonian  kings,  both  of  whom  he  calls  Laby- 
netus3. In  what  relation  Illoaradamus  (Evilmerodach,  Xebuchad- 
nezzar1 s  son)  stood  to  Xeriglissar  we  do  not  learn  from  Ptolemy, 
but  Berosus4  informs  us  that  Xeriglissar  was  husband  of  his  sister, 
and  put  him  to  death.  It  seems  probable  therefore  that  Xitocris 
was  the  widow  of  Xebuchadnezzar5  ;  that  after  the  death  of  Xeri- 
glissar, who  reigned  but  four  years,  she  was  regent,  or  guardian, 
of  her  son  Xabonadius,  and  that  foreseeing  the  impending  attack 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  130,  137. 

2  See  p.  352  of  this  vol. 

3  Labynetus  the  Babylonian,  whom  he  mentions  (1,  74)  as  making  peace 
between  the  Lydians  and  Medes,  must  be  Xebuchadnezzar. 

4  Jos.  Apion.  1,  20. 

6  From  Jeremiah  xxvii.  7,  it  has  been  inferred  that  Xebuchadnezzar's 
grandson  was  to  lose  his  power,  and  Evilmerodach  may  have  been  the  hus- 
band of  Xitocris  and  father  of  Labynetus.  But  perhaps  "  son's  son"  may 
only  mean  a  short  succession,  as  Tlaldeg  Tvaiduv  rot  kev  ixetottlcOe  yivuvrai 
in  Homer,  an  indefinitely  long  one. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


3?3 


of  Cyrus,  she  performed  those  works  which  Herodotus  describes 
and  praises  for  the  protection  of  Babylonia  against -invasion.  They 
are  such  as  might  naturally  suggest  themselves  to  a  native  of 
Egypt.  That  country  had  been  rendered  impracticable  for  the 
operations  of  cavalry  by  its  canals.  The  Euphrates  just  above 
Babylon  had  previously  flowed  in  a  straight  channel  ;  she  gave  it 
such  a  winding  and  interlaced  course,  that,  according  to  Herodotus 
(1,  185),  in  descending  in  a  boat  you  were  brought  thrice  to  the 
same  place,  and  on  the  third  day  were  no  further  advanced  than 
on  the  first.  She  raised  an  embankment  along  the  course  of  the 
river,  resembling  that  by  which  Memphis  was  protected,  and  a 
reservoir  like  that  of  Moeris  below  the  city  to  receive  the  super- 
fluous waters  of  the  inundation.  These  works  were  evidently 
intended  to  answer  a  double  purpose,  to  regulate  the  operations  of 
the  river,  and  render  the  country  inaccessible  and  difficult  for  an 
invading  army.  Another  of  her  works  was  the  construction  of  a 
bridge,  consisting  of  piers  on  which  planks  were  laid,  for  joining 
the  two  parts  of  Babylon  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Euphrates. 
We  know  from  the  monuments  that  the  Egyptians  had  constructed 
such  bridges  some  centuries  before  this  time1.  All  her  precautions, 
however,  were  unavailing  ;  Cyrus  defeated  the  Babylonians  in  the 
field,  and  afterwards  captured  the  city  by  drawing  off  the  waters 
of  the  river,  and  entering  along  its  bed.  This  was  in  the  year 
538  b.c.  Xo  hostility  against  Egypt2  followed  the  conquest  of 
Babylon  ;  the  attention  of  Cyrus  was  drawn  towards  the  nomadic 
nations  on  his  north-eastern  frontier,  and  in  an  expedition  aganist 
the  Massagetae,  he  lost  his  life  in  the  year  529  b.c.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son  Cambyses,  who  almost  immediately  began  to 
prepare  for  an  expedition  against  Egypt. 

1  See  p.  218  of  this  vol. 

8  The  assertion  of  Xenophon  in  his  Cyropsedia,  1,  1,  that  Cyrus  conquered 
Egypt,  is  generally  and  justly  rejected  bydiistorica)  critics. 


374 


HISTORY  OP  EGYPT. 


Twenty -seventh  Dynasty.    Eight  Persian  kings. 

Years. 

1.  Cambyses,  in  the  fifth  year  of  his  reign  over  Persia 


became  king  of  Egypt,  and  reigned  6 

2.  Darius,  son  of  Hystaspes  36 

3.  Xerxes  the  Great  21 

4.  Artabanus   7m'ths. 

5.  Artaxerxes  41 

C.  Xerxes   ....   2  " 

7.  Sogdianus   7  " 

8.  Darius,  son  of  Xerxes  19 


124  4  " 

No  single  or  personal  cause  is  at  all  necessary  to  account  for  an 
attack  on  a  wealthy  country  like  Egypt,  by  a  newly-risen  and 
aggressive  power  such  as  that  of  the  Medo-Persians,  which,  accord- 
ing to  Herodotus,  "  would  not  rest1."  In  all  recent  encounters 
fietween  the  armies  of  Egypt  and  those  of  the  great  Asiatic  states, 
Egypt  had  been  worsted,  if  we  except  the  invasion  of  Sennacherib, 
whose  defeat  the  Egyptians  themselves  regarded  as  a  miracle. 
Popular  tradition,  however,  supplied  many  such  causes.  Accord- 
ing to  that  which  was  most  evidently  devised  in  order  to  soothe 
the  national  pride  of  the  Egyptians,  Cambyses  was  the  son  of 
Nitetis,  a  daughter  of  Apries,  whom  Cyrus  had  taken  as  a  secon- 
dary wife — whereas,  says  Herodotus, it  is  notorious  that  no  son  of 
a  secondary  wife  succeed  to  the  throne  of  Persia,  and  that 
Cambyses  was  the  son  of  Cassandane,  the  daughter  of  Pharnaspes, 
a  man  of  the  Achaunenid  family.  The  Persian  story  was,  that 
Cambyses  had  sent  to  Egypt  to  demand  in  marriage  a  daughter  of 
Amasis,  who,  knowing  she  would  be  only  a  secondary  wife  and  not 
his  queen,  substituted  a  beautiful  daughter  of  Apries,  and  that 
Cambyses  discovering  the  fraud,  was  so  enraged  that  he  deter- 

:  Ovk  aTpefxi&vcav.    See  note  3,  p.  37L 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


373 


mined  to  invade  Egypt.  This  story  is  refuted  by  chronology. 
Apries  had  died  more  than  forty  years  before,  and  his  daughter1, 
though  arrayed,  as  Herodotus  says/'  in  royal  vestments  and  gold, " 
could  never  have  gained  the  affections  of  the  youthful  monarch,  as 
the  story  implies.  Another  version  was  that  Nltetis  was  the  wife, 
not  of  Cambyses,  but  of  Cyrus.  A  Persian  woman  visiting  his 
harem ;  was  struck  with  the  beauty  of  the  children  of  Cassandane, 
and  praised  them  greatly  to  their  mother.  4 '  Yet  would  you 
believe  it, "  said  Cassandane,  "  Cyrus  neglects  me,  the  mother  of 
such  children  as  these,  to  pay  honor  to  an  Egyptian  interloper2. " 
On  this,  Cambyses,  her  elder  son,  a  boy  of  ten  years  of  age, 
exclaimed,  "  Therefore,  mother,  when  I  am  a  man,  I  will  turn 
Egypt  upside  down  ;"  and  recollecting  his  promise  when  he 
came  to  the  throne,  he  prepared  to  invade  that  country. 

Among  these  various  stories,  one  thing  alone  appears  to  -  have 
the  sanction  of  Herodotus.  An  Egyptian,  at  the  request  of  Cyrus, 
had  been  sent  to  him  by  Amasis,  as  the  most  skilful  oculist  in  the 
country.  This  was  equivalent  to  a  perpetual  separation  from  his 
wife  and  children  ;  and  either  in  revenge,  or  in  the  hope  of  revisit- 
ing Egypt,  if  war  should  result  from  the  refusal  of  Amasis,  he 
urged  Cambyses  to  demand  his  daughter.  The  demand  was  pro- 
bably refused — the  Persians  said,  eluded.  It  happened  about  the 
time  when  Cambyses  was  preparing  his  expedition,  that  Amasis 
had  given  offence  to  Phanes  of  Halicarnassus,  one  of  the  com- 
manders of  his  mercenary  troops,  a  man  of  great  valor  and  ability. 
He  had  got  on  shipboard, intending  to  join  Cambyses,  but  Amasis, 
knowing  his  estimation  among  his  auxiliaries,  and  his  accurate 
acquaintance  with  everything  relating  to  Egypt,  sent  a  trireme  in 
pursuit  of  him.  The  eunuch  who  had  the  command  of  the  vessel 

1  Herodotus  calls  her  ij  Tate,  but  wo  have  before  had  occasion  to  observe 
how  little  he  troubles  himself  with  chronological  difficulties. 

2  Tqv  «*•'  Alyvnrov  kni/iTr/rov  iv  ryty  TiOerai  (3,  3). 


HISTORY  OP  EGYPT. 


overtook  and  seized  him  in  Lycia,  but  he  made  his  guards  intoxi- 
cated, and  escaped  to  Cambyses.  The  Persian  king  was  then 
deliberating  how  he  should  pass  the  Desert  between  Egypt  and 
Palestine,  and  Phanes  not  only  gave  him  information  on  this 
point,  but  laid  open  to  him  the  whole  state  of  Amasis'  affairs. 
This  Desert  of  sand  extends  from  Kan  Iones  (Jenysus),  about  five 
or  six  hours'  travelling  to  the  south-west  of  Gaza,  to  Salahieh  in 
Egypt.  Along  this  distance  of  107  geographical  miles  there  is  no 
trace  of  vegetation,  nor  any  water  fit  for  drinking  ;  the  first  sixty 
miles,  from  Kan  Iones  to  the  commencement  of  the  Casian  Mount 
at  the  angle  of  the  coast,  are  entirely  destitute  of  water1.  The 
sands  of  the  Isthmus  are  loose  and  shifting2,  and  the  track  was 
marked  by  tall  poles.  The  Casian  Mount,  on  which  a  temple  of 
Jupiter  stood,  was  only  a  ridge  of  sandy  downs,  somewhat  higher 
than  the  adjacent  coast3.  The  sea-coast  anciently  possessed  by 
the  Philistines  as  far  south  as  Jenysus  was  at  this  time  in  the 
power  of  the  Arabians,  and  from  Jenysus  to  the  confines  of  Egypt, 
of  the  Syrians  of  Palestine4.  The  Arabians  were  Idumeans,  who 
had  encroached  upon  the  territory  of  the  Jews5,  and  extended 
themselves  from  Petra  and  the  zElanitic  Gulf  to  the  Mediterra- 
nean. The  Syrians,  according  to  the  use  of  that  name  elsewhere  by 
Herodotus,  must  have  been  Jews,  some  of  those  fugitives  who,  as 
we  learn  from  various  passages  in  the  prophets,  had  settled  them- 
selves, at  the  time  of  the  Captivity,  along  the  frontiers  of  Egypt, 

1  '\vvfiphv  deu'uc.    (Her.  3,  5.) 

2  Xisi  calami  defixi  regunt  via  non  reperitur,  subinde  aura  vestigia  ope- 
riente.    (Plin.  X.  H.  0,  33.) 

3  Strabo,  10,  p.  760.    Lucan,  Phars.  8,  539. 

4  'Arro  fyotvixTjg  fi£XPL  ovpuv  ruv  KaSyrioc;  nuhior,?/  egti  "Zvquv  tuv  UaAa- 
iotivCjv  naXeo/ievuv,  a~b  Tavrrjg  to.  e/nrupia  ra  iirl  OaAaocrjc  ptxpi-  'Irjvvaov 
ird'uoc  £gti  tov  'Apaptov,  uTtd  Si  'Itjvvcov,  avris  1,vpo)v  ucxP1  ^£Q/3(ovi6og 
AifivTjr.  (Her.  3,  5.)  By  "  the  ^boundaries  of  the  city  Cadytis"  Herodotus 
probably  means  Joppa,  which  was  the  port  of  Jerusalem.   (Strabo,  1G,  759.) 

5  Ezek.  xxxvi.  5. 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


from  the  neighborhood  of  Heliopolis  to  the  sea.  The  Syriac 
language  was  spoken  there,  even  in  the  days  of  Jerome1. 

Phanes  advised  Cambyses  to  avail  themself  of  the  aid  of  the 
Idumaeans  for  accomplishing  his  passage  through  the  Desert. 
Without  their  friendship  he  could  have  obtained  no  adequate  sup- 
ply of  water2  :  he  had  an  auxiliary  fleet  of  Asiatic  Greeks,  Ionians 
and  ^Eolians  whom  his  father  had  reduced  ;  but  the  nature  of  the 
coast  precludes  the  possibility  that  an  army  should  be  supplied  by 
a  fleet  accompanying  its  progress.  It  is  destitute  of  harbors,  and 
the  shore  is  bordered  by  shifting  sands,  which  appear  firm, but  give 
way  under  the  foot3.  The  Egyptian  kings  had  made  no  provision 
for  a  supply  of  water  in  this  Desert,  whose  sands  were  a  better 
bulwark  to  their  kingdom  than  any  wall  or  trench4.  Cambyses 
entered  into  a  treaty  for  this  purpose  with  the  lJumaeans.  Accord- 
ing to  their  usage,  it  was  ratified  by  the  representatives  of  the  two 
contracting  parties  allowing  a  vein  to  be  opened  with  a  sharp  stone 
in  one  of  their  hands,  beside  the  middle  finger.  With  a  shred 
from  the  outer  garment  of  each  dipped  in  the  blood,  uie  person 
who  officiated  then  anointed  seven  stones  placed  in  the  midst5, 
and  called  on  Dionysus  and  Urania  by  the  names  of  Orotal  and 
Alilat  to  sanction  the  pledge6.   Different  accounts  were  given  of 

1  Hiercm.  ad  Is.  19,  IS.  "  Ostracinam  etceteras  juxta  Rhinocoluram  et 
Casium  civitates  usque  hodie  in  ^Eg}-pto  lingua  Canaanitide,  hoc  est  Syra, 
loqui  manifestum  est."    See  p.  269  of  this  vol.  note  ?.       2  Herod.  3,  88. 

3  From  Strabo  (16,  75S)  it  seems  as  if  there  were  a  tide  here  as  in  the 
Syrtes,  and  several  other  bays  of  the  Mediterranean,  which  increased  the 
danger  of  passing,  especially  as  they  were  of  irregular  occurrence.  See  hi 
Diod.  20,  73  seq.  the  account  of  the  expedition  of  Antigonus,  and  the  dan- 
ger to  which  his  fleet  was  exposed. 

4  Rennell's  Geogr.  of  Herodotus,  1,  339. 

5  Compare  Gen.  xxi.  28.  "  To  swear"  in  Hebrew  is  literally  "to  seven" 
>mv  Traces  of  this  practice  of  taking  an  oath  before  a  stone  were  found 
at  Athens.    (Poll.  Ouom.  viii.  9,  86.) 

s  Probably  the  Sun  and  Moon,  who  appear  from  Job  xxxi.  26,  27,  to  have 
been  worshipped  in  Idunuea,  the  country  of  the  patriarch. 


378 


HISTOltY  OF  EGYPT. 


the  manner  in  which  the  necessary  quantity  of  water  was  sup- 
plied. It  was  said  that  a  river  had  been  conveyed  through  leather 
hose  into  three  reservoirs  on  different  parts  of  the  line  of  march. 
But  no  such  river  existed  anywhere  within  reach,  and  it  appears 
that  a  great  number  of  camels  were  laden  with  water-skins,  and 
driven  by  the  Idumseans  to  those  points  in  the  Desert  at  which 
the  army  of  Cambyses  would  halt.  The  Book  of  Job  affords  a 
proof  that  the  Idumaeans  possessed  very  numerous  herds  of 
camels,  which  in  this  age  were  unknown,  except  as  foreign  ani- 
mals, on  the  western  side  of  the  Isthmus  of  Suez1.  The  Persians 
immediately  took  measures  to  secure  a  regular  passage,  by  laying 
down  vessels  of  earthen- ware  beside  the  track,  which  were  filled 
with  water2  from  the  Nile. 

Amasis  died  (52$  b.  c.  )  while  Cambyses  was  preparing  his  expe- 
dition3, and  had  been  embalmed  and  consigned  to  the  tomb  which 
he  had  constructed  for  himself  in  the  temple  of  Minerva  at  Sais. 
His  son  Psammenitus  assembled  his  Greek  and  Egyptian 
forces,  and  awaited  the  approach  of  the  Persians  in  his  camp  near 
Pelusium.  Before  the  armies  engaged,  the  Ionians  and  Carians 
took  a  cruel  revenge  on  Phanes,  by  whose  treachery  the  enemy 
had  been  enabled  to  pass  the  Desert.  His  children,  whom  he  had 
left  behind  him  in  Egypt,  were  brought  out,  one  at  a  time,  into 
the  space  between  the  camps  in  view  of  their  father,  their 

1  See  Ritter,  Asien,  13,  757. 

2  This  practice  the  Xabathaean  Arabs  also  used.  (Diod.  19,  94.)  They 
buried  pots  full  of  rain-water  in  the  Desert,  in  places  known  only  to  them- 
selves.   See  Rennell,  u,  s. 

3  A  passage  of  Theopompus,  preserved  by  Longinus,  sect.  43,  and  describ- 
ing the  KaT<lf3ccic  of  some  Persian  king  into  Egypt,  has  been  referred  by 
Toup  (I.  c.)  and  Schweighaeuser  (ad  Athen.  2,  67)  to  the  expedition  of  Cam- 
byses. But  the  description  evidently  belongs  to  a  much  later  period  of  the 
Persian  Monarchy,  nor  is  it  easy  to  conceive  how  the  reign  of  Cambyses 
should  come  within  the  scope  of  any  work  of  Theopompus,  who  wrote 
a  History  of  the  latter  part  of  the  Peloponnesian  war  and  the  reign  of 
Philip. 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


379 


throats  cut,  and  the  blood  which  was  received  into  a  goblet, 
mixed  with  wine  and  water,  and  drunk  by  the  auxiliaries. 
"  And  so,"  says  the  historian,  "  they  went  to  battle1." 

The  calamitous  issue  of  the  battle  had  been  portended  to  the 
Egyptians  by  the  fall  of  a  shower  of  rain  at  Thebes*  ;  it  was  obsti- 
nate, and  attended  with  great  slaughter  on  both  sides,  but  ulti- 
mately the  Persians  triumphed,  and  the  Egyptians  fled  in  disorder 
to  Memphis.  The  field  remained  strewed  with  skulls  in  the  time  of 
Herodotus,  and  those  of  the  Egyptians  could  be  distinguished 
from  the  Persians  by  their  superior  hardness  (a  fact  confirmed  by 
the  mummies^,  the  result,  as  he  thought,  of  the  practice  of  shav- 
ing the  head  from  infancy.  We  read  of  no  outrages  or  acts  of  cru- 
elty committed  by  Cambyses  on  occasion  of  his  victory  ;  he  sent 
a  Mitylenean  vessel,  with  a  Persian  herald  on  board,  to  Memphis 
to  propose  a  pacification.  The  Egyptians,  as  soon  as  they  saw  it- 
approaching,  rushed  down  in  a  body,  destroyed  the  ship,  hacked 
the  crew  to  pieces,  and  exposed  their  mutilated  limbs  on  the  wall. 
Cambyses  immediately  formed  the  siege  of  Memphis,  which  held 
out  for  a  considerable  time,  but  ultimately  surrendered.  Ten  days 
after  its  capture,  2000  Egyptian  youths  were  led  out  to  be  put  to 
death,  in  reprisal  for  the  200  men  of  the  Mitylenean  vessel  whom 
the  people  of  Memphis  had  massacred.  This  was  no  sudden  act  of 
furious  revenge  on  the  part  of  Cambyses  ;  the  royal  judges  had 
decided  that  a  tenfold  retribution  must  take  place.  Darius  with- 
out such  provocation  empaled  3000  of  the  most  eminent  Baby- 
lonians3. The  law  of  reprisals  is  terrible  in  its  operation,  falling 
on  the  innocent  instead  of  the  guilty,  or  at  best  involving  both  ; 
but  it  is  the  ultima  ratio  which  upholds  the  law  of  nations, 

1  According  to  Polyaenus  (7,  9)  Cambyses  used  a  stratagem,  placing  in 
front  of  his  line,  dogs,  sheep,  cats,  ibises  and  other  animals  held  sacred  by 
the  Egyptians,  and  thus  preventing  them  from  using  their  missiles  against 
the  Persians  as  they  approached. 

8  Her.  3,  10.  «  Herod.  3,  159. 


IIISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


clearly  violated  by  the  Egyptians.  Herodotus  thus  relates  the 
scene  which  passed.  I  regret  the  necessity  of  giving  his  narra- 
tive in  any  other  language  than  his  own  : — 

' '  Ten  days  after  Memphis  had  surrendered,  Cambyses  brought 
out  Psammenitus,  who  had  been  six  months  king  of  Egypt,  and 
seating  him,  exposed  to  public  contumely,  in  the  suburb,  along 
with  other  Egyptians  of  the  first  rank,  put  his  spirit  to  the  proof 
in  this  way.  Having  dressed  the  daughter  of  Psammenitus  in  the 
garb  of  a  slave,  he  sent  her  forth  carrying  a  pitcher  to  fetch  water, 
•  and  with  her  the  maiden  daughters  of  the  chief  men,  in  a  similar 
garb  to  that  of  the  princess.  The  other  parents,  when  their  chil- 
dren came  opposite  to  where  they  sat,  lifted  up  their  voices  and 
■wept  at  the  sight  of  their  afflicted  condition  ;  but  Psammenitus, 
though  he  recognised  his  daughter,  only  bent  his  head  towards 
the  ground.  When  these  were  gone  by,  Cambyses  made  his  son 
pass  before  him  along  with  2000  other  Egyptians  of  the  same  age, 
gagged,  and  with  ropes  round  their  necks,  who  were  on  their  way 
to  execution,  in  reprisal  for  the  Mityleneans  who  had  been  put  to 
death  at  Memphis.  The  other  Egyptians  who  sat  near  him  wept 
and  lamented  as  before  ;  but  Psammenitus,  though  he  saw  them 
pass,  and  knew  that  his  son  was  on  his  way  to  death,  did  as  he 
had  done  when  his  daughter  went  by.  But  when  they  all  had 
passed,  there  happened  to  come  by  an  aged  man,  who  had  been 
one  of  his  table-companions,  now  stripped  of  everything,  and  beg- 
ging from  the  soldiers.  On  the  sight  of  him  Psammenitus  burst 
into  tears,  and,  calling  on  his  friend's  name,  beat  his  head  in  grief. 
Men  had  been  stationed  to  watch  him,  and  report  his  behavior  to 
Cambyses,  who,  being  astonished,  sent  a  messenger  to  him  with 
this  inquiry, — '  Psammenitus,  thy  lord  Cambyses  asks  thee  why, 
when  thou  sawest  thy  daughter  in  affliction  and  thy  son  going 
forth  to  death,  thou  didst  neither  weep  nor  utter  any  exclamation, 
but  hast  shown  respect  to  this  beggar,  who,  as  I  hear,  is  no  way 
allied  to  thee. '  Thus  Cambyses  questioned, and  thus  Psammenitus 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


381 


replied: — '0  son  of  Cyrus,  the  misfortunes  of  my  own  family  were 
too  great  for  weeping,  but  the  sorrow  of  my  companion  deserved 
tears  ;  on  the  threshold  of  old  age  he  has  fallen  from  great  pros- 
perity into  beggary. '  "  The  history  beautifully  illustrates  the  dif- 
ference between  the  misery  that  closes,  and  the  sympathy  that 
unlocks  the  source  of  tears,  and  the  sequel  shows  that  it  was  not 
lost  on  Cambyses.  The  Persians  who  were  present  wept  ;  Croesus, 
who  had  followed  Cambyses  from  Lydia,  wept  ;  he  himself  (it  is 
the  Egyptians  who  report)  felt  some  touch  of  pity1 ;  he  commanded 
the  son  of  Psammenitus  to  be  spared,  and  his  father  to  be  brought  • 
from  the  suburbs  to  his  presence.  The  son  had  suffered  before  the 
messenger  arrived  ;  but  Psammenitus  was  conducted  to  Cam- 
byses, and  for  the  present  lived  unmolested  in  his  household. 

From  Memphis  Cambyses  went  to  Sais,  and  commanded  the 
mummy  of  Amasis  to  be  brought  forth  from  its  repository.  It 
was  subjected  to  various  indignities,  the  hair  was  plucked  oil,  the 
body  pierced  and  beaten  with  stripes.  But  the  process  of  embalm- 
ment had  made  it  so  firm,  that  all  this  produced  little  change  in 
it,  and  Cambyses  ordered  it  to  be  burnt.  This  was  an  act,  accord- 
ing to  Herodotus,  equally  abhorrent  to  the  feelings  both  of 
Persians  and  Egyptians  ;  for  the  Persians,  who  esteemed  fire  to 
be  a  god,  would  regard  its  employment  for  the  consumption  of 
a  dead  body  as  a  pollution2.  The  Egyptians  believed  or  pre- 
tended3 that  it  was  not  really  the  corpse  of  their  late  king  which 
underwent  these  indignities,  but  that  Amasis,  foreseeing  the  vio- 

1  Her.  3,  14.    rS2{"  6£  "Xeyerat  vk'  AlyvTTTiuv  ....  avrC>  Kafiftvarj  iciWelv 
oIktov  riva. 

2  Ctesias  (Pers.  §  57.  Bahr.)  appears  to  deny  this  burning  of  the  body  of 
Amasis,  but  only  on  the  ground  that  it  was  not  accordant  with  Persian 
usage.  He  does  not  indeed  mention  Amasis  (the  extract  in  Photius  is 
obscure),  but  he  charges  Herodotus  with  falsehood,  and  there  is  no  other 
part  of  the  history  to  which  he  can  refer. 

8  Al  fxiv  vvv  in  tov  'AfidoLog  kvTolai  avrat  ov  fxoc  dontovoiv  apxyv  yovia- 
Oai,  ua?vu<;  d'  avTu  Aly vtttloi  oe/livovv.    (Her.  3,  1G.) 


382 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


lation  of  his  sepulchre,  of  which  he  had  been  warned  "by  an  ora- 
cle, had  buried  a  corpse  close  to  the  entrance,  and  commanded 
his  son  to  inter  his  own  in  an  interior  recess.  Such  outrages 
on  the  remains  of  the  dead  are  justly  reprobated  as  effusions  of 
impotent  rage,  but  they  have  been  too  often  imitated  among 
Christian  nations. 

As  Egypt  was  subdued,  and  apparently  incapable  of  resistance, 
Cambyses  planned  three  expeditions  for  the  extension  and  security 
of  his  conquests.  The  people  of  Lybia  bordering  on  Egypt  sur- 
•  rendered  without  a  battle,  submitted  to  become  tributaries,  and 
sent  presents  with  which  Cambyses  was  satisfied.  The  people  of 
Cyrene  and  its  colony, Barca1,  did  the  same  ;  but  he  either  despised 
their  gifts  or  doubted  their  sincerity,  and  flung  the  500  minae  of 
silver  which  they  had  sent  him  in  handfuls  to  his  soldiery.  He 
allowed,  however,  Ladice,  the  widow  of  Amasis,  to  return  unmo- 
lested to  Cyrene,  her  native  city.  The  Carthaginians  were  the 
only  other  power  in  Northern  Africa  from  whom  Cambyses  had 
anything  to  fear.  They  were  at  this  time  in  the  height  of  their 
prosperity,  predominant  over  the  colonies  which  they  had  planted 
among  the  Libyan  tribes,  without  a  rival  in  naval  power  in  the 
western  part  of  the  Mediterranean2,  and  enriched  by  an  extensive 
traffic  both  maritime  and  inland.  They  could  be  reached,  how- 
ever, only  by  sea,  and  Persia  had  no  fleet  of  her  own,  depending 
on  her  Greek  subjects  and  her  Cyprian  and  Phoenician  allies3 ;  and 
Carthage  being  a  colony  of  Tyre,  the  Phoenicians  professed  to 
regard  it  as  an  impiety  to  attack  their  own  children.  Cambyses 
did  not  think  it  expedient  to  attempt  to  force  them,  and  the  rest 

1  Her.  4,  160.  It  had  been  founded  about  thirty  years  before.  The 
remains  of  walls  and  sepulchres  at  Merge,  about  eight  miles  from  Cyrene, 
which  were  first  discovered  by  Delia  Cella,  appear  to  mark  its  site. 
(Ritter,  Erdk.  1,  942.) 

2  They  had  defeated  the  Phocaeans  in  a  great  naval  battle  b.c.  536. 

3  Her.  3,  19. 


THE  TWENTY- SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


383 


of  his  fleet  not  being  able  alone  to  cope  with  the  Carthaginians, 
they  escaped  being  reduced  into  slavery  to  Persia. 

Nothing  has  contributed  more  to  procure  for  Cambyses  the 
character  of  a  frantic  madman  than  his  expedition  to  Ethiopia. 
Had  it  been  really  undertaken  against  a  people  living,  as  Hero- 
dotus supposed,  where  Africa  is  washed  by  the  southern  sea1  and 
in  revenge  for  an  insulting  message,  he  would  have  deserved  this 
character.  But  we  must  distinguish  between  the  Ethiopia  of 
Egyptian  history  and  the  Ethiopia  of  Greek  mythology.  The 
former  is  better  known  in  this  ag;e  than  in  the  ao-e  of  Herodotus. 
Its  seat  was  in  Upper  Nubia,  Dongola  and  Meroe,  and  though  we 
have  heard  of  no  invasion  of  the  Egyptian  territories  by  the 
Ethiopians  since  the  accession  of  the  Saitic  dynasty,  we  have  no 
ground  to  believe  that  their  power  was  so  decayed  as  to  be  no 
longer  formidable  to  Egypt,  especially  to  Egypt  when  become  a 
province  of  Persia,  and  filled  with  a  discontented  population. 
Sound  reasons  of  policy  might  therefore  induce  Cambyses  to 
undertake  an  expedition  against  it.  The  narrative  of  Herodotus 
is  altogether  romantic.  Even  in  the  time  of  Homer  the  Greek 
fancy  was  excited  by  tales  respecting  the  Ethiopians.  They  were 
a  blameless  race,  extending  from  the  rising  to  the  setting  sun, 
devoted  to  the  wrorship  of  the  gods,  and  honored  by  their  special 
presence.  If  Homer  had  any  di'stinct  conception  of  their  geo- 
graphical position,  he  probably  placed  them  immediately  above 
Egypt,  whence  he  believed  them  to  spread  in  indefinite  extension 
to  the  east  and  west,  wherever  there  was  a  rumor  of  sun-blackened 
men.  But  in  the  age  of  Herodotus  the  countries  which  bordered 
upon  Egypt,  though  rarely  visited  by  Greeks, were  too  well  known 
to  be  the  scene  of  prodigies  ;  the  course  of  the  Nile  to  Meroe  was 
explored  and  measured  ;  it  was  believed  that  the  limits  of  geogra- 
phical knowledge  had  been  carried  forward  a  thousand  miles 


1  Her.  8,  111. 


384 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


above  Meroe  by  the  settlement  of  the  Automoli.  Yet  fiction, 
would  not  for  this  loose  its  hold  of  the  Ethiopians  ;  to  Herodotus 
as  to  Homer  they  were  still  1 '  the  remotest  of  men,  dwelling  on 
the  shores  of  the  ocean1  but  the  ocean  was  now  the  southern 
boundary  of  Africa, a  real  sea,  though  misconceived  by  Herodotus 
in  regard  to  its  position  and  direction.  The  barbarism  of  the 
tribes  who  dwelt  to  the  south  of  Meroe,  and  their  consequent  free- 
dom from  the  vices  of  civilization,  afforded  an  opportunity  for 
making  them  the  heirs  of  that  peculiar  favor  of  the  gods  which 
their  mythic  predecessors  had  enjoyed  ;  they  surpass  all  men  in 
beauty,  strength  and  longevity,  and  instead  of  living  by  laborious 
culture  of  the  soil,  a  table  covered  with  flesh  was  said. to  be 
renewed  every  night  by  the  bounty  of  their  chief  god,  the  Sun. 

The  first  step  which  Cambyses  took  in  the  execution  of  his  enter- 
prise was  to  send  an  exploring  party  into  Ethiopia.  Where  the 
Ethiopia  lay  which  he  was  intending  to  invade,  is  evident  from  his 
choice  of  spies.  Psammitichus,as  we  have  mentioned, had  trained 
a  body  of  the  Ichthyophagi,  the  inhabitants  of  the  eastern  coast  of 
the  Red  Sea,  southward  of  Berenice,  to  assist  him  in  seeking  the 
fountains  of  the  Nile,  and'a  chief  requisite  for  this  purpose  would 
be  a  knowledge  of  the  language  of  the  Ethiopians,  who  occupied 
the  banks  of  the  Nile  for  more  than  a  thousand  miles  of  its  course. 
They  appear  to  have  been  permanently  established  at  Elephan- 
tine, the  frontier  town  of  the  two  nations  and  languages,  where 
their  services  as  interpreters  would  be  equally  valuable  to  the 
Egyptians  and  Ethiopians2.  The  subsequent  proceedings  are 
thus  related  by  Herodotus  : — 

' '  When  the  Ichthyophagi  appeared  before  the  king  of  the  Ethi- 
opians, bringing  the  gifts  which  Cambyses  had  entrusted  to  them 
(a  purple  garment,  a  twisted  golden  collar  and  bracelets,  an  ala- 

1  H.  i//,  205  ;  a,  423.    Od.  a,  22. 

2  Her.  3. 19.  Strabo,  17,  p.  818.  The  expression  of  Herodotus,  2,  29,  is 
ambiguous,  but  it  is  probable  he  meant  Elephantine  by  fj  i  ~,nar. 


THE   TWENTY-SEVENTH   DYNASTY.  3S5 

baster  vase  of  perfume  and  a  jar  of  palm  wine),  they  thus  spoke 
'Cambvses,  king  of  the  Persians,  wishing  to  be  on  a  footing  of 
friendship  and  hospitality  with  thee,  has  sent  us  to  confer  with 
thee,  and  offers  thee  as  gifts  these  things,  in  using  which  he  him- 
self most  delights.'  The  king  of  Ethiopia,  knowing  that  they  h?.d 
come  as  spies,  replied  to  them  thus :  1  The  king  of  Persia  has  not 
sent  you  with  these  gifts  because  he  values  my  friendship,  but  ye 
are  come  to  spy  out  my  kingdom  :  nor  is  he  a  just  man  ;  for  if  lie 
had  been,  he  would  not  have  desired  any  other  country  than  his 
own,  nor  have  reduced  to  slavery  men  who  had  done  him  no  injury 
whatever.  Give  him  then  this  bow,  and  say  these  words  him, — 
The  king  of  the  Ethiopians  advises  the  king  of  the  Persians  not  to 
invade  the  long-lived  Ethiopians  Cill  the  Persians  can  draw  with 
ease  such  large  bows  as  this,  and  then  to  come  with  superior  forces. 
Till  that  time,  let  him  thank  the  gods  that  they  do  not  put  it  into 
the  hearts  of  the  Ethiopians  to  add  to  their  own  territory.'  Then 
unstringing  his  bow  he  gave  it  to  the  messengers  of  Cambyses. 
Xext,  taking  up  the  purple  garment,  he  asked  what  it  was,  and 
how  it  was  made.  The  Ichthyophagi  having  told  him  all  about 
purple  and  dyeing,  he  said  they  were  deceitful  men  and  their  gar- 
ments deceitfuL  Then  he  inquired  about  the  golden  collar  and 
bracelets,  and  when  the  Ichthyophagi  explained  the  ornaments,  he 
laughed  and  said  that  they  had  stronger  fetters  than  these,  thinking 
they  were  rreant  tor  fetters.  In  the  third  place  he  inquired  about 
the  perfunu. ;  and  when  they  told  him  how  it  was  made  and  how 
it  was  used,  he  said  the  same  thing  as  about  the  purpie  garment. 
But  when  he  came  to  the  wine  and  heard  how  it  was  made,  being 
excessively  delighted  with  the  draught  he  inquired  on  what  the 
krcg  lived,  and  what  was  the  longest  life  that  a  Persian  attained. 
They  told  him,  on  bread,  explaining  the  nature  of  wheat,  and  that 
80  years  was  the  longest  term  of  life  that  awaited  man.  4  No 
wonder,  then,'  said  the  Ethiopian,  '  if  those  who  live  on  dirt  have 
such  short  lives  ;  they  would  not  even  have  lived  so  long  if  they 
vol.  II.  17 


386 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


Lad  not  kept  themselves  up  with  this  liquor;  in  this  one  thing  tbs 
Persians  have  the  advantage  of  us.'  The  Ichthyophagi  in  thei* 
turn  questioned  the  "king  about  the  life  and  diet  of  his  people,  and 
he  said  that  the  majority  of  them  lived  to  120  years  and  some  even 
more ;  that  their  food  was  boiled  flesh,  and  their  drink  was  milk. 
When  they  expressed  their  wonder  that  the  Ethiopians  lived  sr 
long,  he  led  them  to  a  fountain,  which  made  those  who  bathed  in  it 
sleek  as  if  it  had  been  oil,  and  had  a  fragrance  like  violets,  and  so 
light  that  neither  wood  nor  bodies  lighter  than  wood  would  swim 
in  it;  they  all  sunk  to  the  bottom.  Next  they  were  taken  to  the 
prison,  \Y.here  all  the  prisoners  had  fetters  of  gold,  and  to  the  table 
of  the  Sun." 

The  view  which  a  barbarian  takes  of  the  arts  of  civilized  life 
always  affords  a  lively  contrast,  and  the  opportunity  of  covert  satire 
on  artificial  manners.  Such  is  evidently  the  purpose  with  which 
this  scene  has  been  described.  The  king  of  the  Ethiopians  treats 
the  dyed  garment  as  a  fraud,  the  perfumed  ointment  as  a  corrup- 
tion of  the  simplicity  of  nature1,  and  takes  the  royal  ornaments  for 
the  collar  and  fetters  of  a  culprit.  In  one  thing  only  does  he  admit 
the  superiority  of  the  Persian — the  art  of  producing  wine,  every- 
where the  most  irresistible  attraction  to  the  savage.  There  i«  a 
certain  adaptation  in  the  story  to  what  was  known  or  believed 
respecting  the  interior  of  Africa,  but  it  can  only  be  received  as  a 
happy  fiction.  The  Ichthyophagi  vanish  and  re-appear,  like  the- 
atrical messengers,  without  any  note  of  time,  Cambyses  remaining 
as  it  should  seem  at  Memphis,  while  they  go  to  "  the  ends  of  th6 
earth"  and  return1.  The  sole  fact  on  which  we  can  rely  is,  that 
1  The  rustic  served  the  same  purpose  of  contrast  to  Virgil,  as  the  king  of 
Ethiopia  to  Herodotus,  or  the  author  of  the  tale  : — 

Si  non  ....  rat  ios  inhiant  pulcbra  testudine  postee, 

Alba  neque  Assyrio  fucatur  lana  veneno, 

Nec  casia  liquidi  conriwipitur  usns  olivi  ; 

At  senra  quies,  cajt. — Georg.  2,  451. 
Id  its  disregard  of  time  and  distance  this  story  resernhles  that  of  th4 


THE  TWEXTY-SEVENTIi  DYNASTY. 


387 


Cambyses  sent  an  exploring  party  before  he  set  out  on  his  march 
against  Ethiopia,  a  wise  precaution,  not  indicative  of  that  frenzy 
which  the  Egyptians  imputed  to  all  his  actions. 

When  they  returned,  provoked,  as  Herodotus  says,  at  the  mes- 
sage of  the  king,  he  set  out  for  Ethiopia.  The  Greeks  were  left 
behind  at  Memphis,  and  we  are  consequently  deprived  of  the  bene- 
fit of  their  evidence,  as  to  the  real  events  of  the  expedition.  Tak- 
ing with  him  the  whole  of  his  land  forces,  he  proceeded  from 
Memphis  to  Thebes.  Hence  it  is  said  he  detached  50,000  men1 
with  orders  to  reduce  the  Ammonians.  and  burn  the  temple  of 
Jupiter ;  with  the  remainder  he  pursued  his  march  towards 
Ethiopia.  He  had  made  no  provision  of  magazines  of  corn,  and 
before  he  had  accomplished  a  fifth  part  of  the  way,  the  victuals 
which  the  soldiers  carried  with  them  failed.  They  then  devoured 
the  beasts  of  burthen,  but  even  this  did  not  induce  Cambyses  to 
renounce  his  project;  he  still  pressed  on.  The  soldiers  supported 
themselves  on  herbs,  as  long  as  the  ground  furnished  them  with 
any  supply ;  but  when  they  came  into  the  sand,  such  was  the 
extremity  of  their  suffering,  that  they  cast  lots  among  ten,  and  he 
on  whom  the  lot  fell  was  devoured  by  the  rest.  Then  Cambyses 
repented,  and  led  back  his  army  to  Thebes,  abandoning  his  enter- 
prise against  Ethiopia. 

It  would  not  be  easy,  from  the  brief  description  of  Herodotus,  to 
decide  the  direction  of  Cambyses'  march  beyond  the  frontiers  of 
Egypt.  Nature,  however,  has  marked  out  the  lines  of  communi- 
cation between  it  and  the  country  which  he  was  endeavoring  to 
reach,  and  they  remain  the  same  in  all  ages.  He  might  have  fol- 
lowed the  Nile  upwards  from  Syene,  through  Nubia  and  Dongola, 

expedition  of  Darius  to  the  Wolga,  Her.  4.  (See  Mr.  Grote's  remarks,  Hist 
of  Greece,  4,  856.) 

1  This  number  far  exceeds  what  would  be  necessary  for  the  purpose  oi 
occupying  the  oases,  nor  is  it  credible  that  Cambyses  should  have  with 
drawn  all  his  native  troops  at  ore?  from  Egypt. 


388 


H18TDRV    OF  EGYPT, 


to  Gebel-el  Birkel.  and  so  farther  to  Meroe  ;  but  this  would  Lave 
occupied  many  months,  and  would  not  have  involved  him  in  thai. 
Desert  of  sand  which  ultimately  compelled  him  to  return.  Hu 
might  have  struck  at  once  from  Syene  into  the  Desert,  to  proceed 
by  the  track  which  the  caravans  from  Sennaar  now  often  take,  ana 
which  Bruce  and  Burckhardt  followed  ;  but  this  would  be  incon- 
sistent with  the  account  of  Herodotus,  who  represents  the  soldiers 
as  supporting  themselves  on  the  scanty  vegetation  which  they 
found,  before  they  entered  the  sand.  The  third  track  is  that  which 
is  most  commonly  pursued  by  caravans  and  travellers  at  the  pre- 
sent day.  From  Syene  they  ascend  the  river  to  Korosko  (Den), 
about  half  way  between  the  First  and  Second  Cataract.  Here  an 
Akaba  or  mountain  pass  opens  into  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  leading 
through  the  Desert,  by  a  route  of  about  250  miles,  to  Abou  Ham- 
med, near  the  island  Mogreb,  where  it  rejoins  the  river  just  at  the 
beginning  of  its  great  bend  to  the  south-west1.  The  first  part  of 
the  march,  for  about  sixty  miles,  lies  through  a  valley  bordered  by 
sandstone  hills  not  wholly  destitute  of  vegetation,  since  Hoskins 
was  informed  that  the  Bishareen  Arabs  come  hither  in  the  season 
to  pasture  their  flocks2.  Beyond  this  valley  lies  a  plain  of  desert 
sand,  called  Atmoor-bela-ma,  the  sea  without  water,  extending  to 
the  south  for  fifty  miles,  on  the  west  to  the  Second  Cataract,  and 
on  the  east  nearly  to  the  Red  Sea3.  The  desert  is  seen  here  in  all 
its  horrors,  which  have  been  in  some  measure  relieved  by  a  variety 
in  the  scenery  while  passing  through  the  rocky  valley.  The  want 
of  water  is  aggravated  by  the  illusion  which  presents  everywhere 
lakes  and  pools  to  the  traveller  suffering  the  extremity  of  thirst. 
The  wind,  sweeping  over  the  unsheltered  plain,  raises  pillars 
of  sand,  which  choke  the  breathing-passages,  while  the  heat  of 
the  blast  relaxes  his  strength  and  augments  his  distress.  Evec 
1  See  vol.  i.  pp.  21,  22. 

*  Russegger,  Reisen,  2nd  B.  B.  1,  p.  423.    Hoskins,  p.  28. 
See  Russegger's  Karte  von  Nubiea. 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY.  38\s 

ihe  obstinacy  of  Cainbyses  was  compelled  to  yield  to  the  sufferings 
of  his  followers  and  their  dreadful  effects ;  could  he  have  struggled 
through  the  sand,  there  was  still  considerably  more  than  100  miles 
to  be  accomplished  through  a  region  of  barren  rock,  before  he 
could  have  reached  the  Nile  at  Abou  Hammed.  This  desert,  how- 
ever, is  not  impassable  for  an  army1,  if  proper  precautions  be  taken. 
In  the  reign  of  Augustus2  the  Ethiopians  under  Candace  had 
advanced  as  far  as  Elephantine,  the  Roman  garrison  being  weak- 
ened by  the  withdrawal  of  part  of  the  troops  under  ^Elius  Gallus 
to  attack  the  Arabians.  Petronius,  with  about  10,000  infantry 
and  800  horse,  first  of  all  drove  them  from  Elephantine  into  the 
fortress  of  Pselcis  (Dakke),  between  Syene  and  Korosko,  and  then, 
as  the  remains  of  the  army  had  fled  into  the  Desert,  "  passing 
through  the  tract  of  sand3  where  the  army  of  Cambyses  was  over- 
whelmed, a  violent  wind  falling  upon  them4,  he  came  to  Premnis, 
strong  place  which  he  took,  and  then  advanced  against  Napata." 
The  Premnis  here  spoken  of  must  be  the  Primis  Magna  of  Pto- 
lemy5. He  places  it  beyond  Napata,  and  just  above  Meroe,  in  his 
enumeration  of  towns  on  the  eastern  or  right  bank  of  the  Nile.  It 
must  therefore  have  been  somewhere  near  the  termination  of  the 
pass  of  Korosko  at  Abou  Hammed.  Petronius  was  deterred  from 
proceeding  further  south  by  the  heat  and  the  sand8,  and  could  not 

1  That  it  was  commonly  traversed  in  ancient  times  is  evident  from  what 
Mr.  Hoskins  says,  that  hieroglyphics  *  are  found  near  some  of  the  wells 
(p.  24). 

3  Strabo,  IT,  p.*822. 

*  Qtp£s  was  the  appropriate  name  for  these  sandy  regions.  Clearchag 
(Athen.  8,  345)  wrote  a  treatise,  flcpi  Qivwv,  De  Locis  Arenosis. 

*  Strabo  has  confounded  the  expedition  against  Ethiopia  with  that  againut 
Ammonium,  but  it  is  evident  he  believed  the  army  of  Cambyses  to  have 
been  in  the  sandy  desert 

6  Ptol.  Geogr.  4,  7,  p.  302,  ed.  Wilberg.  Hpt/ws  Mcya\„  0  (62°)  IJ  (17°) 

EvTtvdev  6e  vrjooiroieirai   rj  Mtpo'r/   ^  cu  p  a. 
0  Dion.  Cass.  lib.  54,  p.  734,  Reiz.    He  calls  Napata,  Tani»* 


390 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


remain  where  he  was  with  his  whole  army.  He  refortified  Prem 
nis,  garrisoned  it  with  400  men,  victualled  it  for  two  years,  and 
returned  to  Alexandria.  In  his  absence  Candace  attacked  Prcm- 
nis,  but  Petronius  was  in  time  to  relieve  the  garrison,  and  compelled 
the  queen  to  send  an  embassy  to  Caesar.  In  this  age  the  Desert 
had  been  long  known  and  often  travelled  by  those  who  passed 
between  Egypt  and  Meroe,  but  to  Cambyses  and  his  army  its 
difficulties  were  unknown,  and  it  is  not  wonderful  that  he  should 
have  been  baffled  in  his  attempt  to  cross  it.  The  name  of  Maga- 
zine of  Cambyses1,  which  Ptolemy  places  in  lat.  18°,  shows  that 
while  the  main  army  attempted  the  passage  of  the  Desert,  another 
part  advanced  by  the  valley  of  the  Nile  into  Upper  Nubia;  and 
this  country  remained  tributary  to  Persia2. 

His  expedition  against  Ammonium  has  been  attributed  to  the 
same  uncalculating  frenzy  as  that  against  Ethiopia,  inflamed  by 
the  fanatical  wish  to  destroy  the  celebrated  temple  of  Ammon, 
At  this  time,  however,  Cambyses  had  committed  no  outrages 
against  the  Egyptian  religion,  and  had  his  object  been  only  to 
occupy  Ammonium  and  destroy  its  temple,  it  might  have  been 
reached  with  much  greater  ease  from  Lower  Egypt.  It  was  evi- 
dently his  design  to  take  possession  of  all  these  Oases,  which 

1  Kaiifivcrov  Ta///£?o,  Ptolemy,  4,  7.  It  was  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river 
Ta/iiaov  was  not  merely  a  treasury,  but  a  storehouse  or  magazine.  (Pollux, 
9,  5.)  According  to  the  account  of  Pliny,  Petronius  returned  to  Zapata,  ou 
hie  second  expedition,  by  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  through  Nubia  and  Don- 
gola,  for  he  enumerates  the  places  which  he  took,  in  this  order:  Pselcia, 
Primis  (Ibrijn),  Aboccis  (Aboosimbel),  Pthuris  (Farras),  Cambusis,  Atteva, 
Stadisis,  "  ubi  Nilus  pracipitans  se,  fragore  auditum  accolis  aufert"  (6, 
29.)  This  must  be  the  Third  Cataract,  to  which  Pliny  has  transferred  the 
popular  account  of  the  First 

9  Her.  3,  97 ;  7,  69.  Josephus,  Ant  2,  10,  represents  Cambyses  as  con- 
quering the  capital  of  Ethiopia  and  changing  its  name  from  Saba  to  Meroe 
Diodorus  (1,  34)  speaks  of  Cambyses  as  occupying  Ethiopia,  meaning  proba 
bly  only  Xubia. 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


SOI 


might  serve  as  retreats  and  mustering-places  for  the  discontented 
Egyptians,  and  nests  for  robbers  who  might  interrupt  commerce. 
This  was  a  wise  policy  for  the  new  sovereign  of  Egypt,  and  the 
Great  Oasis  was  accordingly  occupied  under  Darius  his  successor. 
The  fate  of  the  50,000  men  said  to  have  marched  against  it  was 
never  distinctly  known.  They  reached  in  safety  the  Great  Oasis, 
which  is  nearly  in  the  same  latitude  as  Thebes,  and  about  120 
miles  distant  from  it ;  it  was  inhabited  by  Samians  of  the  iEschri- 
onian  phyle,  who  had  prohably  found  their  way  to  it  from  the 
north,  as  Ammonium  appears  to  have  had  also  a  Greek  popula- 
tion1. Their  route  after  leaving  it  would  lie  through  the  Oasis  of 
El  Farafreh  in  lat.  27°,  nearly  opposite  Siout  in  Egypt,  and  thence 
through  the  Oasis  of  El  Bacharjeh,  or  the  Little  Oasis,  in  lat.  28° 
20'.  But  it  was  only  known  that  they  never  reached  Ammonium, 
and  never  returned.  The  Ammonians  said  that  they  had  arrived 
about  half  way2  between  the  Great  Oasis  and  their  own,  and  while 
sitting  down  to  take  their  meal  were  overwhelmed  by  a  sudden 
and  violent  wind  which  buried  them  under  heaps  of  sand.  No 
well-attested  instance  is  known  of  a  traveller  being  deprived  of 
life  by  the  fall  of  the  moving  pillars  of  sand  in  the  Desert,  much 
less  of  whole  armies  and  caravans  being  buried  by  them3.  Nor  is 
there  any  necessity  to  have  recourse  to  this  supposition  to  explain 
the  loss  of  Cambyses'  army.  They  may  have  been  misled  by 
their  guides  ;  they  may  have  found  the  wells  dry  or  choked  with 
sand, 'at  which  they  expected  to  renew  their  supply  of  water;  the 
wind  may  have  obliterated  the  track  by  which  they  had  advanced, 
and  baffled  their  attempt  to  return.  In  all  these  cases  they  must 
perish  miserably,  and  the  traveller  who  saw  their  shrivelled  bodies 
or  their  skeletons,  covered  with  the  drifted  sand,  would  naturally 

1  Her.  2,  82.    Vol  L  p.  60. 

*  Mcra£>  kov  fidXicrra  airaiv  re  /tat  rrjs  Oatrioi.     (Her.  8,  26.) 

*  Compare  the  accounts  of  Bruce  (6,  458)  with  those  of  Burckharclt 
(Kuhia,  1,  207.) 


392* 


IITSTORV   OF  EGFPT. 


suppose  that  its  fall  had  buried  them  alive1.  The  expedition  i>f 
Cyrus  against  the  Massagetae  was  rash  ;  so  was  that  of  Darius 
against  the  Scythians  ;  but  the  Desert  expeditions  of  Cambysei 
were  far  more  rash,  because,  like  Napoleon  in  Russia,  he  committer 
himself  to  a  strife  with  the  powers  of  nature. 

We  are  not  informed  when  it  was  that  Psammenitu3  endeavored 
to  raise  an  insurrection  in  Egypt,  but  it  was  probably  during  the 
absence  of  Cambyses  on  his  Ethiopian  expedition,  when  the  country 
seems  to  have  been  left  with  few  troops,  except  the  Grecian,  Phee- 
nician  and  Cyprian  mercenaries.  It  is  therefore  not  wonderful 
that  he  treated  Egypt  on  his  return  with  much  greatei  severity 
than  before.  Psammenitus,  who  might  have  retained  the  vice- 
royalty  of  Egypt,  as  Herodotus  assures  us,  had  he  known  how  tc 
remain  quiet5,  was  compelled  to  put  himself  to  death  by  drinking 
bull's  blood.  Thebes  first  felt  his  vengeance,  and  here  he  began 
those  outrages  upon  the  religion  of  Egypt  which  made  his  name 
odious  to  the  priesthood.  Probably  they  had  sympathised  with 
the  attempt  of  Psammenitus,  and  had  ill  concealed  their  joy  at 
the  disasters  of  Cambyses.  The  temples  were  not  only  stripped 
of  their  wealth  in  gold,  silver3  and  ivory,  which  was  carried  to 
Persia,  but  burnt;  and  no  doubt  ruins  which  were  the  work  of 
time  and  earthquakes,  and  the  neglect  which  is  the  lot  of  a  deserted 
capital,  were  attributed  to  this  arch-enemy  of  their  country  and 
religion.  The  rage  of  Cambyses  against  the  priesthood  was 
inflamed  by  hatred  and  contempt  for  their  rites  and  dogmas. 
The  Persians  were  not  monotheists,  in  the  sense  in  which  the 
Hebrews  were  so  ;  they  worshipped  the  elements,  earth,  air,  water, 

1  'Aff/ioj  v<5to>  lirav  TTi'tucrji  iv  ki<tivu>  rio  j^topto,  rf)s  xpajifiov  lm<popti  ir.i  ulya, 
a'bavi^srat  ra  (r/j/iEta,  oiH  iariv  ciiivai   iva  %pri  irop$ueo8att  KaBairco  tv  n-cAayEj,  r5 
l^aitjfw*  on  crjfttTa  ovk  Iqtk  Kara  rhv  bSov,  ovri  nov  opof,  ovre  Ss'vSpnv,  ovre  yft^c(bo\ 
(}e/3aioi  dvEffrriKOTCS)  o?5  riaiv  ol  b^trat  rtKfiaipoivro  Av  rfp>  rropetav,  Kiidd-rep  ol  vrfrai 
roit  aorpois.    (Arrian,  3,  3,  of  the  march  of  Alexander  to  Ammonium.) 

•  Her.  3,  15.  1  Diod.  1,  44. 


TOE  TWEN'TY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


and  before  all  fire ;  the  whole  circle  of  heaven  was  their  supreme 
god ;  but  thej  viewed  with  abhorrence  the  confinement  of  the  deity 
within  the  walls  of  a  temple  and  his  representation  under  a  human 
form.  They  offered  sacrifices,  but  without  altar,  or  fire,  or  libation, 
or  sprinkling  of  sacred  meal,  or  music1.  These  differences  were 
quite  sufficient  to  awaken  the  spirit  of  intolerance,  which  if  natu- 
rally the  strongest,  when  the  most  opposite  opinions  come  into 
collision  ;  when  the  monothelst  is  opposed  to  the  polytheist,  the 
iconoclast  to  the  idolater.2  In  such  conflicts  a  fanatical  persecution 
is  the  first  result ;  interest  subsequently  dictates  toleration,  if  the 
parties  have  need  of  each  other's  services. 

A  circumstance  occurred  which  called  forth  in  all  its  bitterness 
the  contempt  of  the  Persian  for  Egyptian  superstition.  When 
Cambyses  arrived  at  Memphis  he  found  the.  people  feasting  and  in 
holiday  attire,  and  suspecting  that  it  was  a  rejoicing  for  his  owr 
defeat,  he  summoned  the  magistrates  of  Memphis  to  his  presence 
and  asked  them  why  these  festivities  were  going  on  now,  though 
he  had  seen  nothing  of  the  kind  when  he  was  in  Jfemphis  before. 
They  replied  that  a  god  had  appeared  among  them  as  be  was  wont 
to  do,  but  at  considerable  intervals  of  time.  He  regarded  their 
answer  as  a  falsehood,  and  commanded  them  to  be  put  to  death. 
Next  he  sent  for  the  priests,  and  as  they  gave  him  the  same  account, 
lie  said  he  would  know  whether  a  god  had  really  made  his  appear- 
ance among  the  Egyptians  in  the  shape  of  a  domesticated  beast',  and 
ordered  Apis  to  be  brought  in.  When  he  saw  a  young  steer  fan- 
tastically marked,  he  drew  his  short  sword  and  aimed  a  blow  at 
the  belly  of  Apis,  but  struck  him  on  the  thigh.  "  O  stupid  mor- 
tals," he  exclaimed,  11  are  these  your  gods  ?  creatures  of  flesh  and 

1  Herod.  1,  131. 

■  Cic.  de  Legg.  2,  10.  Magi?  auctoribns  Xerxe9  '"nflammasse  templa 
Grcecue  dieitur  quod  parietibus  inclnderent  deos  quibu?  omnia  debcrent  esse 
patentia  ac  libera,  quorumque  hie  mundus  omnia  temphim  esaet  domua 

'  Ei  Bt%  rtf  gcifriSffqs  daty/tfoj  tin  Aiyvnrtottrt.     (Her.  2,  28.) 

17* 


394 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


nlood,  and  sensible  to  the  touch  of  steel !  But  ye  shall  not  with 
impunity  make  me  your  laughing-stock."  He  then  commanded 
the  priests  to  be  scourged,  and  every  Egyptian  to  be  put  to  death  who 
should  be  found  engaged  in  festivity.  Apis  died  of  his  wound  and 
was  buried  by  the  priests  without  the  knowledge  of  Cambyses. 
He  had  not  before  been  of  sound  mind,  and,  as  the  Egyptians 
said,  became  quite  mad  from  the  moment  of  this  impious  deed. 
Beliopolis,  the  seat  of  the  worship  of  the  bull  Mnevis,  suffered 
equally  with  Memphis  from  his  fanaticism  :  both  here  and  at  Thebes 
the  ooelisks  bore  marks  of  the  fires  in  which  the  temples  had  been 
consumed1.  Various  other  acts  are  recorded  of  him,  indicative 
not  so  much  of  intolerance  or  cruelty,  as  of  that  heedlessness  or 
insolence  which  in  the  gratification  of  curiosity  overlooks  the  wound 
inflicted  on  the  feelings  of  others.  He  went  into  the  temple  of 
Ptah  and  made  great  sport  of  the  deformed  and  pygmy  image  of 
the  god  ;  he  also  entered  the  temple  of  the  Cabiri,  the  reputed 
sons  of  Ptah,  and  burnt  their  wooden  images.  He  opened  many- 
of  the  ancient  |ombs  and  inspected  the  mummies.  "I  am  quite 
convinced,"  says  Herodotus  after  relating  these  things,  "  that  Cam- 
byses was  very  mad  ;  he  would  not  else  have  treated  temples  ana 
established  usages  with  ridicule.  For  if  one  were  to  propose  to  all 
men  to  select  from  all  the  usages  in  the  world  those  which  they 
deemed  the  best,  they  would  each,  after  deliberate  comparison,  fix 
on  their  own.  None  therefore  but  a  madman  would  treat  these 
things  with  ridicule.  And  that  this  is  the  judgment,  of  all  men 
respecting  their  own  usages  I  infer  from  many  other  proofs,  and 
from  this  instance  more  especially.  Darius  once  called  the  Greeks 
who  were  near  him  to  his  presence,  and  asked  them  for  what  con- 
sideration they  would  devour  their  dead  parents  ;  and  they 
answered  for  none  that  could  be  named.  After  this  Darius  called 
th6  Callatian  Indians,  who  are  accustomed  to  eat  their  dead  parents, 


1  Strabo,  17,  p.  805. 


THE   TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


305 


and  asked  tliem  by  an  interpreter  in  the  presence  of  the  Greeks, 
for  what  consideration  they  would  agree  to  burn  their  parents' 
corpses  ;  and  they  with  a  loud  outcry  begged  him  not  to  shock 
their  ears  with  such  horrid  words.  Well  has  Pindar  written,  that 
Usage  is  lord  of  all."  Had  Herodotus,  who  here  expresses  the 
feeling  of  his  own  humane  and  reverent  mind,  been  acquainted 
with  the  history  of  persecution,  he  would  hardly  have  concluded 
Cambyses  to  be  mad,  because  he  treated  with  contempt  the  reli- 
gious convictions  and  practices  of  others. 

The  acts  of  cruelty  which  Cambyses  subsequently  committed, 
his  putting  to  death  his  brother  Smerdis  and  his  wife1,  who  was 
also  his  sister, — his  murder  of  the  son  of  Prexaspes  and  execution 
of  twelve  Persians — belong  rather  to  Persian  than  Egyptian  his- 
tory. We  might  conclude  from  them  that  he  was  really  frantic, 
were  there  not  so  many  parallel  instances  of  cruelty  in  the  acts  of 
oriental  sovereigns,  and  even  of  the  successors  of  Cambyses  him- 
self. When  Oiobazus  supplicated  that  one  of  his  three  sons  might 
remain  with  him,  the  wise  and  humane  Darius  promised  that,  as 
he  was  his  friend  and  his  request  was  moderate,  they  should  all  be 
'eft,  and  ordered  them  immediately  to  be  put  to  death2.  In 
answer  to  *a  similar  request,  Xerxes  commanded  the  eldest  son  of 
his  host,  Pythius  the  Lydian,  to  be  cut  in  half3,  that  the  army 
might  march  between  the  portions  of  his  body.  If  the  lust  and 
cruelty  of  Henry  VIII.  appear  less  brutal  than  those  of  Cambyses, 
it  is  only  because  Christian  civilization  and  the  forms  of  a  consti- 
tutional government  imposed  a  certain  restraint  on  the  English 
sovereign.  Cambyses,  -no  doubt,  was  subject  to  epilepsy,  which 
may  have  weakened  his  power  of  self-control ;  but  to  the  last  lie 
showed  no  want  of  vigor  or  sagacity.     Diodorus  has  rightly 

1  "We  may  observe  that  the  cruelty  of  his  behavior  towards  his  wife  ia 
aggravated  into  brutality  in  the  rlgy^tian  version  of  the  story.  (H*r, 
8,  32.) 

'  Her.  4,  84  1  fi?r.  7,  87. 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


described  him  by  saying,  "  that  he  had  by  nature  a  touch  of  iusanity 
and  mental  aberration,  but  that  the  greatness  of  his  power  had 
much  more  to  do  in  making  him  cruel  and  insolent*." 

Cambyses  had  spent  between  three  and  four  years  in  Egypt, 
when  he  was  recalled  to  Persia  by  the  usurpation  of  the  two  Magi, 
one  of  whom  pretended  to  be  Smerdis,  the  brother  of  Cambyses, 
whom  he  had  murdered  by  the  hands  of  Prexaspes.  He  had 
already  reached  a  town  in  Syria,  which  Herodotus  calls  Ecbatana, 
when  he  met  the  messenger  who  was  on  his  way  to  Egypt,  to  call 
on  the  army  to  renounce  their  allegiance  to  him.  Leaping  hastily 
on  his  horse  to  proceed  to  Persia,  he  shook  oft'  the  knob  which 
closed  the  lower  end  of  the  sheath  in  which  he  wore  his  short 
sword,  and  the  point  protruding  wounded  him  dangerously  in  the 
thigh,  precisely  where  he  had  wounded  the  god  Apis.  The  bone 
became  carious,  and  he  died  in  Ecbatana,  according  to  an  Egyptian 
oracle,  which  he  had  interpreted  to  mean  that  he  should  end  his 
days,  an  old  man,  in  the  ancient  capital  of  Media,  where  all  his 
treasures  were  laid  up.  Such  is  the  account  of  Herodotus,  which 
was  no  doubt  derived  from  the  Egyptian  priests,  and  is  suspicious 
from  its  exhibiting  a  striking  proof  of  the  vengeance  of  their  god 
and  the  infallibility  of  their  oracle.  Ctesias  says,  he  died  at  Baby- 
kn  of  a  wound  in  the  thigh  which  he  gave  himself  while  planing 
wood  for  his  amusement2.    He  had  reigned  over  Egypt  six  years ; 

1  J^afi0varn  fiv  nzv  (pvaci  fiaviKOS  <ai  TrapaKCKivrjKoif  rots  Aoycoy/oiV  no\v  6i  /mAAoi/ 
uvtop  (b/idv  Ktu  vncp{){pavov  iiroui  t6  rijs  (3aoi\c'ias  jitycdoi.     (Diod.  Excerpt,  p.  24S.) 

Herodotus  seems  to  doubt  whether  the  misdeeds  of  Cambyses  were  the 
consequence  of  his  outrage  on  Apis  or  of  natural  influences — the  Sid  t6v 
J\.7Tii>,  the  real  cAAcjj,  ola  -roAAa  iwQce  dudptixovs  Kaxa  Kara\a[i0dp£iv  (3,  33). 

2  I  have  not  hitherto  noticed  Ctesias'  account  of  the  conquest  of  Egypl 
by  Cambyses.  According  to  him,  Amyrteeus  was  king  of  Egypt,  at  the 
time  of  the  invasion.  Combaphes,  his  chief  eunuch,  was  induced  by  the 
promise  of  the  satrapy  to  betray  his  master,  and  Amyrtseus  being  taken 
prisoner,  was  transferred  to  Susa,  with  six  thousand  Egyptians  selected  by 
fciiuself.    This  is  inconsistent  with  the  Egyptian  monuments,  with  Manetha 


THE   T  WE  NTT-SEVENTH   DF  NASTY". 


397 


no  memorial  of  him  bas  been  found  on  a  temple  or  palace  of  Egypt, 
where  he  only  destroyed ;  but  his  shield,  bearing  date  in  his  sixth 
year,  is  seen  with  those  of  Darius  and  Xerxes,  on  the  road  to 
Cosseir  near  the  Red  Sea1,  mixed  with  some  of  the  most  ancient  of 
*  the  Pharaohs.  It  was  natural  that  his  memory  should  be  the  object 
of  unmitigated  hatred  and  abhorrence  to  the  Egyptians ;  even  the 
Persians,  who  had  called  Cyrus  their  father,  gave  Cambyses  the 
title  of  Lord,  in  token  of  his  severe  and  haughty  temper,  yet  with 
an  acknowledgment  of  the  vigour  with  which  he  governed  his 
dominions. 

The  conquests  of  Cyrus  and  Cambyses  had  been  rapidly  made, 
and  not  consolidated  by  any  systematic  administration.  In  the  arts 
of  government  the  Medes  and  Persians  were  as  much  inferior  to  the 
Egyptians,  as  they  were  superior  to  them  in  military  force,  and  they 
had  much  to  learn  in  civilization  from  their  new  subjects.  The 
first  care  of  Darius  (520  b.  c.)  was  to  unite  the  heterogeneous 
members  of  the  empire  by  a  uniform  system  of  government,  which 
should  secure  the  prompt  and  effectual  execution  of  the  commands 
of  the  central  power,  and  at  the  same  time  to  exchange  the  method 
of  irregular  and  indefinite  contribution  (called  gifts)  which  had 
prevailed  under  Cyrus  and  Cambyses3  for  a  fixed  system  of  imposts. 

The  scale  of  taxation  for  each  province  was  fixed  by  the  satrap ; 
Darius  gained  popularity  for  himself  by  making  a  considerable 
reduction  upon  the  amount4.  He  divided  his  dominions  into 
and  Herodotus.  The  only  circumstance  in  regard  to  which  I  think  Ctesias' 
account  the  more  authentic  is  the  deatli  of  Cambyses,  which  the  Egyptians 
had  an  obvious  motive  to  misrepresent,  and  which  would  be  better  known 
at  Babylon  than  in  Egypt. 

1  Burton,  Excerpta  Hierogl.  pi.  viii.  The  land  of  Pars  is  distinctly  men- 
tioned in  the,  inscription.  Rosellini  (M.  Stor.  2,  1G9)  mentions  a  statue  on 
which  the  name  of  Cambyses  is  found,  but  only  as  a  date. 

'  Her.  3,  89.     Aapcios  /ieV  ijv  /caTrijAoj*     Kd/i/?iio-»jf  6i  (kffTr<5r»K'     Kugjs  <$£  irarrip. 

*  Her.  3,  89.     'Eni  K.vpoz  ip^ovTrit  Kill  av  ts  Ku/(/Ji)a£w,  riv  KareaTrj^oi  avj.r 

ptyov  ircpi  dXXa  6d>pa  iyiveov,  *  Polyam.  7,  1 1,  8. 


398 


HISTORF  OF  EGYPT. 


twenty  provinces,  each  ruled  by  a  viceroy  called  a  satrap,  who  com« 
rnanded  the  military  forces,  administered  the  affairs  of  the  province, 
and  collected  the  tribute  which  was  systematically  levied  through- 
out the  empire.  The  satrapy  of  Egypt,  besides  the  country  usually 
60  called,  included  the  coast  of  Libya  as  far  as  the  Euesperidzc,  & 
iittle  westward  of  Cyrene,  and  the  oases  of  the  Libyan  Desert.  The 
country  between  the  Nile  and  the  Red  Sea  must  also  have  been 
included  in  it,  as  the  names  of  Persian  sovereigns  are  found  on  the 
road  to  Cosseir.  Ethiopia  above  Egypt,  which  had  been  subdued 
by  Cambyses,  paid  no  regular  tribute,  and  was  not  included  in  the 
satrapy ;  but  once  in  three  years  it  brought  a  voluntary  offering, 
consisting  of  two  choenixes  (three  pints)  of  gold  dust,  two  hundred 
blocks  of  ebony,  twenty  tusks  of  ivory,  and  five  youths1.  The  tri- 
bute paid  by  the  satrapy  of  Egypt  was  seven  hundred  talents  in 
money,  independently  of  the  produce  of  the  fisheries  of  the  Lake 
Mceris,  which  amounted  to  a  talent  a  day  during  the  six  months 
that  the  water  flowed  in  from  the  Nile,  and  a  third  part  of  that  sum 
during  the  efflux2.  Egypt  had  also  to  furnish  120,000  medimniof 
corn  as  rations  for  the  Persian  troops  and  their  auxiliaries,  who  were 
stationed  in  the  White  Fort  of  Memphis3.  Except  in  the  payment 
of  this  tribute  (about  170,000/.  sterling),  which  cannot  be  consi- 
dered as  oppressive  to  a  country  so  productive  as  Egypt,  no  change 

1  Her.  3,  97. 

*  Her.  2,  149.  According  to  Diodorus  (1,  52)  the  revenue  of  the  Lake, 
which  he  reckons  at  a  talent  a  day,  without  distinction  of  seasons,  waa 
assigned  by  Mceris  to  his  queen  for  the  expenses  of  her  toilette  (t^os  [ivpa  «u 
top  n\\op  KaWumafidi').  Tins  custom  appears  to  have  been  Persian  (Her.  2, 
98),  not  Egyptian,  and  Herodotus  describes  the  revenue  of  the  Lake,  as  paid 
into  the  royal  treasury  (rd  /3a?t\r)\ov). 

1  Herodotus  {1,  187)  reckons  a  military  ration  at  a  chcenix  a  day.  The 
medimnus  contained  forty-eight  choenixes  (Bfickh,  Hauahaltung  der  Athe- 
ner,  1,  99),  consequently  each  man  consumed  annually  about  seven  and  a 
half  medimni,  and  the  garrison  consisted  of  about  17,000  men.  The  allow* 
anee  of  a  ehoenix,  however,  is  mentioned  by  Herodotus  as  a  minimum. 


THE   TWENTY- SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


399 


appears  to  have  been  made  in  the  administration.  The  nomaichs 
levied  the  tribute  and  handed  it  over  to  the  satrap1.  But  Egypt 
could  not  reap  the  full  benefit  of  the  wisdom  and  humanity  of 
Darius  under  the  government  of  a  satrap,  whose  character  was 
more  important  to  the*  country  which  he  ruled  than  that  of  the 
distant  sovereign  :  we  know  by  modern  examples,  that  the  tribute 
rendered  to  a  sultan  may  be  far  less  onerous  than  the  exactions  of 
a  pasha. 

"When  Cambyses  was  recalled  to  Persia  by  the  usurpation  of  the 
false  Smerdis,  he  left  Aryandes  in  command  of  Egypt,  and  Darius 
continued  him  in  his  post.  Little  is  related  of  his  government 
except  his  expedition  into  Libya.  The  jealousy  which  the  Greeks 
of  Asia  and  Europe  felt  of  the  Persian  power  naturally  extended  to 
the  people  of  Cyrene  and  Barca,  and  they  suspected  their  own 
reigning  family  of  a  design  to  perpetuate  their  dominion  by  allying 
themselves  with  Persia.  The  changes  introduced  by  Demonax2 
into  the  constitution  had  b^.en  borne  with  impatience  by  the  kings, 
whose  prerogatives  were  transferred  to  the  people ;  Arcesilaus  III. 
had  attempted  to  repossess  himself  of  the  ancient  prerogatives  and 
domains,  and  being  worsted  in  the  struggle,  had  fled  to  Samos. 
Here  he  collected  a  force,  by  means  of  which  he  re-established  him- 
self at  Cyrene,  and  having  treated  his  enemies  with  great  rigor,  and 
burnt  alive  many  of  them  who  had  taken  refuge  in  a  tower,  he  was 
induced  by  the  fear  of  vengeance  and  the  recollection  of  an  oracle 
to  withdraw  to  Barca,  where  his  father-in-law  governed.  At  Barca 
hs  was  killed  by  the  inhabitants  and  some  of  the  exiles  from  Cyrene. 
His  mother  Pheretime,  who  had  fled  to  Cyprus  when  her  son  fled 
to  Samos,  had  returned,  and  administered  the  government  of 
Cyrene  till  his  assassination.    On  that  event  she  betook  herself  to 

1  Arrian,  Hist.  3,  6,  6. 

*  Her.  4,  161,  Tw  jSaoiXe'C  Barred  ttpivUL  IfcXuyv  *ai  fpw<rCmf,  ra  iXXa  rrakro,i  i 
WfdTtpov  d%<>v  ol  ftaotXitst  if  fieaov  rw  Sfifia  ldt\KU 


400 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


Egypt,  and  represented  to  Aryandes  that  her  son  had  incurred  the 

hostility  of  his  subjects  by  his  submitting  to  pay  tribute  to  Cam- 
byses,  and  had  been  put  to  death  because  he  leaned  to  Persia1. 
Aryandes  thought  he  saw  a  favorable  opportunity  for  reducing  ali 
the  Libyans  into  a  real  dependence  on  Persia2 ;  but  he  first  sent  a 
herald  to  Barca,  to  demand  the  persons  who  had  killed  Arcesilaus. 
The  Barcasans  adopted  it  as  the  act  of  all,  and  justified  it  by  the 
tyranny  of  which  he  had  been  guilty.  'On  this  Aryandes  sent  all 
the  disposable  troops  of  Egypt  with  a  fleet3,  under  the  command  of 
Amasis  and  Badres,  against  Barca.  They  besieged  it  in  vain  for 
nine  months,  and  ultimately  obtained  possession  of  it  by  stratagem 
and  perjury.  The  generals  were  divided  in  opinion  whether  they 
should  also  attack  Cyrene,  but  Aryandes  recalled  them,  and  they 
returned  to  Egypt,  the  land  forces  having  been  much  harassed  by 
the  Libyans  on  their  march.  We  know  not  how  long  Aryandes 
continued  in  his  office  of  satrap.  Darius  had  introduced  a  gold 
coinage,  the  Daric,  a  thing  unknown  before  in  Asia,  and  Aryandes, 
in  imitation  of  his  master,  a  silver  coinage  in  Egypt.  Considering 
how  much  inconvenience  Egypt  must  have  suffered  from  the  want 
of  this  instrument  of  exchange,  there  seems  no  sufficient  reason  for 
imputing  to  Aryandes  a  desire  to  usurp  the  functions  of  sovereignty. 
But  the  actions  of  a  satrap  are  watched  with  morbid  jealousy  by 
his  superior,  and  Aryandes  had  probably  raised  discontent  among 
the  Egyptians  by  some  disrespect  to  the  national  religion,  so  that 
they  were  on  the  point  of  revolting4.  Darius,  passing  through  the 
Arabian  Desert,  came  :n  person  to  Egypt,  which  he  had  not  visited 

1  Her.  4,  165.     Ylpo'Cc^ojievrj  irpotyaaiv  o>j  Sia  rov  MfjJtoyidi/  o  irais  ol  teQvtjke. 

3  Her.  4,  167.  Dahlraann  (Herodot,  aus  seinem  Buehe  sein  Leben,  2,  p. 
16-4)  doubts  this  project  of  Aryandes. 

8  To  separate  the  civil  administration  from  the  military  power  in  th« 
satrapies  appears  to  have  been  a  subsequent  refinement  of  Persian  policy 
See  Heeren,  Ideen,  1,  1,  524,  Germ. 

*  Polysen.  7,  11,  7. 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


401 


since  he  had  attended  Cambyses  as  one  of  his  body-guards1,  put 
Aryandes  to  death,  and  conciliated  the  Egyptians  by  the  offer  of  a 
reward  for  the  discovery  of  an  Apis,  whose  place  was  at  that  time 
vacant.  We  do  not  know  the  exact  year  of  this  visit,  but  that  it 
was  subsequent  to  the  Scythian  expedition  of  Darius,  which  took 
place  508  b.  c,  we  learn  from  an  anecdote  preserved  both  b\r 
Herodotus  and  Diodorus2.  He  wished  to  erect  a  statue  of  himself 
at  Memphis,  in  front  of  the  temple  of  Ptah,  and  before  that  of 
Rameses-Sesostris.  The  high-priest  remonstrated,  and  ventured  to 
observe,  that  he  had  not  equalled  the  exploits  of  Sesostris ;  for  that 
he  had  not  been  able,  like  him,  to  subdue  the  Scythians.  Darius 
was  so  far  from  resenting  this  allusion  to  his  unsuccessful  expedi- 
tion, that  he  was  pleased  with  the  priest's  freedom  of  speech,  and 
in  reference  to  the  long  reign  of  Sesostris  replied,  that  if  he  lived  as 
long  he  hoped  to  accomplish  as  much.  The  Egyptians  reckoned 
him  after  Menes,  Sasyches,  Sesostris,  Bocchoris,  and  Amasis,  the 
nixth  of  their  great  legislators.  We  may  therefore  conclude,  not- 
withstanding the  silence  of  history,  that  he  made  regulations  for 
Egypt  which  secured  its  religion  from  the  outrages  to  which  it  had 
been  exposed  from  the  fanaticism  of  Cambyses  and  Aryandes,  and 
protected  the  people  from  oppression.  "  Hating,"  says  Diodorus, 
"the  lawless  violence  of. Cambyses  against  the  Egyptian  temples, 
he  pursued  a  humane  and  pious  course  of  life.  He  associated  fami- 
liarly with  the  Egyptian  priests,  who  imparted  to  him  a  knowledge 
of  their  theology  and  the  history  contained  in  their  sacred  books. 
Learning  from  these  the  magnanimity  of  their  ancient  king's  and 
their  mildness  towards  their  subjects,  he  imitated  their  course  of 
life,  and  was  so  much  honored  by  them,  that  he  alone  of  the  kings' 

1  Her.  3,  139.  3  Her.  2,  110.    Diod.  1,  58. 

1  Diod.  1,  95.    He  means  of  course  the  Persian  kings,  who  are  here 

Opposed  to  the  to  TraXaiov  vOftificSrara  (iaoiXzioaai  Kar  Alyv~rov.  Comp.  1,  90 
Aokovgiv  Atyfjmot  tovj  iavrdv  0aoi\eTs  npoamvciv  rt  xai  rifjav}  £>{  npd{  dXriOeuu 
ivraf  dtoti. 


402  HISTORY    OF  EGYPT. 

during  his  lifetime  was  called  a  god  by  the  Egyptians,  and  after  hie 
death  received  the  same  honors  as  the  ancient  kings  who  had 
reigned  most  equitably."  The  monuments  confirm  these  accounts. 
He  is  the  only  Persian  king  whose  name  is  accompanied  with  a 
titular  shield,  and  whose  phonetic  shield  bears  the  crest  of  the  vul- 
panser  and  disk,  "  son  of  the  Sun."  It  is  remarkable,  however, 
that  neither  his  name  nor  that  of  any  of  the  Persian  monarchs,  is 
found  on  a  public  monument  within  the  limits  of  Egypt.  On  ac 
ornament  of  porcelain  preserved  in  the  museum  of  Florence,  he  is 
called  "beneficent  god1,"  and  this  adoption  of  his  name  on  an  arti- 
cle of  familiar  use  is  perhaps  the  strongest  proof  of  the  affection 
which  the  Egyptians  bore  to  his  person.  He  even  appears  to  have 
carried  his  conformity  so  far  as  to  offer  worship  to  their  gods.  At 
least  he  is  represented  in  a  sculpture  with  a  sacerdotal  ornament 
■>n  his  head,  with  a  lighted  lamp  in  each  hand  (the  emblem  of  fire, 
the  great  divinity  of  Persia)  before  a  shrine,  in  which  stand  Athor, 
and  Osiris  in  the  form  of  a  mummy3. 

It  was  probably  on  occasion  of  this  visit  of  Darius  that  the 
Persians  obtained  possession  of  the  Great  Oasis  and  the  Oasis  cf 
Siwah,  the  temples  in  both  bearing  his  inscriptions.  lie  resumed 
the  excavation  of  the  canal  between  the  Nile  and  the  Red  Sea, 
*  wThich  Sesostris  attempted  and  Neco  partially  executed.  Its 
length,  from  near  Bubastis  to  the  Gulf  of  Suez,  was  four  days' 
navigation.  It  should  seem,  however,  that  even  Darius  did  not 
actually  open  a  communication  between  the  end  of  the  canal  and 
the  Red  Sea,  though  he  left  a  very  narrow  space  between  them3. 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  p.  170.  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  1,  199.  The  same 
title  is  given  to  Xerxes  in  an  inscription  on  the  Cosseir  road.  (Burton, 
Exc.  Hierog.  pi.  14.) 

2  Champollion  Figeac,  LTJnivers,  pi.  87.  The  evidence  which  such  a 
monument  supplies  of  an  actual  offering  of  worship  by  Darius,  is  weakened 
by  our  finding  a  similar  representation  of  Tiberius.  See  the  same  work, 
pi.  91 

•  A  monument  with  cuneiform  characters  was  found  by  the  French  near 


TITE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


403 


He  is  said  to  have  been  deterred  from  cutting  through  this  space, 
by  the  discovery  that  the  level  of  the  Red  Sea  was  higher  than 
that  of  Egypt1.  The  Macedonian  rulers  of  Egypt  appear  to  have 
been  the  first  who  made  the  communication  perfect,  and  placed  a 
lock  at  the  entrance  from  the  sea.  The  through-navigation  would 
be  practicable  only  during  a  few  weeks  of  the  year,  when  the  Nile 
is  highest. 

The  road  from  Coptos  to  Cosseir,  judging  from  the  inscriptions 
bearing  the  names  of  Persian  sovereigns,  must  have  been  much 
frequented  in  these  times,  and  was  probably  the  principal  channel 
of  the  trade  with  Arabia  and  the  shores  of  the  Persian  Galf.  The 
increase  of  commercial'  intercourse  with  strangers  is  indicated  by 
the  number  of  contracts  in  the  demotic  character  which  bear  date 
in  the  reign  of  Darius3.  This  character  appears  to  have  been 
invented  for  such  uses,  and  no  specimens  of  it  are  found  older  than 
Psammitichus8. 

The  relations  of  Egypt  with  Greece  probably  remained  friendly 
/luring  the  early  part  of  the  reign  of  Darius ;  the  resort  of  Greeks 
thither  for  commercial  purposes  'and  the  pursuit  of  knowledge 
continued.  A  change  would  take  place  after  the  revolt,  as  it  ia 
called,  of  the  Ionian  cities  from  the  Persian  power,  and  the  burn- 
ing of  Sardis  in  499  b.c.4  The  Egyptians  formed  a  part  of  the 
fleet  which  Persia  employed  for  the  reduction  of  Miletus5.  From 
that  time.  Greeks,  at  least  Ionian  Greeks,  the  principal  travellers 
whether  for  profit  or  improvement,  would  be  excluded  froui  the 
dependencies  of  Persia,  and  Egypt  would  not  be  open  to  them 
again,  until  she  regained  a  temporary  independence  under  Inaroa 
and  Amyrtieus. 

the  Bitter  Lakes.    See  Roziere,  Descr.  de  l'Egypte  Antiq.  M6m.  1,  p.  265 
It  contains  part  of  the  name  of  Darius.    (Lepsius,  Einl.  1,  364,  note.) 
1  Strabo,  17,  p.  804,  says,  66fr  tj/evSeT  xuodeii.    See  p.  836  of  this  voL 


404 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


When  Darius  quitted  Egypt,  which  he  had  probably  visited  ia 
the  interval  between  his  return  to  Susa  after  his  Scythian  expedi- 
tion1 and  the  commencement  of  his  wars  with  the  Ionians,  he 
appointed  Amasis  satrap  of  Egypt.  lie  may  have  been  the  same 
who  had  led  the  Persian  fleet  against  Barca  ;  the  evidence  of  his 
having  held  the  office  is,  that  a  shield  with  this  name  and  the 
word  Melek  inscribed  over  it,  has  been  found  on  the  Cosseir  road'. 
The  title  is  neither  Coptic  nor  Persian,  but  Semitic ;  that  it  was 
familiar,  however,  to  the  Egyptians  is  evident  from  its  occurrence 
in  the  list  of  the  nations  conquered  by  Sheshonk3.  Amasis,  the 
father  of  Psammenitus,  cannot  be  meant,  as  we  have  his  shields 
with  the  full  Pharaonic  titles.  Another  shield,  preceded  by  the 
word  Melek,  has  been  found  at  the  same  place,  and  the  characters 
which  it  contains  have  been  read,  "  Nephra  son  of  Amasis."  It 
bears  date  the  30th  year  of  Darius  (b.c.  489),  and  therefore  Nephra 
seems  to  have  succeeded  Amasis  in  the  satrapy.  The  defeat  of 
Darius'  troops  at  Marathon  in  the  year  490,  offered  to  the  Egyp- 
tians a  prospect  of  recovering  their  liberty,  and  while  all  Asia 
resounded  with  the  preparations  which  he  made  for  three  years  to 
invade  Greece,  and  efface  the  dishonor  of  his  arms4,  Egypt  revolted 
(b.c.  486).  He  died  (b.c.  485)  just  when  his  preparations  for 
attacking  Egypt  and  Athens  were  complete,  and  left  the  execution 
of  his  enterprises  to  his  son  Xerxes.  The  latest  record  of  Darius' 
reign  is  a  contract  in  the  demotic  character,  dated  in  the  month 
Phamenoth  of  his  35th  year.  An  inscription  in  the  Cosseir  road 
mentions  his  36th  year,  but  this  was  engraved  under  the  reign  of 
Xerxes,  who  having  recovered  possession  of  Egypt,  considered  his 
predecessor's  reign  as  uninterrupted,  notwithstanding  the  revolt  at 
its  close5.  Herodotus  and  the  lists  agree  in  assigning  36  years  aa 
the  length  of  Darius'  reign. 


1  Her.  5,  11,  25.  *  Burton's  Exc.  Hierog.  pi.  8,  4 

•  See  p.  293  of  this  vol.  4  Herod.  7,  1,4. 

Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  2,  174.    Burton,  Exc.  Hierog.  14,  3. 


THE  TWEXTY-SE7EXTII  DYNASTY. 


405 


We  know  not  by  whom  the  revolt  of  the  Egyptians  was  headed, 
or  what  form  of  government  was  established  during  the  brief 
interval  of  its  independence.  The  entire  history  of  this  event, 
which  was  almost  lost  to  the  Greek  historians  in  the  magnitude 
of  the  impending  struggle  between  Persia  and  Greece,  is  contained 
in  a  few  words  of  Herodotus.  Xerxes  was  disinclined  from  a 
Grecian  war,  but  Mardonius  exhorted  him  first  to  tame  the  inso- 
lence of  the  revolted  Egyptians,  and  then  to  lead  his  army  against 
Athens.  The  advice  was  sound  as  regarded  the  order  of  his 
operations.  To  have  attacked  Greece,  before  Egypt  was  reduced, 
would  have  deprived  him  of  the  most  valuable  part  of  his  naval 
force  except  the  Phoenicians  :  it  might  have  added  an  Egyptian 
fleet  to  the  navy  of  the  Greeks.  In  the  year  after  the  death  of 
Darius,  therefore,  he  made  an  expedition  against  Egypt,  and 
having  subdued  it  apparently  with  little  difficulty  (b.c.  484), 
reduced  it  to  a  condition  of  much  more  severe  dependence  than  it 
had  experienced  under  Darius1,  and  appointed  his  brother  Aclne- 
menes  satrap,  who  governed  it  for  twenty-four  years,  till  he  lost 
his  life  in  the  revolt  of  Inaros,  b.c.  460. 

In  the  invasion  of  Greece,  on  which  Xerxes  entered  after  four 
years  of  additional  preparation,  by  marching  from  Sardis  in  the 
spring  of  the  year  480  b.c,  the  Egyptians  bore  a  very  important 
part.  They  furnished  200  ships.  The  Calasirians  and  Hermoty- 
bians  (for  the  old  names  were  still  kept  up)  served  on  board  of  them  as 
epibatce  or  marines,  and  were  armed  specially  for  this  service  with 
boarding-spears  and  large  hatchets3.  They  assisted  in  the  construc- 
tion of  the  bridge  of  boats  by  which  the  Persian  army  crossed  the 
Hellespont,  furnishing  the  ropes  of  papyrus  as  the  Phoenicians  did 
those  of  flax,  and  conveyed  corn  to  the  places  at  which  magazines 
weie  to  be  established  for  the  supply  of  the  army3.  In  the  battle 
of  Artemisium  they  distinguished  themselves  above  the  whole 


1  Her.  7,  7. 


*  Her.  7,  89. 


1  fier  7,  34.  26. 


406 


11ISTORT   OF  ttGYPT. 


fleet,  and  captured  five  Greek  vesseis  with  their  crews  .  None  of 
them  were  enrolled  in  the  land-army  of  Xerxes,  but  when  the  fleet 
lay  at  Phalerum,  Mardonius  disembarked  the  fighting  portion  of 
the  crews,  and  they  served  as  swordsmen  in  the  battle  of  Piatea*. 
The  internal  history  of  Egypt  is  an  entire  blank  frojn  this 
time  to  the  death  of  Xerxes,  no  doubt  because  all  access  to  that 
country  was  forbidden  to  the  Greeks.  The  name  of  Achaemenes 
is  not  found  on  any  Egyptian  monument,  but  that  of  Xerxes 
occurs  on  the  Cosseir  road  with  the  date  of  his  seventh  year*. 
Early  in  the  history  of  hieroglyphical  discovery,  Champollion  read 
the  name  of  Xerxes  in  Egyptian  and  cuneiform  characters  on  an 
alabaster  vase  in  the  royal  library  at  Paris,  confirming  his  own 
discoveries  and  those  of  Grotefend. 

Xerxes  was  assassinated  by  Artabanus  in  the  year  b.c.  465, 
and  after  an  internal  of  a  few  months4  was  succeeded  by  Arta- 
xerxes  Longimanus,  the  second  of  his  sons,  in  464  b.c.  The  com- 
mencement of  his  reign  appeared  to  offer  a  favorable  opportunity 
of  revolt  to  the  Egyptians5.  The  Persian  power  had  been  greatly 
weakened  by  the  result  of  Xerxes'  invasion  of  Greece.  Not  only  had 
his  immense  fleet  and  army  been  destroyed,  but  the  Greeks,  follow- 
ing up  their  victory,  had  driven  the  Persians  from  the  Thracian 
Chersonesus,  from  Byzantium,  from  the  coasts  of  Asia  Minor,  and 
from  Cyprus  ;  and  Xerxes  in  the  latter  part  of  his  reign  had  aban- 
doned himself  to  luxury,  and  the  baneful  intrigues  and  jealousies 
of  his  court  and  harem.  The  first  care  of  Artaxerxes  was  to 
punish  the  murderers  of  his  father  and  brother,  and  substitute 
satraps  friendly  to  his  interests  in  those  governments  from  which 
he  apprehended  hostility0.  Artapanus,  satrap  of  Bactria,  made  an 
obstinate  resistance,  and  was  only  subdued  after  two  pitched 

1  Her.  8,  17.  1  Her.  9,  32*  3  Burton,  Exc.  Hierog.  pi.  14. 

4  Eusebius,  Chron.  p.  31,  ed.  Sealiger,  makes  Artabanus  to  have  reigned 
even  months  after  his  assassination  of  Xerxes  and  his  eldest  son  Darius. 
B  Diod.  11,  7?.  *  Diod  11,  71 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


407 


battles1.  The  Egyptians  thus  obtained  time  for  maturing  their 
revolt.  Inaros,  the  son  of  Psammitichus,  probably  a  descendant 
of  the  Saitic  princes,  had  made  himself  king  of  the  Libyans  who 
bordered  on  Egypt,  and  advanced  with  an  army  from  Marea,  the 
frontier  town  near  the  later  site  of  Alexandria2.  He  was  joined 
by  nearly  the  whole  population  of  Egypt,  and  all  the  Persian  reve- 
nue officers  were  driven  out.  Inaros  raised  a  body  of  native 
troops  and  enlisted  mercenaries,  but  as  it  was  evident  that  he  would 
have  to  contend  with  the  whole  force  of  Persia,  as  soon  as  order 
was  established  at  home,  he  was  naturally  led  to  seek  an  alliance 
with  Athens.  At  this  time  an  Athenian  fleet  of  200  triremes  was 
engaged  in  operations  against  Cyprus.  To  them  Inaros  would 
naturally  make  his  first  proposals,  but  it  is  not  probable  that  they 
would  act  upon  them  without  authority  from  Athens.  According 
to  Diodorus,  he  promised,  besides  many  other  advantages,  to  share 
with  them  the  sovereignty  of  Egypt3.  Such  prospects  were  irre- 
sistible to  the  Athenian  people,  in  whom  success  had  already  opened 
boundless  hopes  of  dominion  ;  they  could  hardly  plead  self-defence, 
for  with  the  possession  of  Cyprus  they  were  secure  against  any 
molestation  by  Persia.  Forty  triremes4  were  accordingly  detached 
from  the  fleet  off  Cyprus.  Artaxerxes  in  the  meantime  had  been 
collecting  a  fleet  and  army  from  all  the  satrapies  of  his  empire, 
and  was  about  to  take  the  command  in  person,  but  on  the  advice 
of  his  friends  gave  it  up  to  Achsemenes,  who  appears  to  have  fled 
from  Egypt  to  Persia  after  the  first  victory  of  Inaros5.  Achjemenes, 
after  a  short  interval  employed  in  recruiting  his  army,  advanced 

1  Ctes.  Pers.  c.  31,  ed.  Baehr.  3  Time.  1,  104.  3  Diod.  11,  71. 

4  Ctes.  Pers.  c  82.  Diod.  11,  74,  says  200.  The  contraction  of  Thucy- 
dides,  1,  104,  OP  it  irv^ov  yap  If  ~K.v-pov  arpaTtvopevoi  vavai  SiaxoGiai*;  ijASof,  is 
ambiguous. 

6  Diodorus,  11,  74,  says  that  the  Achoemenes  who  commanded  the  expedi- 
tion was  the  son  of  Darius.  Ctesias  calls  him  Achcemenides,  brother  of, 
Artaxerxea 


408 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


against  Inaros,  who  had  retired  to  the  western  side  of  Egypt  t« 
collect  his  forces  from  Libya  and  avail  himself  of  the  aid  of  the 
Athenians;  and  here  at  Papremis1  a  great  battle  was  fought,  in 
which  Inaros  slew  Achcemenes  with  his  own  hand,  and  the  Per- 
sians were  defeated  chiefly  by  the  valor  of  the  Athenians.  The 
Persians  fled  to  Memphis  ;  the  Athenians  sailed  up  the  river  in 
pursuit  of  them,  and  having  possessed  themselves  of  two  out  of 
the  three  regions  of  the  city,  besieged  the  Persians  and  the  Egyp- 
tians who  adhered  to  them  in  the  citadel  called  the  White  Fortress. 
Artaxerxes  first  endeavored  to  oblige  the  Athenians  to  recall  their 
fleet  from  Egypt  by  sending  Megabazus  with  gold  to  Sparta,  to 
induce  the  Peloponnesians  to  make  an  irruption  into  Attica.  His 
money  was  expended  in  vain  ;  Athens  had  just  placed  herself  in 
security  by  the  completion  of  the  Long  Walls2,  and  had  shown  how 
formidable  was  her  naval  power  by  sailing  round  the  Peloponnesus 
and  burning  the  naval  arsenal  of  the  Lacedaemonians.  On  the 
return  of  Megabazus,  Artaxerxes  collected  another  armament3,  of 
which  he  gave  the  command  to  Megabyzus  the  son  of  Zopyrus. 
The  fleet  was  equipped  in  Cilicia,  and  being  joined  by  the  army 
which  had  marched  from  Persia,  proceeded  by  the  coasts  of  Syria 
and  Phoenicia  to  Egypt.  The  Athenians  and  Egyptians  were  still 
blockading  the  White  Citadel,  which  during  more  than  a  year 
they  had  been  unable  to  reduce4.  The  news  of  the  arrival  of  the 
Persians  caused  them  to  raise  the  siege  and  retire  into  Lower 
Egypt6.  They  established  themselves  in  the  island  Prosopitis, 
formed  by  a  canal  from  the  Canopic  branch  of  the  Nile,  by  com- 
manding the  navigation  of  which  they  kept  open  their  communi- 

1  See  Mannert,  Geogr.  x.  1,  p.  591,  for  the  position  of  Papremis  in  the 
western  part  of  the  Delta.   (Diod.  11,  74.)  "  Thue.  1,  108,  109. 

8  Diodorus  says,  of  800,000  men.  This  is  a  standing  number  with  him. 
(11,74,75.)  4  Diod.  11,  75. 

8  Ctesias  speaks  of  an  engagement  in  which  Inaros  was  wounded  and 
•ome  of  the  Greeks  killed  (c.  821  ar^  Thucydides  agrees  with  him. 


TTTE  TWKNTY-8EVENTH  DYNASTY. 


409 


cntion  with  the  sea1.  After  the  experience  which  they  had  had  of 
Grecian  valor,  the  Persians  abstained  from  battles  in  the  field*; 
axailing  themselves  of  the  dry  season,  they  succeeded  at  the  end 
of  fifteen  months  in  diverting  the  water  from  the  channel  in  which 
the  Athenian  fleet  lay,  and  the  ships  being  thus  useless,  the  Egyp- 
tians were  alarmed  and  made  conditions  for  themselves.  The 
Athenians  burnt  their  triremes,  and  were  preparing  for  a  desperate 
defence :  as  they  were  still  6000  in  number,  the  Persian  com- 
manders did  not  desire  to  drive  them  to  extremities,  and  agreed  to 
allow  them  to  retire  from  Egypt.  Through  Libya  they  reached 
Cvrene,  but  only  a  small  remnant  returned  in  safety  to  Athens'. 
*.naros,  and  some  of  the  Greeks,  were  carried  to  Susa  ;  their  lives 
were  at  first  spared,  according  to  the  capitulation  ;  but  Amytis, 
the  mother  of  Achaemenes,  who  had  been  killed  by  Inaros,  suc- 
ceeded after  five  years,  in  persuading  the  king  to  give  up  Inaros 
to  her,  and  he  was  crucified.  Thannyris,  the  son  of  Inaros,  suc- 
ceeded him  in  his  government  of  Libya* ;  Sarsames  was  made 
satrap  of  Egypt.  A  further  misfortune  befell  the  Athenians  ;  fifty 
triremes,  destined  to  reinforce  the  armament,  touched  at  the  Mende- 
sian  mouth,  in  ignorance  of  what  had  happened.  They  were  attacked 
by  the  Phoenician  fleet  and  Egyptian  land-forces6,  and  nearly  all 
destroyed.  These  transactions  occupied  a  space  of  six  years,  from 
462  to  456  B.C.,  but  the  chronology  of  each  is  not  easily  fixed. 

The  Persians  thus  obtained  possession  of  the  greater  part  of 
Egypt;  but  the  marsh-lands  near  the  mouths  of  the  Nile,  being 
extensive,  difficult  of  access,  and  inhabited  by  a  warlike  popula- 
tion,, were  not  subdued".  There  was  in  this  district  an  island  called 
Elbo,  in  which  Anysis  many  years  before  had  taken  refuge  during 
the  invasion  of  the  Ethiopians7.    Here  Arayrtams,  descended  from 

1  Champ.,  Egypte  sous  le9  Pharaona,  2, 162.  Ctesias  calls  the  place  to  which 
Inaros  fled  Byblos,  a  name  otherwise  unknown  to  Egyptian  topography. 
1  Diod  11,  77.  •Thuc  1,  110.  4  Herod  8,  16.    Ctea  e  86. 

1  Thucvd.  1,  110.         *  Thucvd.  1,  110.         1  Berod.  2,  140. 
VOL.  II.  18 


410 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


the  Saitic  dynasty,  established  himself  and  maintained  his  inde 
pendence.  The  Athenians,  during  a  temporary  remission  of  theTi 
war  with  the  states  of  Peloponnesus,  after  the  peace  of  Five  Years 
(b.  c.  450),  turned  their  attention  again  to  Cyprus  and  Egypt1,  and 
sent  sixty  ships  to  the  latter  country  on  the  invitation  of  Amyr- 
taeus.  In  Cyprus  they  were  victorious3,  but  the  death  of  Cimon 
(b.  c.  449)  put  an  end  to  the  expedition,  and  the  ships  that  had 
sailed  to  Egypt  returned  at  the  same  time  to  Athens  without  hav- 
ing accomplished  anything.  Amyrtseus  made  submission  to  the 
Persians,  and  his  son  Pausiris  was  allowed  to  succeed  to  his  father's 
power8.    No  monuments  remain  of  any  of  these  rulers. 

Of  the  condition  of  Egypt  under  the  re-established  rule  of  Persia, 
we  obtain  some  incidental  account  from  Herodotus.  The  inter- 
course of  the  Greeks  with  the  interior  of  that  country  had  neces- 
sarily been  suspended,  during  the  insurrection  of  Inaros  and  Amyr- 
tseus ;  it  was  renewed  after  the  Athenian  fleet  had  withdrawn,  and 
peace  virtually,  if  not  formally,  been  established  between  Greece 
and  Persia.  Artaxerxes  resumed  the  mild  and  tolerant  policy  of 
Darius.  Ilerodotus  describes  the  state  of  things  which  he  saw  in 
Egypt,  subsequently  to  the  battle  of  Papremis4,  and  probably  to 
the  suppression  of  the  revolt  in  456  b.  c.  The  country  appears  to 
have  been  in  profound  peace,  for  Ilerodotus  proceeded  from  the* 
sea  to  the  limits  of  Ethiopia  without  molestation.  A  traveller 
might  even  pass  these  limits  and  ascend  the  Nile  as  far  as  Meroe. 
Democritus,  who  was  a  little  younger  than  Herodotus,  and  spent  five 
years  in  Egypt,  wrote  a  treatise  on  the  sacred  characters  of  Meroe6. 

1  Thucyd.  1,  112.    Plut.  Cim.  18.  a  Pint  Cira.  1& 

9  Herod.  3,  15.  4  3,  12. 

5  Diog.  Laert.  9,  49.  Fynes  Clinton,  F.  H.  sub  an.  460  b.  o.  Herod.  2, 
29.  Eusebius  (Chron.  p.  53,  ed.  Scalig.)  has  a  singular  statement  respecting 
Democritus  and  a  Jewess  learned  in  mysteries  named  Maria,  which  Scaliger 
(p.  419)  thinks  an  interpolation  of  the  monk  Panodorus.  See  p.  IS  of  this 
roL    Jablonsk.,  Panth.  JEg.  ProL  cxliv. 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNA8TY. 


411 


The  frontier  towns  and  Memphis1  were  occupied  by  Persian  troops ; 
but  the  worship  at  the  temples,  the  celebration  of  the  panegyries, 
went  on  as  usual ;  Greeks  were  found  in  all  the  principal  towns, 
engaged  in  commerce  and  unmolested  by  the  Egyptians,  notwith- 
standing the  strong  repulsion  which  manners  and  religion  placed 
between  them8. 

Yet  on  the  first  opportunity  which  the  state  of  Persia  appeared 
to  offer  for  throwing  off  the  yoke,  the  Egyptians  were  eager  to 
avail  themselves  of  it.  No  other  nation  which  formed  a  part  of 
the  Persian  empire  was  so  loosely  connected  with  the  general  body 
as  Egypt.  It  was  in  contact  with  it  at  a  single  point  only,  and 
even  there  difficult  of  access.  No  other  nation  could  boast  of  so 
long  an  antecedent  independence  as  Egypt ;  the  power  of  the 
Assyrians  and  Babylonians  was  of  recent  origin,  compared  with 
the  monarchy  of  the  Pharaohs.  Religion,  however,  was  the 
strongest  obstacle  to  union  between  the  Egyptians  and  their  mas- 
ters. Though  persecution  had  ceased,  the  priests  of  the  national 
religion  had  lost  the  ascendency  which  they  had  once  enjoyed. 
They  might  possess  their  revenues  without  disturbance  or  diminu- 
tion, and  worship  their  native  gods  without  hindrance ;  but  they 
no  longer  chose  their  sovereign,  enrolled  him  in  their  order,  regu- 
lated his  public  policy,  and  controlled  his  daily  actions.  The 
tokrance  which  the  Persians  practised  left  the  priests  in  possession 
of  all  their  ancient  power  over  the  minds  of  the  common  people, 
whom  it  would  be  easy  for  them  to  stir  up  to  rebellion-,  when  a 
favorable  occasion  offered  itself.  During  the  reign  of  Artaxerxes, 
who  governed  with  great  vigor  for  forty  years,  they  remained 
quiet.  The  domestic  quarrels  of  the  Greeks,  who  were  engaged 
in  the  latter  part  of  it  in  the  Peloponnesian  War,  prevented  their 
giving  aid  to  Egypt,  which  without  it  could  have  no  hope  of  auc- 
fiess  in  a  revolt  from  Persia. 


1  E«r.  %  SO,  99. 


•  Herod.  %  4L 


412 


HISTORY  OF  EOTPT. 


On  the  death  of  Artaxerxes,  b.  c.  425,  the  usual  disputes  respect* 
ing  the  succession  distracted  the  monarchy.  His  legitimate  suc- 
cessor, Xerxes  II.,  was  immediately  murdered  by  his  brother 
Sogdianus,  and  he  in  turn  by  Ochus,  who  possessed  himself  of 
the  throne  under  the  name  of  Darius,  and  is  distinguished  by  the 
addition  of  Nothus  (illegitimate),  b.  c.  424.  He  was  not  allowed 
to  retain  it  without  a  struggle.  His  brother  Arsites  raised  a 
revolt,  and  was  only  subdued  by  the  help  of  Greek  mercenaries  in 
the  service  of  Persia.  The  satrap  of  Egypt,  Arxanes1,  had  declared 
himself  for  Ochus,  when  he  rebelled  against  Sogdianus ;  but  this 
was  merely  a  declaration  of  the  Persian  forces  in  favor  of  one 
sovereign  and  against  another,  in  which  the  Egyptians  had  no 
interest.  When,  however,  a  truce  for  fifty  years  had  been  made 
between  the  Peloponnesians,  Lacedaemonians  and  Athenians,  b.  c. 
421,  the  hope  of  Athenian  aid,  which  was  now  the  hinge  of  Egyp- 
tian policy  in  its  relations  with  Persia,  would  naturally  revive,  and 
a  revolt  speedily  followed9.  It  began  in  the  second  year  of  Darius 
Nothus ;  but  was  either  suppressed  or  was  very  limited  in  its 
extent,  till  the  tenth  year  of  the  same  sovereign's  reign,  b.  c.  414. 
In  the  interval  the  short  truce  between  the  contending  powers  in 
Greece  had  been  broken,  and  the  Athenians  had  engaged  in  the 
expedition  to  Sicily  which  in  the  following  year  produced  such 
disastrous  results.  Egypt  therefore  had  to  struggle  unaided  for 
her  independence.  Once  more  we  chronicle  the  events  of  Egyp- 
tian history  by  the  years  of  a  native  dynasty. 

T wenty-eighth  Dynasty, 

Yearn 

Amtrtjius  the  Saite.  reigned  .......  6 

It  has  been  supposed  that  this  Amyrtae'is  is  the  same  persca  who 
1  Ctea.  Tern.  c.  47,  ed.  Baehr. 

*  Syncell.  p.  256  L>.     Afywrof  air'torrj  Htpffuiv  ierrtpai  tru  J$69ot  Aapthn. 


THE  TWENTY-EIGHTH  DYNASTY. 


413 


estallished  himself  in  the  marshy  regions  of  the  Delta1,  nearly 
forty  years  before,  and  had  there  maintained  an  independent  sove- 
reignty, till  this  new  revolt  called  him  forth  to  place  himself  at  the 
head  of  his  countrymen.  Nothing  favors  this  supposition,  except 
the  identity  of  the  name,  and  it  involves  serious  chronological 
difficulties.  Probably  the  Amyrtseus  who  constitutes  the  twenty- 
eighth  dynasty  was  the  grandson  of  him  who  fled  into  the  marshes, 
and  the  son  of  that  Pausiris  to  whom,  according  to  Herodotus,  the 
Persians  conceded  the  sovereignty  which  his  father  had  exercised. 
The  attachment  of  the  Egyptians  to  the  ancient  line  of  the  Saitic 
kings  sufficiently  explains  their  placing  Amyrtseus  at  the  head  of 
their  re-established  monarchy.  History  is  entirely  silont  respect- 
ing the  events  by  which  they  regained  their  independence.  Their 
success  might  be  aided  by  the  revolt  of  the  Persian  satraps  of 
Lydia  and  Caria,  Pisuthnes  and  his  son  Amorges,  whom  the 
Athenians  assisted  by  a  body  of  mercenary  troops  under  Lycon'. 
That  they  maintained  friendly  relations  with  Athens,  which  was 
then  engaged  in  hostility  with  Persia,  is  evident  from  the  mention 
of  corn-ships  sailing  from  Egypt  to  Athens,  which  the  Pelopon- 
nesians  planned  to  intercept  at  the  Triopian  Promontory*.  To  pro- 
tect themselves  from  invasion  by  land  on  the  part  of  the  Persians, 
the  Egyptians  entered  into  an  alliance. with  the  Arabians,  without 
whose  concurrence  an  army  could  not  enter  from  Palestine.  They 
also  endeavored,  in  conjunction  with  the  Arabians,  to  obtain  pos- 
session of  Phoenicia,  the  great  source  of  the  naval  power  of  Persia  ; 
but  Pharnabazus  suddenly  appeared  on  the  Phoenician  coast  with 
three  hundred  triremes  and  frustrated  this  design4. 

In  this  dearth  of  historical  information  the  monuments  give  ui 

1  See  p.  409  of  this  vol  »  Ctes.  Pers,  52.    Thuc  8,  5. 

•  Thuc  8,  35,  with  Poppo's  note, 

•  Diod.  13,  46.  From  Time,  3,  109  (raj  tu3o\as  rtol  ™v  4>Wf<nn3v  rt<3»),  it 
ahculd  Geem  as  if  Diodoros  hacl  confounded  Pharnabaznsi  with  Tissaphernef. 
See  Ley,  Fata  Egypti  sub  impcrio  Persarum,  p.  55. 


414 


BISTORT  OF  EGYPT. 


valuable  aid,  by  showing  that  Amyrtaeus  was  sovereign  of  the 
whole  kingdom  of  Egypt  and  its  dependencies,  and  that  Manetho 
was  justified  in  assigning  him  that  rank.  In  the  temple  of  Chons 
at  Karnak  is  an  inscription,  expressing  that  it  had  been  repaired 
by  him, — the  first  record  of  any  such  work,  since  Thebes  was 
destroyed  by  Cambyses1.  The  temple  of  Eilithya,  dedicated  to 
Sevek,  bears  a  record  of  a  similar  restoration  by  the  same  sove- 
reign. The  shield  at  Karnak  appears  also  to  express  that  he  had 
been  the  conqueror  of  the  "  land  of  Heb,"  or  the  Great  Oasis  ;  and 
his  name  has  been  found  on  the  temple  in  the  Oasis  of  El  Khargeh, 
in  a  position  which  shows  that  it  was  introduced  subsequently  to 
that  of  Darius'.  At  his  death  his  body  was  placed  in  a  magnifi- 
cent sarcophagus  of  green  breccia.  This  was  one  of  the  trophies 
of  the  British  expedition  to  Egypt,  having  been  taken  by  the 
French  from  the  mosch  which  had  formerly  been  the  basilica  of 
St.  Athanasius.  Dr.  E.  D.  Clarke  supposed  it  to  have  been  the 
sarcophagus  of  Alexander  the  Great ;  but  it  bears  the  shield  of 
Amyrtaeus8,  and  by  its  size  and  beauty  of  execution,  proves  that 
art  had  declined  but  little  since  the  days  of  Psammitichus.  Amyr- 
taeus  reigned  only  six  years,  and  the  Saite  dynasty  expired  with 
him  (b.o.  408) ;  an  additional  proof  that  he  is  not  the  Amyrtaeua 
of  Herodotus,  who  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Pausiris. 

Twenty-ninth  Dynasty.    Four  Mendesian  kings. 

Years. 

1.  Nehhkritks,  reigned  6 

2.  Achoris   .  .  .18 

Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  201.  There  is  some  obscurity  in  the  characters, 
but  Egyptologists  are  generally  agreed  that  the  shield  belongs  to  Amyrtaeus. 
(Champollion-Figeac,  L'Univers,  p.  883.) 

•  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Egypt  and  Thebes,  2,  867, 

•  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  206 ;  an  engraving  of  it  is  given  in  the  gr«ftt 
French  work  on  Egypt,  Ant  vol  6,  pL  40. 


THE  TWENTY-NINTH  DYNASTY. 


415 


Years. 

S.  PSAMMUTBIS  1 

4.  Nei'Herjtes  0     4  months. 

20  4 

[Eusebius  in  Syncelhis  adds  a  fifth,  Muthis,  reigning  one  year    In  tlie 
Armenian,  Muthis  is  placed  before  Nepherites.] 

It  may  appear  singular  that  no  attempt  should  have  "been  made 
by  Persia  to  recover  its  dominion  over  Egypt,  especially  at  the 
extinction  of  the  Saitic  dynasty,  and  that  a  new  family  should  have 
been  allowed  quietly  to  possess  itself  of  the  throne.  Just  at  this 
time,  however,  the  Persian  power  was.  shaken  by  a  revolt  of  the 
Medes1,  who  had  endeavored  in  the  time  of  Cambyses  to  regain 
their  lost  ascendency  in  what  was  called  the  conspiracy  of  the 
Magi,  and  had  never  been  reconciled  to  the  monopoly  of  the  great 
offices  of  government  which  the  Persians  had  assumed.  How 
long  the  revolt  lasted,  and  whether  it  was  put  down  easily  or  not,  we 
are  not  informed,  our  whole  knowledge  of  the  event  being  derived 
from  a  short  passage  in  Xenophon  ;  but  while  it  lasted  it  must 
have  precluded  all  thoughts  of  attempting  the  reduction  of  Egypt. 
Darius  Nothus  died  soon  after,  b.c.  405,  and  was  succeeded  by 
Artaxerxes  Mnemon.  The  ambition  of  his  brother  Cyrus  led  to 
the  expedition  of  the  Ten  Thousand  Greeks,  which  he  was  prepar- 
ing from  the  time  of  their  father's  death3,  till  the  year  b.c.  401. 
Cyrus  having  perished  in  the  battle  of  Cunaxa,  the  first  care  of 
Artaxerxes  was  to  recover  his  authority  in  Asia  Minor,  which  had 
been  the  government  of  Cyrus  and  had  joined  in  his  revolt.  He 
was  thus  brought  into  hostility  with  Sparta ;  Clearchus,  the  Lace- 
demonian, had  been  the  leader  of  the  Greek  mercenaries  of  Cyrus ; 
the  oppressed  cities  of  Ionia  called  for  protection  on  Sparta,  which, 

1  Xen.  Hell.  1,  2,  ad  fin.  Kai  b  iviavros  eXrtyev  ovroiy  iv  <L  Kol  Mfjcut,  dni 
Aaptiov,  rov  Tlepouiv  0aaiXcu)fl  dff'»*-'ii'r«j  iral'v  irpoosx<opri<rav  airw.      This  "WW! 

B.OL  409  1  Xen.  Anab.  1,  1. 


416 


HISTORY  OF  EGYTT. 


,  by  the  issue  of  the  Peloponnesian  War,  had  been  placed  in  the 
hegemonia  of  Greece  and  was  protectress  of  its  liberties.  When 
she  prepared,  in  obedience  to  this  call,  to  invade  Asia,  she  made 
an  alliance  with  Nephreus,  king  of  Egypt,  the  Nofreopth  of  the 
monuments1,  and  Nepherites  of  the  lists,  and  he  sent  a  hundred 
triremes  and  large  supplies  of  corn2.  The  ships  which  conveyed  it 
entering  the  port  of  Rhodes,* which  was  in  possession  of  Conon, 
who  commanded  the  Persian  fleet,  were  all  taken.  The  success  of 
Dercyllidas  and  Agesilaus  (399-394  b.c)  fully  occupied  the  Per- 
sian arms  in  Asia  Minor  for  several  years,  and  it  was  not  till  the 
power  of  Athens  revived,  and  a  league  was  formed  in  Grecia 
against  Sparta  by  the  influence  of  Persian  gold,  that  Artaxerxes 
could  attend  to  the  re-establishment  of  his  authority  in  other  parts 
of  his  dominions.  The  peace  of  Antalcidas,  concluded  b.c.  387, 
freed  him  from  all  further  apprehension  on  the  side  of  Greece,  by 
sacrificing  the  liberty  of  the  Asiatic  cities,  and  leaving  the  principal 
states  of  the  mother  country  nearly  balanced  in  power,  and  each 
prepared  to  resist  the  ascendency  of  another. 

His  first  attack,  for  which  he  had  been  collecting  forces  during 
several  years,  was  made  on  Cyprus.  If  held  by  a  hostile  naval 
power,  it  not  only  gave  the  command  of  the  southern  coast  of  Asia 
Minor,  of  Syria  and  Phoenicia,  but  even  of  Egypt.  Evagoras  of 
Salamis  had  availed  himself  of  the  weakness  of  Persia,  to  make 
himself  master  of  nearly  the  whole  island3.  In  the  war  which 
resulted,  Evagoras  was  powerfully  aided  by  the  Egyptians.  Ne- 
pherites was  dead.  We  know  nothing  more  of  the  events  of  his 
reign  than  his  alliance  with  Sparta,  unless  he  is  the  Psammiticlms 
of  whom  Diodorus  relates  a  disgraceful  transaction4.    After  the 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  209.    His  name  is  not  found  on  any  building  in 
Egypt,  but  on  a  statue  in  the  Museum  of  Bologna. 
"  Diod.  14, 79.    Justin  calls  the  king  of  Egypt  Hercynio  (6,  2).  Achoris. 
*  Isocr.    Evag.  e<L  Battie,  2,  p.  101.  •  Diod.  14, 


THE  TWENTY-NINTH  DYNASTY. 


417 


death  of  Cyrus,-  the  satraps  of  Asia  Minor,  who  had  favored  his 
cause,  were  alarmed  for  their  own  safety,  and  Tamos,  the  satrap 
of  Tonia,  had  put  his  children  and  property  on  board  ship,  and 
taken  refuge  in  Egypt  with  Psammitichus,  who  basely  seized  the 
fleet  and  the  property,  and  put  Tamos  and  his  children  to  death, 
notwithstanding  the  ancient  relations  of  friendship  between  them. 
The  chronology  of  this  period  is  uncertain,  and  we  cannot  tell 
whether  the  infamy  of  the  act  belongs  to  Amyrtseus  or  Nephe- 
rites1. 

When  Evagoras  sought  the  succor  of  the  Egyptians,  Achoris 
was  on  the  throne.  Artaxerxes  had  been  long  preparing  bis 
attack,  and  had  collected  a  fleet  of  300  triremes  with  a  correspond- 
ing land  force,  while  Evagoras  had  endeavored  to  protect  himself 
by  forming  an  alliance  with  Egypt,  Arabia,  Tyre  and  Caria2. 
Achoris,  besides  furnishing  him  with  supplies  of  corn,  sent  him 
fifty  triremes,  which  were  engaged  in  the  unsuccessful  naval  battle 
fought  by  Evagoras  with  the  Persians  off  Citium,  in  the  year  385 
b.c.  After  this  defeat  he  visited  Egypt,  to  arrange  with  Achoris 
the  means  of  carrying  on  the  war.  Achoris  encouraged  him  to 
persevere,  and  entered  into  a  league  against  Persia  with  the  peo- 
ple of  Barca3 ;  but  the  pecuniary  assistance  which  he  gave  him 
was  less  than  Evagoras  had  expected,  and  he  ultimately  made 
peace  with  Artaxerxes  on  condition  that  he  should  pay  an  annual 
tribute  to  Persia,  but  retain  the  rank  of  a  dependant  king4  ;  and 

1  Diodorus  calls  Psammitichus  a  descendant  of  the  ancient  king  of  that 
name,  which  suits  bt;st  with  Amyrtseus,  who  was  a  Saite.  As  the  flight  of 
Tamos  took  place  soon  after  the  death  of  Cyrus  (b.c.  401),  it  is  probable; 
that  it  fell  within  the  life  of  Amyrta?us,  but  that  Diodorus  has  confounded 
him  with  Psammuthis. 

3  Diod.  15,  2.  B:iu/3ar>;)i>  is  an  unquestionable  corruption  for  'Apatiur 
,  Isocrates  u.  s.  says  he  had  taken  Tyre  by  assault. 

"  Theopompus  ap.  Phot  clxxvi.,  who  seems  to  make  the  Cyprian  war  ex>d 
tinder  Nectanebus. 

*  Died,  15,  9.     'Y -axovtiv  d>i  /3aai\tvi  ($aai\tt  npo<TT<iT rw*r«. 

18* 


418 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


thus  the  Cyprian  war  ended,  after  eight  years  spent  in  preparation 
and  two  in  actual  hostility1.  Egypt,  however,  found  an  unex- 
pected ally.  Gaos,  the  son  of  Tamos,  commanded  the  Persian  fleet, 
and  dreaded  the  displeasure  of  Artaxerxes,  by  whom  his  father-in- 
law  Teribazus  had  been  imprisoned.  Availing  himself  of  his  popu- 
larity ^ith  the  fleet,  he  induced  the  commanders  of  the  triremes 
to  revolt,  and  entered  into  a  treaty  with  Achoris.  Sparta  joined 
the  league.  She  had  brought  ignominy  on  herself  by  sacrificing 
the  Asiatic  Greeks  to  Persia  in  the  peace  of  Antalcidas,  and  was 
desirous  of  recovering  her  ascendancy  and  her  reputation  by  a  new 
war2.  The  death  of  Gaos  by  treachery,  in  the  year  383s,  prevented 
any  hostile  operations  against  Persia.  Tachos  succeeded  to  him, 
and  fortified  himself  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  between  Smyrna 
and  Phocsea,  but  dying  soon  after  the  league  fell  to  pieces.  Sparta, 
by  a  change  of  policy,  began  to  court  the  aid  of  Persia,  in  order 
to  make  herself  sovereign  of  Greece4,  and  seized  the  citadel  of 
Thebes  381  b.c.  During  these  events,  Egypt  was  unmolested  by 
the  Persians,  but  towards  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Achoris,  very 
formidable  preparations  were  made  by  Pharnabazus  for  its  invasion. 
To  repel  them  Achoris  collected  a  large  body  of  Greek  mercenaries, 
twelve  or  twenty  thousand  ;  and  as  lie  had  no  general  capable  of 
commanding  them,  he  invited  Chabrias  the  Athenian.  Chabriaa 
undertook  the  command,  if  Diodorus  be  correct,  without  the  appro- 
bation of  the  people,  and  was  r  ecalled  on  the  remonstrances  of  the 
satrap,  who  regarded  it  as  a  violation  of  the  peace  existing  between 
Persia  and  Egypt5.  He  appears,  however,  to  have  remained  long 
enough  in  Egypt  to  assist  Nectanebus  in  establishing  his  power, 

1  Isocr.  Evag.  p.  102,  ed.  Battle.  Isocrates  places  this  peace  six  year* 
after  the  naval  defeat.  See  the  chronology  discussed  by  Mr.  Fyne6  Clinton, 
F.  EL  vol.  2,  p.  278. 

1  LMod.  15,  9.  •  Diod.  15,  18. 

4  Diod  16.  It.  •  Dio<i  16,  29.    Corn.  Nep.  Chabria*,  3 


THE  THIRTIETH  DYNASTY. 


410 


on  the  extinction  of  the  Saitic  dynasty1,  °nd  rapidly  trained  the 
Egyptians  into  accomplished  seamen2. 

Memorials  of  Achoris  are  found  in  several  piaces,  as  at  Medinet- 
Aboo  on  a  restoration  of  a  building  erected  bv  Thothmes  IV.,  and 
probably  destroyed  by  Cambyses,  and  among  the  ruins  of  Karnak. 
The  quarries  of  Mokattam  also  contain  his  shield ;  and  there  k  a 
sphinx  in  the  Museum  of  Paris,  on  the  base  of  which  his  name  is 
found  hieroglyphically  written,  with  the  addition,  "beloved  of 
Kneph3." 

Of  the  short  reign  of  Psammuthis  there  is  no  record  in  history, 
but  his  shield  has  been  found  at  Karnak4 ;  Nepherites  is  equally 
unknown  in  history  and  in  the  monuments.  The  Muthis  of  Euse- 
bius  appears  to  have  originated  from  a  repetition  of  the  last  syllable 
of  Psamrnuthis,  whom  he  follows  in  the  Armenian,  reigning  like 
Psammuthis  one  year. 


Thirtieth  Dynasty.    Three  Sebennytic  kings, 

.  Years. 

1.  Nec.axebes,  reigned   .18       10  (Euseb.j 

2.  Teos    ...  ...  .       .    .     2  2 

3.  Xecta>-ebu3  ....  .       .18  8 

38  20 

The  accession  of  Nectanebes,  or  Nectanebus,  the  first  king  of 
the  Sebennytic  dynasty,  falls  probably  in  the  year  b.  c.  380.  He 
was  immediately  called  upon  to  defend  his  kingdom  against  the 
invasion  which  Pharnabazus  was  preparing  when  Achoris  died 

1  Corn.  Nep.  Chabrias,  2.  "  Chabrias  multa  in  Europa  bella  administra- 
vit  quum  dux  Atheniensium  esset ;  in  ^Egypto  sna  eponte  geseit.  Nam 
Kectanabin  adjutum  profectus  regnum  ei  constituit" 

*  Polyaenus,  3,  2,  7. 

'  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  p.  213.  Champollion-Figeao,  LTJnivere,  p.  884 
4  BoMlliai,  ilon.  Stor.  2,  p.  214. 


420 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


The  Athenian*  had  not  ouiy  recalled  Chabrias,  in  obedience  to  th€ 
demands  of  Persia,  but  had  sent  Iphicrates  to  lead  the  Greek 
mercenaries  in  the  P.Han  service1.  The  movements  of  the  satrap 
were  slow,  for  all  his  measures  were  subject  to  the  control  of  the 
king,  and  awaited  his  sanction  for  their  execution.  At  length, 
however,  the  fleet  and  army  mustered  at  Acre,  the  nearest  harbor 
on  the  Syrian  coast  where  such  a  fleet  could  lie2.  The  land-forces 
consisted  of  200,000  barbarians  and  20,000  Greeks8 ;  the  fleet  of 
300  triremes,  200  triacontors  (galleys  of  thirty  oars  each),  and  a 
great  number  of  corn  ships.  They  began  tbeir  march  at  the  open- 
ing of  summer,  b.  c.  373,  the  fleet  accompanying  the  army.  Necta- 
nebes  had  improved  the  time  which  the  long  delay  of  Pharnabazus 
had  given  him.  Every  navigable  branch  of  the  Nile  was  fortified 
by  two  towers,  joined  by  a  boom  which  prevented  the  entrance  of 
a  fleet.  Pelusium,  the  key  of  Egypt,  had  been  strengthened  with 
peculiar  care ;  the  roads  had  been  laid  under  water,  the  navigable 
channels  made  dry  by  embankments,  and  every  weak  point  protected 
by  fortifications.  Pharnabazus  and  Iphicrates  found  that  they  had 
no  chance  of  capturing  Pelusium,  and  sailed  away  to  the  Mende- 
sian  mouth.  Landing  here  with  3000  men,  they  attacked  the  fort 
by  which  the  entrance  was  protected ;  the  garrison,  of  about  equal 
numbers,  marched  out  to  give  them  battle,  and  being  defeated,  the 
Persians  entered  the  fort  along  with  the  flying  Egyptians.  Dis- 
sensions arose  between  the  generals,  which  prevented  any  results 
of  this  first  success.  Iphicrates,  who  had  heard  from  the  prisoners 
that  the  troops  had  all  been  withdrawn  from  Memphis,  would  have 

1  Corn.  Nep.  Iphicrates,  2. 

'  nroAt^ais,  r)V  *\kt)v  oivo^ia^ov  irp6Ttpov'  ij  e^pcjvro  bpurjirjoico  npds  Trjv  A}y\)iTT0v  ol 

Tlepaai,  (Strabo,  16,  758.)  It  was  while  the  armament  was  mustering  here 
that  the  defection  of  Datames  from  the  Persians  took  place.  (Corn.  Nep, 
Dat  5.) 

•  I  give  these  numbers  on  th«  authority  of  Diodorus  •  they  »eem  exagg« 
rated. 


THE  THIRTIETH  DYNASTY. 


42} 


sailed  thither  before  they  could  return.  Phann  uazus  thought  tbi* 
too  hazardous,  and  wished  to  wait  till  the  whole  Persian  ^it^y 
came  up.  Iphicrates  then  proposed  to  undertake  the  adventure 
with  his  own  mercenary  troops  alone.  This  also  Pharnabazus 
refused,  fearing,  it  is  said,  that  Iphicrates  designed  to  conquer 
Egypt  for  himself,  but  as  is  more  likely,  because  he  did  not  choose, 
on  his  owrn  responsibility,  to  attempt  a  movement,  which  could'be 
justified  only  by  an  improbable  success.  Meanwhile  the  Egyptians 
'■allied  their  forces,  garrisoned  Memphis,  and  attacked  the  fortress 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Mendesian  branch,  which  the  Persians  had 
seized.  They  had  the  advantage  iu  all  the  encounters  which  took 
place ;  as  the  summer  advanced  the  waters  of  the  Nile  began  to 
rise,  and  their  efflux  being  retarded  by  the  strength  of  the  Etesian 
winds,  the  whole  country  was  covered  with  the  inundation.  The 
Athenian  and  Persian  generals  had  committed  the  same  error, 
which  led  to  the  destruction  of  St.  Louis  and  his  army,  in  1249,  and 
which  Bonaparte  avoided  in  his  campaign  of  17981,  and  were  com- 
pelled to  return  into  Syria.  Their  discomfiture  produced  a  quarrei 
between  Pharnabazus  and  Iphicrates,  who,  fearing  the  fate  of 
Conon,  soon  after  secretly  embarked  for  Athens.  Pharnabazus 
sent  an  embassy  thither,  and  accused  him  to  the  people  of  being 
the  cause  of  the  ill-success  of  the  Egyptian  expedition  ;  they  replied, 
that  if  they  found  him  guilty  they  would  punish  him ;  and  soon 
1  "  Les  Chretiens  etaient  entres  dafis  Daruietta,  le  7  Jain;  c'est  l'epoque 
des  plus  basses  eaux;  le  Jul  ne  commence  a  croitre  que  quinze  jours  plus 
tard,  au  solstice  d'ete1 ;  et  il  s'eleve  lentement  jusqu'a  requinoxe,  oil  Yon 
coupe  ses  digues,  Un  grand  maitre  dans  l'art  de  la  guerre,  comparant  son 
expedition  a  celle  de  Saint  Louis,  nous  fait  sentir  tout  le  prix  du  temps 
perdu  par  les  croisfes.  4 Si  le  8  Juin  1249,'  dit  Napoleon,  'Saint  Louis  eut 
manoeuvre  comme  ODt  fait  les  Fran<jais  en  1798,  il  serait  arrive  le  2ti  Juinau 
Caire;  il  aurait  conquis  la  Basse-Egypte  dans  le  mois  de  son  arrivee,  II 
aurait  attendu  ensuite  dans  l'abondance  d'une  capitale,  le  debordement, 
puis  la  retraite,  des  eaux.' "  (Sismondi,  Hist,  des  Franeais,  6,  149,  ed.  d« 
Bmxellea.) 


422 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


>?ter  gave  him  the  command  of  their  whole  fleet1.  We  find  him 
?i  tha  a.itumn  of  the  same  year,  n.  c.  373,  commanding  in  the 
waters  of  Corey raa. 

If  even  with  the  aid  of  Grecian  mercenaries,  Persia  could  not 
succeed  in  reducing  Egypt,  there  was  little  likelihood  that  its  own 
resources  should  avail  for  this  purpose.  The  state  of  Greece  pre- 
cluded the  hope  of  obtaining  aid  from  thence.  Sparta  was  en- 
gaged from  371  b.c.  to  the  battle  of  Mantinea,  362  B.C.,  in  a 
deadly  warfare  with  Thebes,  while  Artaxerxes  vainly  endeavored 
to  reconcile  them3,  that  he  might  employ  the  Greek  forces  in  his 
own  service.  Athens,  though  not  directly  embroiled  in  the  con- 
flict between  Sparta  and  Thebes,  sat  by,  watching  its  events,  and 
flinging  its  weight  alternately  into  the  lighter  scale.  Egypt  there- 
fore enjoyed  peace  during  the  remainder  of  the  life  of  Nectanebes. 
His  name,  spelt  Nacht  e/neb*,  occurs  at  Philae  on  a  temple  dedi- 
cated to  Athor,  and  on  the  rocks  of  the  island  of  Beghe ;  at  Cop- 
tos,  in  a  church  built  out  of  the  fragments  of  an  old  Egyptian 
edifice  ;  and  at  Medinet  Aboo  in  a  small  building  of  elegant  work- 
manship, in  which  he  is  represented  offering  to  Amun  Re  and  the 
other  gods  of  Thebes6.  According  to  Pliny  he  cut  out  an  obelisk 
from  the  quarry,  which  Ptolemy  Philadelphus  afterwards  floated 
down  the  Nile,  and  erected  in  honor  of  his  sister  in  the  Arsino:te 
nome6.    Its  excavation  probably  took  place  towards  the  end  of  the 

1  Diod.  15,  43.  a  Clinton,  F.  H.  sub  anno. 

9  Diod.  15,  70.    Xen.  Hist.  7,  1,  3S,  seq. 

4  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  p.  220. 

5  Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  1,  209,  quotes  a  Greek  papyrus  in 
the  possession  of  Signor  Anastasy,  which  describes  Nectanebus  as  restoring 
the  temple  of  Mars  at  Sebennytus  with  great  splendor,  in  obedience  to  a 
dreaiTi. 

•  He  calls  the  king  Necthhebis  (36,  8),  and  according  to  the  common 
reading  (36,  13);  makes  him  to  have  lived  500  years  before  Alexander  the 
G~<*at    The  Bamberg  MS.  reads — "  Neehthebis  regis  D  ante  Alexandruro 


THE  THIRTIETH  DYNASTY. 


reign  of  Nectanebes,  as  it  remained  without  an  inscription.  The 
celebrated  Lions  of  the  Fontana  di  Termini  at  Rome,  now  placed 
in  the  Museum  of  Egyptian  antiquities  in  the  Vatican,  show  that 
the  art  of  sculpture,  in  the  execution  of  animals,  had  declined  but 
little ;  they  are  the  last  specimen  of  Egyptian  sculpture  executed 
under  native  princes1. 

Eusebius  has  shortened  the  duration  of  the  Sebennytic  dynastv 
from  thirty-eight  years  to  twenty,  and  the  reign  of  JSectanebes 
from  eighteen  to  ten.  That  the  Greek  text  of  Manetho  is  correct 
is  in  part  proved  by  a  stele  preserved  at  Rome,  on  which  his  thir- 
teenth year  is  mentioned2. 

Teos  (361  b.c),  the  successor  of  Nectanebes  according  to  Ma- 
netho, is  evidently  the  Tachos  of  the  Greek  historians.  In  what 
relation  he  stood  to  his  predecessor  we  are  not  informed,  probably 
that  of  son.  The  empire  of  Artaxerxes  was  at  this  time  surround- 
ed with  enemies3.  The  maritime  provinces  of  Asia  had  before 
revolted,  and  the  generals  and  satraps,  Ariobarzanes  of  Phrygia, 
Mausolus  of  Caria,  Orontes  of  Mysia,  were  preparing  to  march 
against  the  Great  King.  The  Syrians  and  Phoenicians,  and  the 
adjacent  litoral  states  of  Cilicia,  Pisidia  and  Lycia,  had  joined  the 
league.  The  Spartans  were  hostile  to  him,  because  he  had  de- 
manded that  the  Messenians  should  be  included  in  the  terms  of 
the  peace  made  in  361  after  the  battle  of  Mantinea4.  The  finances 
of  Persia  were  disordered  by  the  loss  of  revenue  arising  from  so 

Magnum;"  and  Bunsen  supposes  that  Pliny  wrote  "regis  A,"  i.  e.  fourth 
king,  copying  some  Greek  author.    (Urkundenbuch,  p.  84,  89.  Germ.) 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  222. 

'  Champollion-Figeac,  L'Univers,  p.  J>85. 

'  Diod.  15,  90.    'Yird  tov  avrdv  Kaipd*  I6ti  irpds  re  rdv  rfji  Aiyv-Tiv  PaciMa 
no\sfisTv  /cat  jrpoc  rac  *ara  r»>  'Aaiav  'EAAiji  toas  iroXeii  xal  AaKcSaipoviovs  xai  rovj 
rovTuv  %vppa%ovs  aarpa-aq  Kai  <JTpar»jyot>$,  rovf  ap^ovraf  piv  t&v  napaQalao Jtwv 
avvredtiptvovi  fit  KQiiOTtpayiav 

*  Diod  15,  89.    Xea  Ages.  2,  28. 


424 


HISTOKY   OF    EG  V  t*T. 


many  revolts,  and  the  necessity  of  great  armaments  to  suppress 
thera.  These  circumstances  appear  to  have  emboldened  Tachos 
no  longer  to  act  on  the  defensive,  but  to  attack  Persia.  Rheomi- 
thres  was  sent  to  him  on  the  part  of  Orontes  and  the  other  revolted 
satraps,  and  received  from  him  500  talents  of  silver  and  fifty  ships 
of  war.  With  these  he  sailed  to  Leuce  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor, 
but  on  his  arrival  seized  the  rebel  chiefs  and  sent  them  bound  to 
Artaxerxes,  making  Lis  own  peace  by  giving  up  to  the  king  the 
money  with  which  he  had  been  furnished  to  carry  on  war  against 
him1.  Tachos  raised  a  fleet  of  200  sail,  with  an  army  of  80,000 
Egyptians  and  10,000  Greek  mercenaries.  The  Greek  troops  he 
placed  under  the  command  of  Agesilaus,  who  at  the  age  of  eighty, 
and  with  a  body  maimed  and  scarred  by  war,  undertook  this 
office,  through  restlessness  and  love  of  gain2.  If  we  may  believe 
Xenophon,  Tachos  had  promised  him  the  supreme  command  ;  on 
his  arrival  with  a  thousand  Spartan  hoplites,  he  found  that  only 
the  subordinate  command  of  the  Greek  mercenaries  was  destined 
for  him,  Chabrias  the  Athenian  commanding  the  fleet,  and  the 
king  himself  being  supreme3.  This  first  gave  him  offence,  and  a 
difference  of  opinion  soon  arose  between  him  and  Tachos  respect- 
ing the  conduct  of  the  war.  Agesilaus  advised  that  Tachos  should 
remain  in  Egypt,  and  commit  active  operations  to  his  generals — 
advice  that  wc  cannot  wonder  Tachos  should  have  declined,  since 

1  Diod.  15,  92.  *  Plut  Agesilaus,  36. 

3  Diodorus  says,  that  Chabrias  took  the  command  of  the  fleet  without 
authority  from  Athens.  Tov  6i*vavTiKOv  rr,v  arpar^yiav  he^cipiae  Xa/?pta  rai 
'  Atfrji-tf  UJ,  ivfiocriq  fiiv  v  n  d  rijV  it  a  r  pi  So  s  ov  k  d  n  e  a  r  a  A  /i  i  v  a>,  ihia  Si 
iird  tov  (3a<ri\to)i  avirrpaTcueiv  irtirtiopivM  (15,  92).  This  so  closely  resembles 
15,  29,  where,  speaking  of  Achoris,  Diodorus  says,  Ovk  tx™v  vrpaniydv 
&%i6xpsu)v  fiET£irtii\paTO  Xaffpiav  tov  A.8r)va'iov'  ovtos  avev  r  ij  ?  tov  Snfiov 
fr  Hulls  Trpoo&z^aixcvos  tj]v  arpaT^yiav  d<prjyeiTO  ruv  kut  Aiyv-rov 
8wd,t£U}',  that  hti  has  probably  repeated  himself.  It  is  not  likely  that  Cha- 
brias should  twice  ha^-e  gone  to  Egypt  unauthorized.  It  is  certain  that  he 
was  here  now,  without  a  commission  from  the  stat*1     See  Plut.  Ages.  o7. 


THE  THIRTIETH  DYNASTY. 


429 


t^o  of'these  generals  we re  foreigners,  of  a  nation  notoriously  ready 
to  embrace  the  side  which  policy  or  profit  recommended.  He 
placed  Nectanebus,  his  brother  or  brother-in-law1,  at  the  head  of 
tha  Egyptian  land-forces,  and  advanced  into  Phoenicia.  The  mea« 
sure3  which  he  had  adopted  to  raise  money  for  this  expedition  on 
the  recommendation  of  Chabrias  had  been  very  unpopular.  The 
Athenian  general  had  represented  to  Liin  how  much  money  that 
might  be  usefully  employed  for  the  service  of  the  state  was  expend- 
ed on  relicrious  rites,  and  recommended  the  abolition  of  many  of 
the  priesthoods.  The  priests,  unwilling  to  renounce  their  offices, 
gave  up  their  private  property  to  the  king.  But  when  they  had 
made  this  sacrifice,  he  ordered  them  to  expend  in  future  only  a 
tenth  part  of  what  they  had  been  accustomed  to  lay  out  on  reli- 
gious rites,  and  to  make  a  loan  of  the  rest  to  him,  till  the  expira- 
tion of  the  war  with  Persia,  besides  this,  Chabrias  advised  him 
to  impose  a  house-tax  and  a  poll-tax,  a  duty  of  an  obolus  on  the 
sale  of  every  artaba  (nine  gallons)  of  corn,  and  a  tax  of  a  tenth 
of  the  profits  of  navigation,  manufactures,  and  every  kind  of  occu- 
pation. All  the  gold  and  silver  bullion  was  to  be  brought  to  the 
king,  who  gav*  an  assignment  on  ti  e  nomarchs  for  its  repayment 
from  the  taxes8.  These  devices  of  the  Athenian  financier  must 
have  ceen  very  distasteful  to  the  Egyptians,  who  appear  hitherto 
to  have  been  lightly  taxed3.  A  people  enthusiastic  in  the  defence 
of  their  religion  and  their  liberties  have  submitted  cheerfully  to 
much  greater  sacrifices,  but  the  Egyptians  were  not  threatened  by 
any  imminent  danger,  and  might  reasonably  regard  Tachos  as 
engaged  in  a  war  of  ambition  rather  than  of  self-defence.  The 

1  The  Neetsncbue  who  revolted  was  nephew  to  Tachos.  (Pint  Ages. 
87.) 

■  Aristotelis  (sive  Anonymi)  OUovo^a.  c.  28,  ed.  Goettling,  where  many 
singular  expedients,  on  the  part  of  states  and  financiers  for  raising  money, 
are  eo?lee*,ed. 

•  See  p.  29  of  this  voL 


426 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


general  who  had  been  left  in  command  of  Egypt  during  his  ab- 
sence, though  so  nearly  related  to  him1,  perceiving  the  discontent 
of  the  people,  sent  a  message  to  his  son  Nectanebus,  exhorting 
him  to  claim  th  crown.  Nectanebus  had  been  detached  with 
some  Egyptian  troops  to  besiege  the  strong  places  of  Syria,  and 
adopting  the  suggestion  of  his  father2,  induced  the  generals  by 
gifts  and  the  soldiers  by  promises  to  espouse  his  causa,  lie 
endeavored  to  persuade  Agesilaus  and  Chabrias  to  employ  their 
forces  also  for  the  establishment  of  his  pcwer.  Chabrias  was 
desirous  of  supporting  Tachos  ;  Agesilaus  had  been  mortified  and 
offended  by  him,  and  as  the  Egyptians  generally  had  declared  for 
Nectanebus,  refused  to  fight  against  those  whom  he  had  been  sent 
to  aid3.  He  dispatched  messengers  to  Sparta,  instructed  to  make 
representations  favorable  to  NectaLebus;  the  rivals  also  sent  each 
his  ambassador.  The  Spartans,  after  deliberation,  left  it  to  Agesi- 
laus to  act  as  he  thought  most  advantageous  for  his  country.  He 
carried  over  not  only  the  Spartans,  but  all  the  mercenaries  to  the 
side  of  Nectanebus,  and  the  Athenians,  at  the  instigation  of 
Persia,  recalled  Chabrias4.  Tachos,  thus  abandoned  by  his  troops, 
native  and  foreign,  first  retired  to  Sidon6,  and  then  crossing  the 
Desert,  which  extends  on  both  sides  of  the  Euphrates",  came  to  the 
king  at  Babylon  or  Susa  by  whom  he  was  favorably  received,  and 
according  to  Diodorus,  entrusted  with  the  command  of  an  expedi- 
tion against  Egypt. 

This  expedition  Artaxerxes  Mnemon  did  not  live  to  carry  into 
execution.    He  died  in  the  year  b.  c.  359,  and  was  succeeded  by 

!  See  note  1,  p.  425.  *  Diod.  15,  92.  1  Hut  AgeaiL  87 

*  I  refer  to  this  period  what  Diodorus  (15,  29)  relates  of  the  reign  of 

Achoris.    See  notes,  p.  419  and  424. 
6  Xenoph.  Ages.  2,  30. 

6  Diod.  15,  92.     'O  Tu^wj  KaTanXaysl    ir6\firiac  6ia  rrjs  Apafftaf  dva0rjvai  irpdi 

dv  pairiUa.  This  is  the  Arabia  of  Xenophon's  Anabasis  (1,  5),  'ring  south 
of  the  Araxes. 


THE  THIRTIETH  DYNASTY. 


427 


his  son  Darius  OcIils,  sometimes  also  known  by  the  name  of  Arta- 
xerxes.  He  was  at  once  cruel  and  unwarlike1 ;  he  had  secured 
his  own  succession  by  murders  surpassing  the  ordinary  measure 
of  oriental  barbarity ;  the  kingdom  was  distracted  by  the  revolt 
of  the  satraps  which  we  have  already  mentioned,  lie  suspended 
therefore  all  operations  against  Egypt ;  Tachos  was  retained  at  the 
Persian  court,  and  soon  ended  his  days  there,  a  victim  to  indul- 
gence in  its  luxuries,  so  different  from  the  simple  habits  of  the 
Egyptians8.  But  though  delivered  for  the  present  from  a  foreign 
invasion,  Egypt  was  divided  by  a  civil  war.  A  native  of  Mendes, 
whose  name  has  not  been  preserved,  had  risen  up  in  opposition  to 
Nectanebus,  had  been  proclaimed  king,  and  raised  a  large  army, 
composed,  like  that  which  Sethos  led  against  Sennacherib,  not  of 
hereditary  soldiery,  but  of  the  unwarlike  population3.  The  inha- 
bitants of  a  country  like  Egypt,  however,  covered  with  trendies 
and  embankments,  soon  grow  dexterous  in  the  use  of  the  spade  for 
fortification.  Agesilaus,  who  was  now  in  the  service  of  Nectane- 
bus,  became  suspected  by  him,  in  consequence  of  a  message  from 
the  Mendesian,  tempting  his  fidelity,  and  though  urged  by  Agesi- 
laus to  attack  the  enemy  forthwith,  Nectanebus  left  the  open 
country  and  took  possession  of  a  large  town,  where,  as  Agesilaus 
foresaw,  the  numbers  of  the  enemy  and  their  familiarity  with  the 
art  of  entrenchment  would  enable  them  to  hem  him  in4.  This 
they  had  nearly  accomplished,  and  supplies  began  to  fail.  Nec- 

x  Diod.  16,  40. 

1  ^Elian,  Y.  Hist  5,  1.  Diodorus  makes  hun  return  to  Egypt  and  recover 
his  throne  by  the  aid  of  Agesilaus  (15,  93),  but  the  best  authorities  are 
against  him.    See  "Wesseling  ad  loc. 

*  Miydfoj  koI  Qdvavooi  ko\  6i  direipiav  ivKara<pp6vi)mi.  (Plut.  AgCS,  38.)  Thes* 
were  the  class  especially  aggrieved  by  the  new  system  of  taxation. 

*  XcXeooj/t. s  aiiToii  Siafia^eadat  ri]v  Ta^iarrji',  nai  fit)  %p5v<d  no\t^eiv  irpdi 
dvdpuinovs  dnctpovs  dywi/oj,  no\v%£tpta.  Si  xeoieXdeiv  *ui  ncoiTiMjipcvoai  6vvajj.iiovst  an»« 
XWIttv  sis  itdXiv  titpKH  *ai  ntyav  c^ovecu'  rr6piiio  W,     t'Plnt  Age&  88-) 


428 


HISTORY    OF  EUli'T. 


tanebus  was  now  eager  to  march  out  and  give  battle,  and  th« 
Greeks  joined  with  him  in  demanding  it.  But  Agesilaus  saw  that 
the  trench  which  the  besiegers  had  drawn  around  the  town,  with 
the  exception  of  a  single  point,  would  prevent  their  own  forcefl 
from  being  concentrated.  At  nightfall  therefore  he  persuaded 
Nectanebus  to  join  him  in  an  united  and  rapid  attack  on  the  part 
which  remained  open,  and  they  forced  their  way  through,  routing 
the  troops  opposed  to  them,  before  the  others  could  assemble  to 
support  them.  Soon  after  he  gained  a  decisive  victory  by  supe- 
riority of  tactics.  Being  greatly  outnumbered  by  the  Egyptians, 
he  took  post  where  both  his  flanks  were  covered  by  a  canal,  and 
thus  avoiding  the  danger  of  being  surrounded,  he  easily  defeated 
those  who  attacked  him  in  front,  and  routed  them  with  great 
slaughter.    Nectanebus  II.  was  thus  secured  on  the  throne. 

Agesilaus  immediately  set  sail  on  Iris  return  to  Sparta.  As  it 
was  already  mid-winter,  he  coasted  along  Libya,  not  venturing  to 
stand  straight  across  the  Carpathian  sea,  and  had  reached  the  port 
of  Menelaus,  opposite  to  Crete,  on  his  way  to  Cyrene,  where  he 
died  in  his  84th  year1.  With  the  departure  of  the  Greeks,  in  the 
end2  of  the  year  359  b.c,  our  knowledge  of  the  internal  state  of 
Egypt,  during  the  reign  of  Nectanebus,  ceases,  till  350  b.c,  when 
Persia  resumed  and  carried  into  effect  the  project  of  reconquest. 
It  is  probable  that  hostilities  never  entirely  ceased  between  the 
kingdoms.  Ochus  made  more  than  one  unsuccessful  attempt  to 
enter  Egypt3,  and  was  defeated  by  the  skill  of  Lamius  of  Sparta 
and  Diophantus  of  Athens,  whom  Nectanebus  placed  at  the  head 
of  his  forces*. 

1  Plut.  Ages.  40. 

•  Mevov  ^ci/i  ^os  oVroi  dnoirXei  oi*a(5e.(Xenopll.  Ages.  2,  31.) 

'  'ATToarfiXXco*'  Ovva^tis  koX  (TrpaTriyovs,  noW&Kis  dirtrvy^avc.     (Diod.  16,  4C.) 

The  language  of  Isocrates,  1,  p.  280,  ed.  Battie,  may  seem  to  iiuply  that 
Ochns  had  commanded  in  person. 

*  Diod.  16,  48. 


THE  THIRTIETH  DYNA81T. 


429 


Oehus  was  an  indolent  and  unwarlike  prince,  but  the  ridicule 
with  which  he  had  been  covered  by  the  defeat  of  his  attacks  on 
Egypt,  roused  him  at  last  to  make  a  great  effort.  Not  only  had 
his  name  become  a  by-word  among  the  Egyptians  for  heaviness 
and  sloth1,  but  the  dependent  rulers  of  Cyprus  and  Phcenice  were 
encouraged  to  follow  the  example  of  Egypt2.  The  Persian  empire 
was  evidently  in  danger  of  dissolution,  but  the  vigorous  exertions 
to  which  Ochus,  was  stimulated  preserved  it  for  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury. He  began  by  reducing  Cyprus  and  Phoenicia.  Sidon,  the 
most  flourishing  of  the  Phoenician  cities,  had  made  great  pre- 
parations for  defence,  but  it  was  surrendered  by  the  treachery 
of  its  king  Tennes,  and  the  inhabitants,  having  first  destroyed 
their  fleet,  burnt  themselves,  their  wives,  and  children,  and  slaves3. 
Cyprus  was  also  subdued4.  The  states  of  Greece  were  invited  to 
furnish  mercenaries ;  Athens  and  Sparta  promised  neutrality,  but 
declined  co-operation  ;  the  Thebans,  Argives  and  Asiatic  Greeks 
sent  together  10,000  men,  and  Ochus,  after  the  destruction  of 
Sidon,  advanced  by  the  same  route  as  Cambyses  to  the  desert 
which  separates  Egypt  from  Palestine5.  In  passing  the  Serbonian 
Lake,  part  of  his  army  were  lost  in  the  quicksands  called  Barathra 
which  border  the  coast6.  Had  Tennes,  the  king  of  Sidon,  been 
alive,  he  might  have  saved  the  Persians  from  this  disaster,  for  he 
was  well  acquainted  with  the  approaches  to  Egypt  and  the  proper 
points  for  making  a  descent7.    Nectanebus  had  not  neglected  the 

1  y$l%ov  ol  A.iyvnrioi  rij  cm%a)piii)  -powr]  *Ovov  ixdXovv,  rd  voiQis  uvtov  rfjj  yvcjjpqs 
iiaPiWovres.    (JElian,  V.  H.  4,  8.)    The  Coptic  for  ass  is  Mo. 

3  Diod.  16,  40.  B       8  Diod.  16,  45.  4  Diod.  16,  46. 

It  appears  to  me  that  the  account  quoted  by  Longinus  from  Theopem- 
pus  (p.  378  of  this  voL),  describes  the  expedition  of  Ochus. 

e  This  is  probably  the  event,  which  Diodorus  (1,  30)  has  exaggerated  intc 
thz  swallowing  up  of  whole  armies.  Comp.  Par.  Lost,  2,  593,  .  .  "th« 
Serbonian  bog,  Where  armies  whole  have  suak." 

*  Diod  16,  43. 


430 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


means  of  defence.  lie  had  under  arms  60,000  of  the  Hermoty 
bians  and  Calasirians,  20,000  Libyans,  and  an  equal  number  of 
Greek  mercenaries.  In  sea-going  ships  he  was  far  inferior  to  the 
Persians,  who  had  the  command  of  the  Cyprian  and  Phoenician 
navies,  but  he  had  a  large  fleet  of  boats  adapted  for  fighting  on 
the  branches  of  the  Nile;  and  he  had  rendered  the  frontier 
towards  Arabia  nearly  impregnable,  by  a  continuous  chain  of 
entrenchments  and  fortifications.  Pelusiurn  was  garrisoned  by 
5000  Greeks,  under  the  command  of  Philophron.  The  Thebans 
in  the  Persian  army,  eager  to  maintain  the  glory  which  they  had 
acquired  at  Leuctra  and  Mantinea,  advanced  alone  and  rashly, 
across  a  deep  canal  to  attack  Pelusium.  The  garrison  sallied  out 
and  a  fierce  conflict  ensued,  which  lasted  till  night.  Next  day  the 
whole  body  of  Greek  mercenaries  were  brought  up  in  three  divi- 
sions, each  under  the  joint  command  of  a  Greek  and  a  Persian. 
Lacrates,  who  commanded  the  Thebans,  cut  the  banks  of  the  canal, 
letting  oft*  the  water,  and  having  filled  it  up  with  earth,  planted 
his  military  engines  on  the  embankment.  These  soon  made 
breaches  in  the  walls;  but  the  besieged  rapidly  raised  new  walls 
behind,  and  erected  wooden  towers  upon  them.  Ochus  might  have 
returned  again  discomfited,  but  in  the  meantime  a  great  calamity 
had  befallen  Nectanebus.  It  was  evidently  his  policy  to  avoid  a 
pitched  battle  and  let  the  enemy  exhaust  their  strength,  in  endea- 
voring to  reduce  the  number  of  strong  positions  which  he  occu- 
pied ;  but  the  eagerness  of  his  Greek  auxiliaries  to  fight  prevented 
his  carrying  this  plan  into  execution,  and  he  was  outmanoeuvred 
by  the  enemy.  With  30,000  Egyptians,  5000  Greeks,  and  half 
the  Libyan  auxiliaries,  he  was  guarding  an  important  passage. 
Nicostratus,  the  commander  of  the  Argives  who  were  before  Pelu- 
sium, was  guided  by  some  Egyptians  whose  wives  and  children 
were  in  the  power  of  the  Persians  as  hostages,  to  an  obscure 
branch  of  the  river,  by  which  he  brought  up  his  fleet  and  secretly 
fortified  himself  on  the  Egyptian  side.    When  he  was  discovered, 


THE  THIRTIETH  DYNASTY. 


431 


the  garrison  of  a  neighboring  fortress,  Greek  mercenaries  to  the 
number  of  5000,  under  the  command  of  Cleinias  of  Cos,  marched 
out  against  them,  and  a  pitched  battle  ensued,  in  which  the  troops 
of  Nectanebus  were  nearly  all  cut  to  pieces.  He  was  alarmed,  and 
apprehending  that  the  rest  of  the  Persian  forces  might  cross  the 
river  and  cut  off  his  retreat  on  Memphis,  marched  thither  with  all 
his  army.  Diodorus  severely  censures  him,  and  alleges  that  he 
was  ruined  by  the  over-confidence  arising  from  previous  success — 
success  of  which  the  merit  belonged  not  to  him,  but  to  Diophan- 
tus  and  Lamius.  His  own  narrative,  however,  justifies  no  other 
censure  on  Xectanebus,  than  perhaps  a  want  of  vigilance  in  allow- 
ing Xicostratus  to  fortify  a  position  in  his  rear.  When  that  posi- 
tion was  made  good  by  a  victory,  nothing  appears  to  have  been 
left  for  Nectanebus  but  to  retire  on  Memphis,  before  he  was  inter- 
cepted. The  garrison  of  Pelusium  perceived  that  any  further 
resistance  was  vain,  and  surrendered  to  Laerates  on  condition  that 
they  should  be  transported  to  Greece  with  their  property 
untouched.  This  condition  was  violated  by  the  Persian  troops, 
who  endeavored  to  plunder  the  Greeks  as  they  marched  out. 
Laerates,  indignant  at  this  breach  of  his  pledged  word,  attacked 
the  Persians  and  killed  some  of  them.  Bagoas,  their  commander, 
complained  to  Ochus,  but  he  justified  the  Greeks,  and  ordered  the 
Persians  who  had  broken  the  truce  .to  be  put  to  death.  Mentor, 
the  commander  of  another  division  of  the  Persian  army,  soon 
reduced  Bubastis  and  the  other  cities  of  Lower  Egypt.  They  were 
all  occupied  by  mixed  garrisons  of  Greeks  and  Egyptians,  and  as 
he  caused  the  rumor  to  be  spread  that  those  who  surrendered 
should  be^  treated  with  kindness*,  while  a  more  terrible  fate  than 
that  of  Sidon  awaited  all  who  made  resistance,  thev  were  eao-er  to 
anticipate  each  other  in  submission.  Xectanebus  found  that  he 
could  not  maintain  himself  at  Memphis,  and  fled  into  Ethiopia, 
having  reigned  between  eight  and  nine  years.    His  flight  closed 


432  HISTORY  OF  EGVPT. 

tlie  Thirty  Dynasties  of  the  Pharaohs — a  succession  unexampled 

in  ancient  or  modern  times1. 

Ochus  took  possession  of  all  Egypt,  razed  the  walls  of  the  prin- 
cipal towns,  and  plundered  the  temples.  It  is  said  that  he  imi- 
tated the  outrages  of  Cambyses,  killed  Apis  and  gave  his  flesh  to 
the  cooks,  and  commanded  an  ass  to  receive  the  honors  due  to  the 
god.  When  he  subsequently  fell  a  victim  to  assassination  by 
Bagoas,  who  made  dagger-handles  of  his  thigh-bones,  and  gave 
his  flesh  to  cats,  superstition  saw  in  this  a  retribution  correspond- 
ing to  that  which  fell  on  Cambyses2.  The  temples  were  not  only 
stripped  of  the  gold  and  silver  which  they  contained,  but  rifled  of 
their  ancient  records,  which  Bagoas  subsequently  restored  for  a 
large  sum  to  the  priests'.  The  Greek  mercenaries  were  dismissed 
with  munificent  rewards  ;  Pherendates  was  made  satrap  of  Egypt, 
and  Ochus  in  350  B.C.,  led  back  his  army  in  triumph  to  Babylon. 

Of  the  administration  of  the  Persians  in  Egypt  during  the 
remainder  of  the  reign  of  Ochns  and  that  of  Darius  Codomannus, 
nothing  is  known.  The  long  struggles  of  Sparta,  Athens,  and 
Thebes,  for  supremacy  in  Greece,  had  ended  in  their  subjugation 
by  Macedonia,  and  one  of  the  first  uses  which  Philip  made  of  the 
command  which  he  acquired  by  the  battle  of  Chaeronea,  was  to 
prepare  an  expedition  against  Persia.  His  own  assassination  by 
Perdiccas  prevented  his  execution  of  this  plan,  but  it  was  resumed 

1  Lynceus  (who  lived  280  b.o.  See  Clinton,  F.  EL  3,  498)  says  that  Nec- 
tanebus  was  taken  prisoner  and  invited  to  supper  by  Ochus.  The  feast 
appeared  mean  to  Nectanebus,  who  requested  to  be  allowed  to  order  hi* 
farmer  cooks  to  prepare  an  Egyptian  supper.  When  Ochus  had  partaken 
of  it  he  exclaimed,  "0  Egyptian,  what  folly  to  leave  such  feas^  as  these,-" 
and  set  your  heart  on  a  more  spare  diet  I"  (Athen.  4,  p.  150.)  Persian  diet, 
however,  wa*  more  luxurious  than  Egyptian. 

*  .Elian,  V.  Hist.  6,  8.  Suid.  a.  v.  Aapais.  ^oj.    Ml&rx.  Hist  Aninx 
10,  28. 

■  r&xL  Sic  11  15. 


THE  THIRTIETH  DYNASTY. 


43% 


by  Alexander,  who  crossed  the  Hellespont  in  334  B.C.    The  battle 
of  the  Granicus  gave  him  possession  of  Asia  Minor :  that  of  Issus, 
of  Syria ;  the  sieges  of  Tyre  and  Gaza,  of  the  coast  of  Phoenicia, 
Palestine,  and  the  Idumean  Arabia1.    Seven  days'  march  brought 
him  from  Gaza  to  Pelusium,  the  fleet  accompanying  hin.  Maza- 
ces,  whom  Darius  had  appointed  satrap  of  Egypt,  did  not  attempt 
resistance.     The  Persian  armies   had  been  driven  across  the 
Euphrates,  and  the  Egyptians  were  prepared  to  welcome  the  con- 
querors of  their  own  masters.    Having  placed  a  garrison  in  Pelu- 
sium, he  marched  through  the  desert  country  along  the  eastern 
bank  of  the  Nile  to  Heliopolis,  and  crossing  the  river  there  came 
to  Memphis,  where  his  fleet,  which  had  sailed  up  the  Nile,  was 
awaiting  him.    Greek  philosophy  had  banished  fanaticism  from 
his  mind,  and  policy  clearly  dictated  that  he  should  conciliate  the 
Egyptians,  whose  religious  feelings  had  been  deeply  wounded  by 
the  Persians.    Having  sacrificed  to  the  other  gods  and  Apis,  he 
descended  the  Nile  by  the  Canopic  branch,  and  fixed  the  site  of 
the  new  city,  which  still  preserves  his  name  and  attests  his 
sagacity.    Hence,  after  founding  a  temple  to  Isis,  he  set  out  for  the 
oracle  of  the  Libyan  Ammon,  a  divinity  whom  Greeks  and 
Egyptians  agreed  to  honor.    His  expedition  was  performed  along 
the  coast  of  Libya  as  far  as  Paraetonium,  thence  through  the 
Desert  to  the  Oasis  of  Siwah.    On  his  return  he  avoided  the  dan- 
cers to  which  he  had  exposed  himself,  and  took  the  shorter  route 
by  the  Natron  Lakes  to  Memphis3.    Here,  while  recruits  were 

1  Arrian,  Hist.  3,  1. 

*  On  the  point  whether  Alexander  returned  by  Parsetonium  or  the  Natron 
Lak*s,  two  generals  of  Alexander,  Aristobulus  and  Ptolemy  Lagi,  were  at 
variance  in  their  memoirs.  Aristobulus  did  not  write  his  history,  however, 
till  he  was  84  (see  St  Croix,  Examen  Critique,  p.  43),  and  may  have  for- 
gotten minute  circumstances.  I  have  followed  Ptolemy,  whose  account  ii 
the  more  probable.  Curtius  agrees  with  Aristobulus,  and  makes  Alexan- 
der found  Alexandria  on  his  way  home  (4,  33). 
VOL.  II.       »  19 


434 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


raising  in  Greece,  to  repair  the  losses  which  his  army  had  sustained 
in  the  battles  of  the  Granicus  and  Issus,  and  the  sieges  of  Tyre 
and  Gaza,  he  employed  himself  in  arranging  the  future  adminis- 
tration of  Egypt.  Two  Egyptians,  Doloaspis  and  Petisis,  were 
appointed  monarchs  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt;  but  Petisis 
declining  the  office,  the  whole  kingdom  was  placed  under  Doloas- 
pis. Cleomenes,  a  nativejrf  Naucratis,  had  the  chief  administra- 
tion of  the  finances,  and  was  instructed  to  allow  the  kingdom  to  be 
governed  entirely  according  to  its  ancient  laws  and  customs ;  the 
inferior  nomarchs  collected  the  tribute  and  paid  it  to  Cleomenes, 
by  whom  it  was  transferred  to  the  Macedonians.  Thus  foreigners 
were  prevented  from  coming  into  collision  with  the  Egyptians,  in 
the  odious  character  of  tax-gatherers,  but  all  real  power  was 
placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Macedonians.  A  fleet  of  thirty  tri- 
remes and  four  thousand  men1  sufficed  to  maintain  his  conquest. 
The  command  of  the  garrisons  of  Pelusium  and  Memphis  was 
given  to  companions  of  the  king;  other  Greeks  held  the  offices  of 
praefect  of  Libya  and  Arabia,  the  command  of  the  army,  the  mer- 
cenaries, and  the  fleet.  Alexander  introduced  the  principle,  which 
the  Romans  afterwards  carried  out  in  the  administration  of  Egypt, 
not  to  allow  any  one  man  to  have  sole  authority  in  a  kingdom  so 
fertile  and  so  strong  by  natural  position,  and  from  various  causes 
so  prone  to  revolt'.  Cleomenes,  however,  the  praefect  of  Arabia, 
after  Alexander's  departure,  appears  to  have  availed  himself  of  the 
power  which  his  office  as  chief  financier  gave  him,  to  usurp  a  kind 
of  supremacy*,  and  various  acts  of  extortion  are  recorded  of  him, 
in  the  interval  between  the  conquest  of  Egypt  and  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Ptolemaic  monarchy4.    He  repeated  the  threat  of 

1  Q.  Curt.  4,  33. 

'  Tac.  Hist.  1,  11;  Ann.  2,  59.  Ita  visum  expedire  provinciara  aditu 
difficilem,  annonae  foeenndam,  superstitione  ac  lascivia  discordem  ac  mobi* 
lem,  insciam  legura,  domi  retinere.    (Arrian,  3,  5,  10.) 

*  K.\eofdvr)i  Aiyintrtv  oarpanevwv.     (Arist  (Econom.  C.  32.)        4  ArisL  U.  4 


THE  THIRTIETH  DYNA8TT. 


435 


Nectanebus,  to  suppress  some  of  the  priesthoods  on  account  of 
their  number,  and  the  largeness  of  the  sums  expended  on  religious 
ceremonies,  and  thus  obtained  from  the  priests  considerable  sums, 
not  only  from  their  private  property,  but  from  the  treasures  of  the 
temples. 

Alexander  left  Memphis  early  in  the  spring  of  331  B.C.,  and 
having  crossed  the  Nile  and  its  various  canals  on  bridges,  passed 
the  Desert,  and  at  Tyre  joined  his  fleet,  which  had  preceded  him. 
He  never  again  visited  Egypt ;  but  his  corpse  was  brought  hither 
tirom  Babylon  and  deposited  at  Alexandria  in  a  sarcophagus1, 
fithin  a  funeral  hypogseuin2.  In  the  division  of  his  empire  Egypt 
was  chosen  for  his  portion  by  Ptolemy,  the  son  of  Lagus,  with 
whom,  begins  a  new  period  of  its  history. 

1  Juvenal,  Sat  10,  172. 

*  Lncan,  Pharsal.  10,  19,  speaking  of  Julius  Caesar, — 

Effosaum  tumulis  cupide  descendit  in  antrum, 
Illic  Pellaei  proles  vesana  Philippi 
Felix  praedo  jacet. 


I  N  D  E  I. 


A. 

Ababdkh,  the,  L  54. 
Abaris  (Auaris),  il  153,  163,  269. 
Aboosimbel  (Aboccis),  L  20 ;  ii.  390 
note. 

 ,  Greek  inscription  there,  iL  346. 

 ,  temple  of,  il  232. 

Abydos,  L  38. 

 ,  Tablet  of,  il  90,  135,  170. 

Acacia,  i.  122. 
Achoris,  ii.  417. 
Actisanes,  il  308  note. 
Adonis,  mourning  for,  i.  348. 
JEgyptus,  ii.  261. 

iEra,  not  used  by  the  Egyptians,  it  7  9. 
JSsculapius,  i.  333. 

 ,  worship  paid  to  his  serpent, 

ii.  2. 

Africa,  whether  circumnavigated  by 

the  Phoenicians,  ii.  338. 
Africanus,  Julius,  ii.  74. 
Asesilaus,  his  campaign  in  Egypt,  iL 

424. 

Alabaster,  quarries  of,  i.  41. 

Alabastron,  i.  41,  196. 

Alexander,  his  supposed  sarcopha- 
gus, ii.  414. 

Alexandria,  its  population,  i.  151. 

 v  foundation  of,  ii.  433. 

Alluvium,  deposit  of,  i.  66,  127. 

Alphabetical  characters,  when  ar- 
ranged, ii.  271. 

Alum,  i.  61 ;  ii.  363. 

Amasis,  ii.  357. 

 ,  his  laws,  ii.  39. 

 (satrap),  ii.  404. 

Amenmeses,  ii.  284  note. 

Amenophis  I.,  ii.  174. 

 II.,  ii.  196. 

 III.,  ii.  197. 

Amenthe,  L  330,  406. 

Ammonium  i  59. 


Ammonium,  expedition  of  Cambytai 

against,  ii.  890. 
Araosis,  ii.  172. 
Amun,  i.  310. 

Amun  Khem,  L  315 ;  iL  275. 
Amunt,  i.  321. 
Amuntuanch,  ii.  211. 
Amyrtseus,  ii.  409,  412. 
Anaglyphs,  L  268 

Anatomy,  whethei  cnown  in  Egypt, 

i.  228 ;  ii.  103. 

Anaxagoras,  his  doctrine  concerning 

God,  i.  367. 
Androsphinx,  i.  115,  145. 
Animals,  sanctity  of,  in  India,  ii.  9. 

 ,  Egyptian  worship  of,  ii.  1-21. 

 ,  as  military  ensigns,  ii.  6. 

Anouke,  i.  323. 
Anubis,  i.  356. 

— —  Avith  head  of  jackal,  i.  356. 
Anysis,  iL  304. 
Aphrodite,  Celestial,  i.  324. 
Apion,  ii.  152 

Apis,  his  worship  when  introdu<v*l, 

ii.  5. 

 ,  honors  paid  to  him,  ii.  18. 

 7,  his  marks,  ii.  18. 

 -,  Epipkaneia  of,  ii.  326,  393. 

 i,  mammies  of,  ii.  20. 

Apollodorus,  his  list  of  kings,  ii.  81, 

164  note. 
Arabic  numerals,  L  290. 
Arch,  its  antiquity,  i.  217. 
Ark  of  the  Covenant,  i.  386. 
Armais,  ii.  262. 
Aroeris,  see  Haroeris. 
Art,  Egyptian,  i.  171;  ii.  295,  326 
 ,  i  influenced  by  religion, 

i.  223,  225. 
 ,  ,  its  progress  the  same  as 

that  of  civilization,  L  229. 

 .,  decline  of,  ii.  285,  423. 

Artaxerxes  Mnemon,  ii  428. 


43<* 


INDEX. 


Arutu,  nation,  ii.  188. 
Ases  (As3eth),  L  278  ;  ii.  160  note. 
Ashes,  criminals  plunged  in,  ii.  126. 
Asp,  emblem  of  the  Sun,  ii.  17. 
Asphaltum,  its  use  in  embalmment, 

L  413. 
Assyrian  empire,  ii.  284. 
Assyrians,  their  power,  ii.  157,  179. 
Atet,  fortress,  ii.  218. 
/tiure,  ii.  211. 

Athens,  whether  a  colony  from  Sais, 
ii.  331. 

 ,  its  alliances  with  Egypt,  ii. 

408,  413. 
Athom,  i.  330. 
Athor,  i.  325. 

Atlantis,  island,  its  submersion,  ii. 

338,  369. 
Atmoo,  i.  330. 

Atmosphere  of  Egypt,  its  effect  on 

colors,  i.  220. 
Auaris  (Abaris),  ii.  163, 
Automoli,  ii.  330,  331. 
Azotus,  siege  of,  328. 

B. 

B,  pronounced  as  ou,  i.  329. 
Bab,  its  signification,  i.  140. 
Babylon,  ii.  191. 

 ,  Egyptian,  ii.  241. 

Babylonians,  their  inventions,  i.  286 
Bagoas,  ii.  431. 
Bahr-be-la-Ma,  i.  58,  66. 
Bahr-Jusuf,  i.  37,  95,  124. 
Barabras,  i.  87. 
Barathra,  ii.  429. 

Barbarians,  all  other  nations  so  call- 
ed by  the  Egyptians,  ii.  209. 
Bari,  i.  177,  885,  420,  426. 
Basalt,  i.  221. 
Basis,  ii.  106. 

Bas-relief,  Egyptian,  its  peculiarity, 

i.  228. 

Beans,  an  impure  vegetable,  i.  875. 
Beard,  absence  of,  in  African  nations, 

ii.  141. 

Beitoualli,  temple  of,  ii.  226. 
Belzoni,  i.  20,  108. 

 ,  tomb  di soldered  by,  L  141. 

Berbers,  h  20? 
Besa,  i.  381 

Birketel-Kerur,  L  42;  ii.  181 


Blemmyes,  i.  23. 
Bocchoris,  ii.  301,  303. 

 ,  his  legislation,  ii.  47. 

Boeckh,  his  view  of  Manetho's  chi  o 

nology,  ii.  77  note. 
Bonaparte,  his  campaign  in  Egypt, 

ii.  421. 
Book  of  the  Dead,  i.  407. 
Books  not  in  common  use  in  Egypt, 

i.  239. 

Bow,  mode  of  drawiug,  i.  189. 
Breccia,  quarries  of,*i.  53. 
Bridge  in  Egyptian  monuments,  ii. 
218  note. 

 of  boats  over  the  Hellespont, 

ii.  405. 

Bridges,  none  on  the  Nile,  i.  178. 
Bubastis,  ii.  290. 
Bull,  of  what  a  type,  ii.  15. 
Bunsen,  his  mode  of  reconciling  Era* 

tosthenesand  Manetho,  ii.  82,  HQ 

note. 

Busiris,  king,  ii.  66. 

 ,  city,  i.  47. 

Buto,  goddess,  i.  821. 
Byblos,  i.  344,  348. 

C. 

Cabiri,  i.  319,  833. 
Cadmus,  the  historian,  ii.  56. 
Calasirians,  i.  187  ;  ii.  34,  327,  405. 
Camels  in  Egypt,  i.  63  ;  ii.  378. 
Canal,  between  the  Nile  and  the 

Red  Sea,  ii.  245,  335,  402. 
Cancer,  Tropic  of,  i.  23. 
Candace,  her  war  with  the  Romany 

ii.  389. 
Canopi,  i.  341. 

Canopic  mouth,  first  frequented  by 

the  Greeks  ji.  52. 
Captives  represented  on  furniture,  i. 

198. 

Caravan  routes  from  Egypt  to  Meroe, 

i.  21 ;  ii.  388. 
Carchemish,  battle  of,  ii.  842. 
Carians  in  Egypt,  i.  390. 
 ,  their  settlement  in  Egypt,  ii< 

821. 

Caricature,  i.  226. 

Carthaginians,  th*ir  naval  power,  ii 

382. 

Casluhim,  ii.  161. 


I5DEX. 


43§ 


Caste,  law  of,  ii.  23,  36,  37 
Cat,  sanctity  of,  ii.  3. 

 ,  consecrated  to  the  moon,  ii.  17. 

Cataracts,  i  12,  16,  IS,  26 
Cavalry,  not  used  in  Egypt,  L  191. 
Cedar,  oil  of,  i.  414,  417. 
Ceilings,  astronomical,  i  142,  143. 
Cemeteries,  Egyptian,  on  the  western 

side  of  the  Nile,  i  420,  421. 
Cerberus,  i.  342. 

Chabrias,  his  campaigns  in  Egypt, 
ii.  418,  424. 

Chaeremon,  his  work  on  Hierogly- 
phics, ii.  306  note. 

Charon,  i  426. 

Chebros,  ii  176. 

Cherubim,  i.  386. 

Chemi,  name  of  Egypt,  ii.  97. 

Chemistry,  origin  of  the  name,  i  182. 

Chesebt,  metal,  ii.  192,  218. 

Chinese  writing,  i  259. 

Chiun,  worship  of,  ii.  272. 

Coachute  (not  Cholchyta?),  i.  423. 

Chons,  i.  322. 

Chronicle,  the  Old  Egyptian,  ii.  79. 
Chronology,  Egyptian,   ii  75,  77, 
166. 

Circesium,  battle  of,  ii.  342. 

Circumcision,  i  376,  378. 

Clemens  Alexandrinus,  his  enumera- 
tion of  Egyptian  priests,  ii  85. 

Coinage  not  known  in  Egypt,  i.  290. 

 introduced  by  the  Persians,  ii. 

400. 

Colchians,  their  similarity  to  the 

Egyptians,  ii  238. 
Colossal  in  art,  its  effect,  i  224. 
Color,  conventional,  of  the  male  and 

female  in  Egyptian  painting,  i  82. 

 applied  to  sculpture,  i  220. 

Comasiae,  i.  384. 
Comastes,  i  25 ;  ii.  384. 
Concharis,  ii.  160. 

Concubines,  their  children  legiti- 
mate, ii  47. 

Constellations,  influence  of,  i  382. 

Copper  mines,  i.  51 ;  ii  118. 

Coronation,  ceremonies  of,  ii.  274. 

Corslet,  linen,  of  Amasis,  i  182;  ii 
362. 

Cosseir  road,  inscriptions  in,  ii.  114, 
403,  404,  405. 


Cotton,  whether  used  in  bandage^ 
L414 

 ,  whether  grown  in  Esrypt,  i 

159;  ii.  362. 

Cranium,  the  Egyptian,  distinguisha- 
ble by  its  hardness,  i.  208  note. 

Criosphinx,  i.  115,  note  145. 

Crocodile,  not  now  found  in  Lower 
Egypt,  i.  79. 

 ,  mode  of  its  capture,  i.  172. 

 ,  its  import  in  mythology,  i.  330. 

 ,  worship  of,  i.  29  ;  ii.  1 6. 

 ,  symbol  of  Tvphon,  ii.  15. 

 ,   of  darkness,  i.  383. 

 ,  ornaments  bestowed  upon,  ii. 

13. 

Crown  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt, 

i.  208  note. 
Cubit,  Egyptian,  i.  290. 
Cycle,  Sothiac,  i.  280. 

 ,  its  commencement,  ii.  247 

Cynocephalus,  i.  359. 

 ,  emblem  of  Thoth,  ii.  1 5. 

Cyprus,  conquest  of,  ii  276. 

 ,  its  relations  to  Persia,  ii  407, 

416. 

Cyrene,  foundation  of,  ii.  353. 

  war  of  Apries  against,  ii.  356. 

■  ,  of  Aryandes  against,  ii.  399 

D. 

Dahae,  ii.  188. 

Danaides  bring  the  mysteries  of  De- 
meter  to  the  Peloponnesus,  i  392. 

Danaus,  story  of  his  miorration,  ii.  52, 
260. 

Darius  Hvstaspis,  ii  397. 

 Ochus,  ii.  427. 

 Codomannus,  ii.  438. 

Dead,  state  of,  according  to  the  He- 
brews, i  397,  399  note. 

 ,  according  to  the  early  Greeks, 

i.  398. 

Debtor  and  creditor,  law  of,  ii  47- 
Decans,  i  287. 
Delta,  apex  of,  45. 

 ,  its  formation,  i.  66  ;  ii.  105,  106 

Demigods,  their  reigns,  ii  93. 
Democritus,  ii.  63. 

 ,  his  visit  to  Egypt,  ii.  410. 

Demotic  character,  when  first  intrfr 
duced,  ii  403. 


440 


INDEX. 


Desert,  the,  between  Palestine  and 

Egypt,  ii,  877. 
 ,  between  Egypt  and  Ethiopia, 

ii.  388. 

Dialect,  sacred,  i.  265,  268. 

Dioaearchus,  ii.  6-1*  139. 

Diodorus,  ii.  64-72. 

 ,  variations  between  him  and 

Herodotus,  ii.  70. 

Divination,  i.  380. 

Doric  order,  its  origin,  L  214. 

Draughts,  game  of,  i.  204 ;  ii.  281. 

Dromos,  i.  219. 

Dynasty,  its  meaning,  ii.  94. 

Dynasties  of  Manetho,  whether  con- 
temporaneous, ii.  80,  156. 

E. 

Egypt,  extent  of  its  coast,  i.  49. 

 ,  want  of  harbors,  i.  49. 

 ,  fertility  of  its  soil,  i.  72. 

 ,  temperature,  i.  77,  79. 

 ,  healthiness,  i.  77. 

 ,  cheapness  of  living,  i.  163. 

 ,  native  name  of,  i.  182. 

 ,  fecundity  of  women  in,  i.  153 

note. 

 ,  its  monarchy  one,  ii.  80. 

 ,  taxation  under  the  Persian^,  i. 

897. 

 ,  amount  of  population,  i.  151. 

 ,  state  under  the  Persians,  iL  411. 

Eimopth,  i.  333. 

Eibo,  island  of,  ii.  305,  318. 

Election  of  kings,  ii.  24. 

Elephant,  found  in  Egyptian  pictures, 

ii.  187. 
Elephantiasis,  i.  79. 
Eleusinian  Mysteries,  i.  394. 
Elian s,  their  visit  to  Egypt,  ii.  846. 
Embalmment,  its  antiquity,  ii.  103. 

 ,  its  purpose,  L  399. 

 ,  different  mode  of,  i.  41 2.  • 

Emeph,  i.  313 
Emeralds,  mines  of,  i.  53. 
Epagomenre,  i.  278. 
Epiphaneia  of  Apis,  ii.  18. 
Eratosthenes,  ii.  64,  81. 
Ergamenes,  i  22. 
Etesian  winds,  i.  68,  292. 
Ethiopia,  conception  of,  in  the  age  of 

Herodotus,  ii.  383. 


Ethiopian  monarchy,  extent  of)  ii 

305. 

Ethiojwans,  visit  of  gods  to,  L  885. 
Ethiopic  language,  iL  308  note. 
Eunuchs,  whether  known  in  ancient 

Egypt,  ii.  138. 
Evagoras,  his  alliance  with  Egypt,  ii. 

417. 

Eusebius,  his  chronology,  ii.  74. 

 ,  arbitrary  changes  in,  ii.  151 

note. 

Exodus  of  the  Israelites,  ii.  262-272. 
Eye  of  Osiris,  L  387. 
Eyes,  artificial,  i.  417. 
"Eyes  of  the  King,"  ii.  244  note. 
Ezekiel,  his  prophecy  against  Egypt, 
iL  352. 

F. 

Factories  of  the  Greeks  in  Egypt, 

ii.  362. 
Famine  in  Egypt,  i.  71. 
Fanbearers,  ii.  28. 

Feast  of  the  gods  with  the  Ethiopi- 
ans, i.  385. 

Fekkaroo,  ii.  277,  279. 

Fish  forbidden  to  priests,  i.  375. 

Fish  of  the  Nile,  their  species,  i.  173. 

Flint  knives,  L  411. 

Flowers  in  Egypt  not  fragrant,  i.  75. 

 ,  their  symbolical  import,  ii.  12. 

Forest,  petrified,  near  Cairo,  L  66. 

Fortification,  art  of,  i.  195  note. 

Fowl,  domestic,  whether  known  in 
Egypt,  i.  174. 

Frog,  emblem  of  Life,  i.  849. 

Fruits  of  Egypt,  L  167. 

Furniture,  buried  with  deceased  per 
sons,  i.  423. 

Fyoum,  L  42. 

G. 

Gardening,  art  of,  i.  168. 
Gardens  of  Solomon,  i.  169. 
Germanicus,  his  visit  to  Thebea  'L 
192. 

Giligammae,  ii.  256. 
Gloves,  worn  by  northern  captLvn^, 
iL  186. 

Gods,  division  ofj  i.  307,  808. 
 •,  reign  ofj  ii.  96. 


INDEX. 


441 


Gold  mines,  i.  54. 

Goshen,  its  position,  ii  195. 

Grain,  what  species  cultivated  in 
Egypt,  L  158. 

Granite,  quarries  of,  L  27. 

Greeks,  their  contempt  for  barbari- 
ans, iL  63. 

 ,  their  neglect  of  foreign  lan- 
guages, ii.  324. 

Grottos  of  Benihassan,  L  39. 

 of  Koul-el-Ahmar,  i.  41. 

Gvmnagtic  exercises,  L  189,  200,  203, 
228. 

EL 

Ham,  name  of,  L  81. 
Hapimoou,  i.  332. 
Harka,  L  323. 
Haroeris,  i.  329,  353. 
Harper's  Tomb,  ii.  280. 
Harpocrates,  L  345,  354.' 
Hatching  by  artificial  heat,  i.  175. 
Hawk,  emblem  of  Horus,  ii.  15. 
Head-stool  used  by  the  Egyptians, 
i.  199. 

Heavens,  emblematic  figure  of,  142, 
331. 

Hecataeus  of  Miletus,  I  85  ;  ii.  56. 
Hellanicus,  iL  57. 

Hellenion,  factory  of  the  Greeks  in 

Egypt,  iL  362. 
Henneh,  use  of,  211. 
Heracleopolis,  ii.  130. 
Hermapion,  his  interpretation  of  an 

obelisk,  i.  245. 
Hermes,  books  of,  iL  85. 
Hermes  Trismegistus,  i.  358. 
Kermotybians,  i.  190;  ii.  34. 
Herodotus,  ii.  56-62. 
 ,  his  deficiency  in  calculation,  ii. 

331. 

Heroes,  worship  of,  L  362. 

 ,  reign  of,  iL  95. 

Hestia,  L  323. 

Hieroglyphics,  i.  238-272. 

-J — ,  knowledge  of  them  how  far 

diffused,  L  240;  ii.  62. 
— — ,  order  of  reading  them,  i.  260. 
Hierograramateus,  i.  378;  iv.  86. 
Hincks,  Dr.  E.,  iL  134. 
— — ,  his  modifications  of  Champol- 

lion's  system,  L.  272. 


Hipparchus,  discoverer  of  the  pre 
cession  of  the  equinoxes,  i.  283. 

Hippopotamus,  L  171. 

 ,  symbol  of  crime,  ii.  100. 

 1  symbol  of  darkness,  L  342. 

Hippys  of  Rhegium,  ii.  56  note. 

Homer,  his  account  of  Thebes,  i.  150 
ii.  54. 

 ,  his  account  of  Pharos,  ii.  53. 

Horapollo,  i.  242. 
Hor-hat,  his  emblem,  i.  219,  329. 
Horologium,  L  276 ;  ii.  86. 
Horoscopus,  i.  378,  383;  iL  S5. 
Horse,  its  use,  i.  166,  167. 
Herus,  god,  i.  353. 

 ,  king,  ii.  20S. 

 ,  "the  golden,'*  ii.  125. 

Hyksos,  then-  invasion,  ii.  158. 


Iamblichus,  i.  302. 
Iatromathematie,  i.  292. 
Ibis,  emblem  of  Thoth,  ii.  16. 
Ichneumon,  ii.  132. 
Ichthvophagi,  act  as  interpreters,  ii 
384. 

Idumaeans,  ii.  377. 

Illumination  in  honor  of  Neith,  L 

391. 
Inaros,  ii.  407. 

India,    supposed    early  connexion 

with  Egypt,  i.  89,  92. 

 ,  tenure  of  land  in,  ii.  22. 

 ,  sauctity  of  plants  and  animals 

ir*  ii.  9. 
Interest,  rate  of,  ii.  48. 
Interpreters,  caste  of,  ii.  36,  324. 
Io,  legend  of,  ii.  1,  51. 
Ionic  order,  its  origin,  i.  215. 
Iphicrates,  his  campaigns  in  Egypt, 

ii.  420. 

Is,  bituminous  springs  of,  ii.  1 92. 
Isaiah,  his  prophecies  against  Egypt* 

ii  315. 
Isiac  rites,  L  394. 
Isis,  i.  340. 

Islands  of  the  Blessed,  i  51,  404,  408 


Jablonsky,  Pantheon  .<Egyptiorum, 
i.  298,  311. 


19< 


442 


INDEX. 


Jebusites,  ii.  159. 

Jehovah,  his  name  unknown  to  the 
Jews  in  the  time  of  Moses,  ii.  272. 

Jeremiah,  his  prophecy  against 
Apries,  ii.  350. 

Jerusalem,  capture  of,  by  Sheshonk, 
ii.  292. 

 •>  by  Neco,  ii.  340. 

 ,   ,  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  ii. 

349. 

Jews,  not  the  same  as  the  Hyksos, 
ii.  158. 

 ,  their  departure  from  Egypt,  ii. 

263. 

 ,  Manetho's  account  of,  ii.  267. 

 ,  employed  in  brickmakiug,  ii. 

194. 

Jewish  laws,  resemblance   to  the 

Egyptian,  ii.  43. 
Josephus,  his  unfairness,  ii.  158,  159, 

166. 

Judgment  of  kings,  posthumous,  ii. 
27. 

Judgment-scene,  L  841,  360. 
Jukasa,  land  of,  iL  192. 

K. 

Kanana,  land  of,  ii.  216. 

Karnak,  royal  tablet  of,  ii.  90,  198. 

 ,  statistical  tablet  of,  ii.  187. 

Khamsin,  i.  o7  note. 
Kings  of  Egypt,  their  mode  of  life, 
ii  25. 

 ,  number  of,  ii  160  note. 

Kneph,  i  313.  * 
Korosko,  Akaba  of,  888. 
Kufa,  nation,  ii  186. 
Kuphi,  i  874. 

L 

Labyrinth,  i.  44 ;  ii  144,  148,  322. 
Lacrates,   commands    the  Theban 

troops  in  Egypt,  ii.  430. 
Lakes,  the  Bitter,  ii.  335. 
Land,  threefold  division  of,  ii.  22,  29. 

 ,  tenure  of,  in  Egypt,  ii.  22. 

Lark,   crested,   venerated   by  the 

Lemnians,  ii.  14. 
Laterculus  of  Syncellus,  ii  79,  164 

note. 


Latus,  the  fisli,  i.  34. 

Law,  administration  of,  it  83,  41. 

 ,  Egyptian,  its  humanity  ii  48 

Layard's  Nineveh,  ii  190,  285. 
Legislators,  Egyptian,  ii.  26. 
Lemanen,  nation,  ii.  191. 
Leopard's  skin,  worn  by  priests,  i 
421. 

Lepidotus,  the  fish,  i.  845. 
Leprosy  among  the  Jews,  ii.  270.  — 
Lepsius,  his  discovery  of  marks  of 

rise  of  the  Nile  in  Nubia,  i.  18 

note. 

 ,  reading  of  the  name  Osortasen, 

ii.  135. 

 ,  of  the  name  of  the  builder 

of  the  Labyrinth,  ii  146. 

 ,  of  the  name  Set,  iL  215. 

Leto,  i.  323. 

Lex  talionis,  ii.  44. 

Library  of  the  Rameseion,  i  131. 

Libyans,  ii.  99. 

Linant*  his  discoveries  in  the  Fyoum, 

i  42;  ii  131. 
Lion-hunt,  ii.  278. 

Lion,  tamed,  accompanying  the  king, 

i.  194  note. 
Lions,  of  the  Fontana  di  Termini,  ii 

423. 

Lotus,  the  sacred,  i  76. 

 ,  its  use  for  food,  i  16L 

Ludim,  nation,  ii  222. 
Ludnu,  nation,  ii  187,  217. 
Lydia,  had  a  partly  Semitic  popula- 
tion, ii.  218. 

M. 

Magicians  of  Egypt,  i  882. 

Mandoulis,  i  831. 

Mandoo,  i  331. 

Maneros,  song  of,  i.  201. 

Manes,  reign  of,  ii  76. 

Manetho,  ii  73,  76. 

 ,  whether  his  dynasties  were 

consecutive,  ii.  79-82. 
 ,  duration  of  his  dynasties,  ii 

91,  149. 
Manmisi,  i.  32,  214;  ii.  200. 
Manoskh,  i.  148. 

Marriage  of  sisters  and  brothers,  ii 
46. 


INDEX 


443 


Mars,  L  364,  3*X 

 ,  -worship  of,  at  Papremis,  i 

390. 

Marshes  of  Egypt,  character  of  the 

population  of,  ii.  52,  409. 
Mashiosa,  ii.  276, 
Mauthemva,  ii.  197,  200,  207. 
Medicine,  i.  290. 

Mesabazus,  his  mission  to  Sparta,  ii. 
408. 

Melampus,  i  335,  337,  391 ;  ii  262. 
Melek,  on  Egyptian  monuments,  ii. 

371  note,  404. 
Meranon,  ii.  203-208. 
Memnonia,  unhealthy  employments 

carried  on  there,  i  412. 
Memphis,  etymology  of,  ii  96. 
Mendes,  worship  of  the  goat  there, 

il  5,  106. 
Mennahom,  nation,  ii.  276. 
Menzaleh,  lake  of,  L  46. 
Meroe,  L  8,  88 ;  il  305. 
 ,  whether  the   civilization  of 

Egypt  was  derived  thence,  ii  41 

note,  144. 
Metempsychosis,  i.  91,  400,  406 ;  ii. 

8. 

Mexican  writing,  i  259. 

Milesians,  their  settlement  in  Egypt, 

ii.  301,  322. 
Military  age,  i  1 52. 
Mines,  the  working  of,  ii.  44. 

 ,  emerald,  i.  53. 

Minotaur,  legend  of,  ii.  1. 
Mizraim,  ii  97. 
Mnevis,  worship  of,  ii  5. 
Moeris,  lake,  i  43;  ii.  131,  193. 

 ,  its  fisheries,  i.  173. 

 ,  etymology  of,  ii  131. 

Mokattam,  quarries  of,  i  116. 
Moloch,  his  worship,  ii  272. 
Momemphis,  ii.  322. 
Mons  Casius,  ii.  162  note. 
Months,  Egyptian,  their  names,  i 

277  note. 

Monuments,  public,  their  superiority 

to  all  other  evidence,  ii.  169. 
Mora,  game  of,  i.  205. 
Mountains  of  the  Moon,  i  6. 
Mourning,  i  411. 

Mouse,  an  emblem  of  destruction,  ii 
818. 


Mummies  of  animals,  i  120,  121, 
140 ;  ii.  4. 

Mummies,  pledged  for  debt,  ii  48. 

 ,  kept  in  houses,  i  419. 

 ,  Greek,  i.  415  note. 

Mummy,  derivation  of,  i.  418  note. 

 ,  introduced  at  banquets,  i  201 

Mysteries,  i  392. 

 ,  Eleusinian,  i  395. 

N. 

Namia,  metrical,  i  411  note. 

Naharaina,  ii.  178,  183,  192. 

Nahsi,  ii.  218,  256. 

Namhu,  ii.  218. 

Nantef,  ii.  144. 

Napata,  i  15;  ii.  389. 

Nasamones,  ii.  256. 

Natron  Lakes,  i.  59. 

Natron,  its  use  in  embalmment,  i.  418 

Naucratis,  ii.  54. 

Navigation,  disesteemed  in  Egypt 
ii.  36. 

Nebuchadnezzar,   his    invasion  ot 

Egypt,  ii.  352. 
Nectanebus  I.,  ii.  420. 
Nectanebus  II. ,  ii  428. 
Nefruatep,  ii.  144,  161. 
Negro  in  Esjvptian  monuments,  ii 

185. 

  physiognomy  different  from 

the  Egyptian,  i.  82. 
Neith,  i  326. 

Nemroud,  Egyptian  tablets  found  at, 

ii  190,  285"  note. 
Nemt-amen,  peculiarity  of,  ii.  179. 
Nenii,  supposed  Nineveli,  ii.  190. 
Neocoros,  ii.  25. 
Neo-Platonists,  i.  297. 
Nepenthe,  ii.  53. 
Nephra,  son  of  Amasis,  ii  404. 
Nephthys,  i  355. 
Netpe,  i.  334,  416. 
Nevopth,  tomb  of,  i  40 ;  ii.  142. 
Niger,  the,   confounded  with  th« 

Nile,  i.  5. 
Nile,  its  changes  of  color,  i.  73. 

 ,  figure  of",  i.  383 ;  ii  201. 

Nile-water,  i  73,  200. 

Nile,  omens  derived  from,  ii  MP. 

Niloa,  i.  332,  388. 


444 


INDEX. 


Nilometer,  i.  28. 

Nilos,  town,  i.  332. 

"Nine  Bows,"  nation  of,  ii.  178,  213, 

257  note. 
Nineveh,  capture  of,  ii.  342. 
Nitocris,  her  history,  ii.  126. 

 ,  queen  of  Babvlon,  ii.  371. 

No- Amnion,  i.  128 
Nofrc,  i.  331. 

Nomes,  their  division,  ii.  40. 

 ,  twelve  predominant,  ii.  41. 

Noph,  ii.  286. 

North,  symbol  of,  ii.  292. 

Nubia,  its  climate  and  soil,  i.  24. 

0. 

Oaths  by  vegetables,  ii  12. 
Obelisk  of  St.  John  Lateran,  i.  230; 
ii.  184. 

 of  Nectanebus,  ii.  422. 

 of  Luxor,  i.  144. 

 of  Heliopolis,  i.  46. 

 of  the  Fyoum,  i.  43  ;  ii.  134. 

 of  Karnak,  i.  145. 

 of  Monte  Ciioric,  i.  230 ;  ii.  326. 

 of  Apries,  i.  230. 

 of  the  Piazza  del  Popolo,  i.  232. 

 of  Philse,  i.  26,  251. 

Obelisks,  placed  in  pairs,  i.  144. 

 in  the  quarries  of  Syene,  i.  185. 

 of  the  Roman  times,  i.  232  note. 

 ,  mode  of  raising,  i.  288. 

Obliteration  of  names,  i.  350. 
Ocean,  whether  an  Egyptian  name 

for  the  Nile,  i.  425. 
Officers  of  state,  ii.  28. 
Onions,    whether    worshiped  in 

Egypt,  ii.  11. 
Orphic  doctrines,  i.  318,  320,  325, 

337,  400. 
Osarsiph,  ii.  269. 

"Osirian,"  appellation  of  deceased 

persons,  i.  408;  il  249. 
Osu-ide  columns,  i.  216. 
Osiris,  i.  334,  342. 

 ,  forty-two  assessors  of,  i.  148, 

342. 

 ,  mythe  of,  i.  343. 

 ,  porcelain  figures  of,  i.  415. 

 ,  eye  of,  i.  422. 

Osymandyas,  tomb  of,  i  130,  131 ;  ii. 
286. 


Osymandyas,  circle  of,  L  286. 
Otsch,  fortress,  ii.  218. 
Oxyrrynchus,  town,  L  4L 
Oxyrrynchus,  fish,  ii.  16. 

P. 

Paamyles,  i.  343. 
Paamylia,  i.  392. 
Painting,  art  of,  L  139,  227. 

 of  tombs,  i.  139. 

Pallaces,  of  Jupiter,  i.  143. 
Palm,  emblematic,  i.  359. 
Palm-tree,  its  uses,  i.  74. 

 ,  Theban  (Doum),  L  79,  168. 

Panegyries,  hall  of,  i.  148. 

 ,  where  held,  i.  389. 

Papremis,  i.  364,  390. 

Papyri,  age  of  the  earliest,  ii.  85. 

 ,  funeral  i.  408. 

Papyrus,  its  manufacture,  i.  76. 

 ,  use  for  food,  i.  161. 

 of  Sallier,  ii.  242. 

Paraschistes,  i.  413. 

Pastophori,  i.  378;  ii.  87. 

Pathros,  i.  325  note. 

Patnouphis,  title  of  Hermes,  i  358 

note. 
Pepi,  il  123. 
Persea,  i.  167;  ii  10. 
Perseus,  i.  39. 

 ,  tower  of,  i.  48. 

Persian  conquest  of  Egypt,  its  effect, 

ii.  56. 

Perspective,  its  neglect  in  Egyptian 

art,  i.  226. 
Petesuchis,  ii.  147. 
Pethempamenthes,  title  of  Osiris,  i. 

340,  349. 

Petronius,   his  expedition  against 

Napata,  ii.  389. 
Phagrus,  the  fish,  i.  345. 
Phanes,  his  treachery,  il  877. 
Pharos,  Homeric  description  o£  il 

53. 

Pheron,  ii.  246,  254,  282. 
Philistus,  il  63. 
Philitis,  ii.  162. 

Phoenicians,  said  to  have  circumna- 
vigated Africa,  ii  337. 

 ,  their  connexion  with  Egypt, 

ii.  162. 

Phoenix,  L  280. 


INDEX. 


445 


Phre,  i  828  note. 

Phrygians,  claim  superior  antiquity 
to  the  Egyptians,  ii  332. 

Physicians,  i  290;  ii  81. 

Pilgrimages,  i.  390. 

Pindar,  his  doctrine  of  transmigra- 
tion, L  403. 

Pi  thorn,  il  195. 

Plague,  the,  L  78. 

Plants,  sanctity  of,  ii.  10. 

Plato,  his  testimony  to  the  antiquity 
of  Egypt,  L  2. 

 ,  of  the  forms  of  Egyptian  art, 

i.  222. 

 1  his  visit  to  Egypt,  i  45. 

 ,  his  doctrine  of  transmigration, 

i  405. 

Plutarch,  de  Iside  et  Osiride,  i.  296. 
Plutus  and  Pluto  the  same,  i.  337. 
Poetry,  historical,  in  Egypt,  ii.  89. 
Polycrates  of  Samos,  his  history,  ii. 
364. 

Polygamy,  i  378;  ii.  47. 
Potipherah,  i  328  note. 
Pount,  land,  ii  185. 
Precession  of  the  equinoxes,  L  283. 
Premnis  (Primis  Magna),  ii.  389. 
Priesthood,  effects  of  their  power,  ii. 
27. 

 i  their  condition  and  influence, 

ii  29. 

Prie'ts,  whether  judges,  ii  33. 
Prirais  (Ibrim),  ii  396  note. 
Processions,  i  384. 
Prophetes,  i  379,  381 ;  ii  25,  86, 
Proscyuema,  i  422. 
Prussian  Expedition,  their  discove- 
ries, i  112,  181. 
Psammitichus  L,  ii  320. 
 II,  ii.  345. 

 III.,  assassinates  Tamos,  ii  417. 

Pscfient,  i,  208  note,  329 ;  ii.  275. 
Pthuris  (Farras),  ii.  390  note. 
Pulley,    whether    known    to  the 

Egyptians,  i  288  note. 
Pylon,  meaning  of,  i  81. 
Pyramids,  proportions  of,  i  100, 

 ,  mode  of  erecting,  i  106. 

 ,  their  number,  i~112. 

 1  in  Upper  Egypt,  i  125, 

 >  builders  of,  II  111-116. 

 ,  Ethiopian,  i  10. 


Pyranidion  of  obelisk  gilded,  ii  184. 
Pythagoras,  his  vieit  to  Egypt,  ii 
3  25  "note. 

 ,  his  residence  ii  Egypt  and 

doctrine,  i  2S4,  27<  275,  286, 
294,  367,  400;  ii  U. 

Q. 

Qoorneh,  sepulchres  of,  i  138. 
Quails  in  Egvpt  and  the  Desert  of 

Sinai,  i  174. 
Queens,  their  prerogatives,  ii  107. 

R. 

Ra,  i  328. 

Raameses,  city,  ii.  195. 
Rain  in  Egypt,  i.  79. 
Rameses  I.,  ii.  211. 

 L,  ii.  226. 

 IIL,  ii  228. 

 IV.,  ii  272. 

 V.-XIV.,  ii.  282-284 

Rampsinitus,  ii.  282. 
Ranpo,  i.  365. 
Re,  i.  328. 

Rebo,  nation,  ii.  279. 
Records,  antiquity  of,  in  Egypt,  ii 
83. 

Red  Sea,  routes  from  Egypt  to,  i  86, 
52. 

Rehearsing,  sign  of,  in  Egyptian  pic- 
tures, ii.  274  note. 
Rekamai,  i.  39. 
Remai,  ii.  124. 

Remanen,  nation,  ii  191,  217. 
Rent,  its  proportion  to  produce,  it 
22. 

 ,  its  amount  in  Egyptj  ii  22. 

Resurrection,  doctrine  of,  i  397,  410. 
Rhadamanthys,  etymology  of,  i  408. 
Rhodopis,  ii*128. 
Rot,  ii  218. 

Rotno,  nation,  ii  187,  217.  - 
S. 

Sabaco,  ii.  308. 

Sacrifices,  human,  i  369,  371,  L  5% 

Sacrilege,  law  of,  ii.  45. 

Saf,  M  Lady  of  Letters,"  i  131 ;  ii  301 


146 


INDEX. 


Sagdas,  L  374. 

Sais,  iL  818,  319. 

Samaritan  Pentateuch,  ii.  264. 

Sandstone  rock,  its  extent  in  Egypt, 

L  29. 
Sasychis,  ii.  290. 
Sataspes,  voyage  of,  iL  838. 
Scape-goat,  l  372. 
Scarabaeus,  sanctity  of,  iL  9,  17. 
Scythians,  their  invasion  of  Egypt, 

ii.  338. 
Seb,  i.  834. 
Sebek,  L  829. 

Sebekatep,  sovereigns  of  this  name, 

when  they  lived,  il  161. 
Serane'h,  ii  182. 
Sennacherib,  ii  811. 
Septuagint,  its  variation  from  the 

Hebrew,  ii.  264. 
Serapis,  i.  862. 
Serbonian  bog,  iL  429. 
Serpent,  emblem  of  Agathodffimon, 

i.  314. 

 of  iEsculapius,  ii.  2. 

Serpents,  winged,  ii.  16. 
Sesonchis,  ii.  291. 
Sesonchosis,  iL  122. 
Sesostris,  ii.  138. 

 ,  his  emblems,  ii.  140. 

Set,  name  of'Typhon,  i.  351 ;  ii.  214. 
Sethos,  ii.  811. 
Sethroite  nome,  iL  153,  157. 
Skairetaan,  ii.  278. 
Sham  or  Kharu,  nation,  ii.  227. 
Sharpe,  Samuel,  L  216  note;  ii.  176 
note. 

Sheol  of  the  Hebrews,  L  336. 
Shepherd  kings,  ii.  152. 
Shepherds,   disesteemed  in  Egypt, 

ii.  267. 

Sheshonk,  his  invasion  of  Judaja, 
ii.  91. 

Sheto,  nation,  ii.  234,  243,  319. 
Shields,  roj-al,  titular,  and  phonetic, 

ii.  124.- 
Shishak,  ii.  290. 
Shos,  iL  216,  227. 

Sidon,  capture  of,  by  Ochus,  iL  429. 
Sidonians,  ii.  187. 

Silco,  king  of  the  Blemmyes,  L  23 
note. 

Silphium,  ii.  256,  355. 


Simoum,  i.  57  note. 
Sinai,  peninsula  of,  i.  61. 
Singara,  iL  192,  222. 
Skhai,  ii.  212. 

Slaves,  protected  by  law,  ii  4S. 
 did  not  attend  on  the  king  a. 

26. 

Socari,  L  320. 

Soldiery,  Egyptian,  their  migration 

to  Ethiopia,  iL  830. 
Solomon,  his  connexion  with  Egypt, 

ii.  288. 

Sothiac  period,  iL  77  note,  247 
Sothis  (Isis  and  Dog-star),  i.  281. 
 ,   spurious  work  of  Manetho, 

ii.  73  note. 
Soul,  wicked,  its  punishment,  i.  403. 
South,  symbol  of,  iL  292. 
Sphinx,  meaning  of,  i.  115. 

 ,  female,  L  115. 

Sphragistes,  L  371. 

Stability,  emblem  of,  i.  319,  349. 

Standard  of  kings,  iL  125. 

Stele,  its  meaning,  iL  190  note. 

Stibium,  use  of,  l.  211. 

Stolistes,  ii.  86. 

Stork,  veneration  of,  ii.  14. 

Suchus,  i.  329. 

Sukiim,  iL  291  note. 

Sun,  a  divinity,  i.  331. 

 ,  Fountain  of  the,  i.  60. 

 worshipers,  ii.  91,  212. 

 in  a  state  of  weakness  during 

winter,  i.  352. 
Swine,  use  of,  in  agriculture,  L  156. 

 ,  herds  of,  i.  388  note. 

 ,  sacrifice  of,  i.  336,  39i. 

 ,  emblem  of  gluttony,  i.  403. 

Swineherds,  excluded  from  temples, 

ii.  36. 

Syncellus,  George  the,  ii.  76. 
"Syrians  of  Palestine,"  the  Jews, 
ii.  876. 

T. 

Tablet  of  Abydos,  i.  38 ;  ii  £0. 

 of  Karnak,  ii.  90. 

 ,  statistical,  of  Karnak,  iL  1&7» 

Tachos,  ii.  423,  427. 
Tahai,  nation,  iL  187. 
Taia,  ii.  198,  207. 
Tamhu,  nation,  ii.  818, 


INDEX. 


447 


Tamos,  his  assassination  by  Psammi- 

tichus  III,  iL  417. 
Tanis,  il  286. 
Taochl  il  188. 
Taricheutfe,  L  412. 
Ta*,  or-  crux  aiisata,  its  signification, 

L  247  note,  254. 
Tan,  placed  on  the  tongue,  il  25. 
Taxation  in  Egypt,  ii.  28. 
Thammuz,  mourning  for,  i.  348. 
Thebes,  origin  of  the  name,  I  126 

note. 

— — ,  once  co-extensive  with  Egypt, 
ii.  81. 

Theology,  Egyptian,   its  threefold 

source,  L  30J). 
Theosophy,  Egyptian,  L  304. 
Therrauthis,  L  322,  365. 
Thesmophoria,  L  392. 
Thieves,  how  organized  in  Egypt,  ii. 

45. 

Tins,  its  site,  il  95. 
Thoth,  i.  358. 

 ,  worshiped  in  Nubia,  L  19, 

24. 

Thothmes  L,  ii  176. 

 II,  iL  180. 

 IIL,  ii.  181. 

 IV.,  il  197. 

Thunder,  rare  in  Egypt,  I  382. 
Thuoris,  ii  254. 
Tides  at  Suez,  il  336  note. 
Timxeus,  king  of  Egypt,  il  160. 
Tirhakah,  L  13,  46,  136;  il  197, 
310. 

Tithrambo,  I  365. 

Titular  name,  whether  incorporated, 

ii.  136  note. 
Tohen,  nation,  il  218,  276. 
Tokarl  nation,  il  278. 
Tombs,  royal,  L  141. 
Tools,  buried  with  artificers,  423. 
Toparchies,  il  41. 
Tourah,  quarries  of,  L  118. 
Tpe,  L  416. 

Transmigration  of  souls,  L  401. 
Trees,  sanctity  of,  il  10. 
Triiconterides,  i.  396. 
Troglodytes,  i.  55. 
Tropic  of  Cancer,  i  23,  28. 
Trumpet,  of  late  introduction  in 
Greece,  t.  286. 


Truth,  goddess  of,  I  342,  860,  374 

427;  il  43. 
Turin,  papyrus  of,  il  86. 
Turks,  their  similarity  to  the  Hykso* 

ii.  165. 

Typhon,  his  emblem,  I  350. 

 ,  mythe  of,  343-352. 

Typhoma,  i  214,  219. 
Tyre,  siege  of,  by  Shalmaneaer,  3 
350. 

 ,  1  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  ii 

851. 

Tynans,  camp  of,  il  324. 

U 

Uchoreus,  ii.  85. 

Unity  of  God,  L  367. 

Urira  and  Thummim,  il  43  note. 

V. 

Vava,  nation,  il  188. 

Venus,  Egyptian,  I  824. 

Viscera,  the,  considered  as  the  cause 

of  sin,  L  409. 
 ,  their  embalmment,  L  409. 

W. 

Wadi  Magara,  I  54;  il  118. 

"Water,  mode  of  raising,  L  160. 

Weeks,  reckoning  by,  L  283. 

Wells,  Artesian,  L  61. 

Winckelmann,  his  opinions  of  Egyp- 
tian art,  L  223  note. 

Wine,  its  growth  in  Egypt,  I  161. 

Women,  their  condition  in  Egypt* 
ii.  46. 

 ,  whether  admitted  to  the  priest- 
hood, i.  379  ;  il  30. 

 ,  never  appear  reading  or  writ- 
ing, I  239. 

Wood,  semicircle  of,  used  to  support 
the  head,  L  199. 

Woods  used  in  carpentry,  i.  186. 

Wool,  its  use  for  garments,  i.  164. 

Woollen  wrappers  of  mummies,  L 
110,  118,  413. 

Worship  of  animals  among  the  AJii- 
can  nations,  ii.  9. 

Wounding  the  forehead  in  mourning; 
L  390. 


i 


448  in 

Writing,  art  cf,   its  antiquity  in 
Egypt,  iL  84,  119. 

X. 

Xois,  iL  152,  156. 

Y 

Foung,  Dr.,  his  discoveries  in  hiero- 
glyphioe,  L  249. 


Z. 

Zagreus,  i.  337. 
Zerach,  iL  297. 
Zet,  ii.  300. 
Zoan,  ii.  285. 
Zodiac,  signs  of,  i.  286. 

 ,  not  known  to  ancient  Egyp 

tians,  j.  7. 
Zoega,  i.  298. 
Zuchia,  iL  358  note. 


f 


